Finally! After 26 years, Countdown has a female champion again! Fiona Wood, from Kinross in Scotland, stormed to victory in the 90th series, a win that’s not just huge for her but a real boost for the show and its efforts to get a more diverse range of contestants.
The final was a proper nail-biter, with Fiona beating Chris Kirby by just seven points – 96 to 89. Her winning word? The nine-letter anagram “lassitude” – not bad, eh? This victory makes Fiona only the sixth woman to lift the Countdown trophy since the show started way back in 1982.
What’s even more inspiring is that Fiona almost didn’t apply! She was having second thoughts but was encouraged by host Colin Murray’s call for more older players and, importantly, more women to give it a go. And it looks like his plea worked – apparently applications from both groups are up!
Countdown, that iconic British institution (adapted from the French show “Des Chiffres et Des Lettres”), has been a Channel 4 staple since day one. It’s a simple but brilliant format: find the longest word from a random selection of letters, solve some number puzzles, and crack the conundrum – that nine-letter anagram.
Fiona’s win is a breath of fresh air for a show that’s been dominated by male champions for so long. It shows the power of seeing yourself represented and is a fantastic sign of progress for Countdown. Here’s hoping it inspires even more women to take on the Countdown challenge!
