Letters and Numbers

Letters and Numbers
Format	Quiz show
Presented by	Richard Morecroft David Astle Lily Serna
Country of origin	Australia
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	300 (as of 21 October 2011)
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	SBS One
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	2 August 2010 – present
External links
Website

Letters and Numbers is an Australian game show, currently airing weeknights at 6pm on SBS One. It is hosted by Richard Morecroft, and co-hosted by David Astle and Lily Serna. It is based on the French format Des chiffres et des lettres, and the UK version of the show, Countdown. It began airing on 2 August 2010.

Gameplay

Two contestants compete against each other in a series of nine rounds, split into three sections. The first two sections consist of two letters rounds followed by a numbers round; the third section consists of a letters round, a numbers round, and the conundrum round.

The winner of the game returns in the next show to face a new opponent; a player who wins six times is forced to retire, becoming a retired champion, in which case two new contestants will play the next game. Retired champions may return for special tournaments at the end of each series of 100 episodes. Every contestant also wins a Macquarie Dictionary 5th Edition, signed by the presenters.

Letters round

One contestant chooses how many vowels and consonants they would like to make up nine randomly chosen letters. There must be at least three vowels and four consonants. The contestants then have thirty seconds to find the longest word that they can make out of these letters. Any word which appears in the Macquarie Dictionary is allowable, as well as some inflections. The contestant with the longest word is awarded one point for each letter in the word, but nine-letter words count double (thus scoring 18 points). If both contestants find words of equal length then each is awarded points.

Numbers round

One contestant chooses how many "small" and "large" numbers they would like to make up six randomly chosen numbers. Small numbers are between 1 and 10 inclusive, and large numbers are 25, 50, 75, or 100. All large numbers will be different, so at most four large numbers may be chosen. The contestants have to use arithmetic on some or all of those numbers to get as close as possible to a randomly generated three-digit target number within the thirty second time limit. Fractions are not allowed—only integers may be used at any stage of the calculation.

Points are awarded for the closest solution, and again both contestants score if the solutions are equally close. 10 points are given for an exact answer, 7 points for a non-exact solution up to 5 from the target, and 5 points for a solution between 6 and 10 from the target. If neither contestant can get within 10, no points are awarded.

Conundrum

A nine-letter anagram is given to the contestants who must unscramble the word within the time limit of thirty seconds. The first person to buzz in and correctly identify the word wins 10 points. If a contestant answers incorrectly then they may not guess again and the other contestant has the remaining time to attempt to find the answer. If neither contestant buzzes in with a correct answer during the time limit then no points are awarded. If the scores are tied after the conundrum, tie-breaker conundrums are used until the match is decided.

Word Mix

Before the commercial break, the audience is given a "Word Mix"—an 8 letter anagram similar to the conundrum, but accompanied by a verbal clue. At the end of the break the anagram is revealed. This does not count towards the scores of the contestants.

List of series

At the end of each series, eight contestants, those retiring champions and long running carry-over champions are invited back to compete in a series of finals. The winner of each series receives a trophy.

Series	Start date	End date	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Score	No. of episodes
1	2 August 2010	17 December 2010	Andrew Fisher	68	Naween Fernando	52	100
2	20 December 2010	6 May 2011	Tony Loui	64	Matthew Thomason	51	100
3	9 May 2011	21 October 2011	Jacob Davey	60	Jeremy Schiftan	49	100

Fisher and Fernando from Series 1 have also been rivals outside of Letters and Numbers since the 1990's, having been involved in other mind-puzzle games at tournament level, most notably the Channel News Asia Scrabble Masters tournament held in Singapore in 1999. On that occasion Fernando prevailed in an epic encounter, winning $25,000 to Fisher's $10,000.

See also

• Countdown

External links

• SBS Australia: Letters and Numbers