Amazing Countdown moment as Rachel Riley spells her name at odds of over 4.48 million to 1 !!! 

Lmao XD XD

I HEAR it 😮

Hhahahahahahhaha fucking hell that's nearly killed me eating sweet and sour chicken I just choked

Agreed brother

YAAAAYYY

Ba dum tsss

I see what you did there

nice one

Ahahaha

Took a while But i got the joke

i got all the way to E before i realized something was up.

ITS EMILY!!!

I was like maybe it's spelt Richel

Omg why do I see you everywhere!!

@@yusurkassem4174 because you have working eyes

Its so funny how clearly you can hear them say it

Everyone always watches the show just for Rachel

Must be a terrible show then

@@Gmez759 Show aimed at pensioners to watch in the afternoon... of course it's boring. That's what makes the 8 out of 10 Cats version so funny.

@@robthemodYT Especially since it has Susie and Rachel who are in the daytime one as well

Ultimate rush....the ultimate high!

top comment god

Well played negative one.

Don’t get it

@@Torexeon That's a reference when Moss, Richard Ayoade's character from The IT Crowd, showed up on Countdown, and got "TNETENNBA" for the letters round

@@Torexeon go watch IT crowd

As wholesome as supporting Israel?

@@gavxps1 what

I was going to ask how that comment was relevant 1 year ago, but then I remembered Israel has always been fucky toward Palestinians

@@jocm99 lol how old are you, 7? Go play outside kiddo

@@jocm99 better hurry, you're gonna be late to the next klan/incel meeting at your loving church

yeah that would lower the odds quite a bit.

@@Thisandthat8908 raise them...

@@Hillgrovperhaps he meant lower the number of

The chance of the letters *never* producing an interesting/amusing sequence is pretty low.

I'm okay with that if it's true. I can believe it if it isn't - it's only a matter of maths, to find out really.

Credits roll

So many coincidences

@@bignumbers Not a coincidence. It was an attack on me personally

My democracy is under assault

Send US tanks to my coordinates

She actually shook her second.

@@troo_story I’ll edit it but bravo. Take the likes.

She makes me shake my fist. 😉

@@jameseckersley4926 Very good. I think she makes a lot of men ....... and some women, shake their fist.

@@jameseckersley4926 you mean pinky

Same in Finnish, my first reaction was "Why are you exited, the letter was in the wrong pile?!" I guess you learn something new every day... 😅

In English we say A E I O U and "sometimes Y". It's not a vowel in "yellow" but it is a vowel in "dry" or "cry", these words where there's no other vowel and where it makes the same sound as "I"

I did French to A level and beyond and never knew this!

We probably just did it to be different to you guys.

In English, y is a semivowel.

Ah I know this path well. Enjoy the pilgrimage

@@dahhhkness9706 What's after this? Antiques Roadshow?

Taskmaster, would I lie to you, big fat quiz (the one that sent me down this rabbit hole) and now working on "buzzcocks" with rhod gilbert

Phenomenal. I've been getting ridiculously stoned recently and just blasting countdown clips on YT

where are you watching them? I couldn't find them on youtube a couple of months back and I'm not in the U.K.

@Joe Bloggs You should probably go have a good sleep.

@Joe Bloggs Still butthurt about Katie Hopkins?

@Joe Bloggs I’ll ignore the political/conspiracy theory nonsense..... 🙄 The deck of letters is only shuffled and placed at the start of the show. So, it would only realistically be possible to manipulate the deck on the first round. It would be interesting/easy to find out how deep into the match this selection took place. Even then, they would presumably need to attempt the manipulation several times, before someone chose the correct order of consonants and vowels, so it would become a bit obvious if ‘R-L-Y’ kept coming up as the first three consonants of the show.

@@andrewmay1299 Considering the points are 78 - 50 I would say they are a decent way into the show (I only really watch cats, so have no idea what the scores are like in the real game).

@@SnaxxNZGaming Oh yeah, thanks. I didn’t spot that - I stopped watching before then! Ok, then that blows all the claims of a set-up out the window then, as having appeared on the show myself, the letters are shuffled and placed only at the start of the show - nobody is manipulating the deck half-way through the show!

To spell Carol would be the same or similar odds as Riley surely

burngersnchips She meant Vorderman, it's a nine letter word which is the max letters that can be pulled

@@canoerar393 I was completely aware of that when I wrote the comment 😂

@@burgersnchips doesnt look like it

I know it's late but Carol did spell her surname on the show once. Must be a vid somewhere of it. It was well she was new still, or relatively.

Absolutely laughed out loud at this cheers

🤣🤣 I'm just hanging here waiting for 'that' reply.😉

It's hard to work out the odds cos there is obviously more than one set of letters... or at least it's not like it's just one shuffled alphabet right? It also doesn't look as if there's 21 consonants in the pile anyway...

@@SomeBF no probs.

@@mickelodiansurname9578 Assuming an even distribution of consonants and vowels in their respective piles, I make it 231,525 to 1.

Not on TV you don't.

🤣

@@robertcairone3619 how do u no

@@djmiserablecunt7932 how do you know?*

@@boymcfacto5832 no. how do u no. this is utube not English lit exam

I cant stopping because the event is so unlikely its epic

That's just dirty !

What an idiot.

Jack, you won't do well on the letters round!

same 🤣

Perfect avatar for this comment

Richel Raley?

@@netcomsaux Neat.

@@netcomsaux WTF

Nah that's when they pull 'countdown' out

For some reason yes, but I always don’t mind mind seeing the lovely Rachel Riley 😉

Thanks, That made me chuckle

Do not speak the dark Lord's name

@@stevenhale2935 I do not fear her!

@@mrsusan5672 Then you are a fool! Her mastery of the numbers is unmatched in this realm or any other. She will end us all

@@stevenhale2935 Vorderman not Voldermort 😂

Ah yes, the comment I've been looking for

booooooooooo

gotem

haha i was looking for a comment like this

That just reminds me of this... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f488uJAQgmw.html

"Y" is the consonant/vowel in spanish.

The same pronounciations exist in english - just got condensed into A E I O U I A "UR" O, because english is a language that doesn't make any sense

It is considered depending on what word it is used in.

An example: yard In this word the y represents the j-phoneme, so it’s a consonant.

I also just learned that.

@@Brinta3 exactly. And it represents a vowel in the word "exactly", for example 😜 (and any adverb ending with -ly for that matter)

Our vowels are A E I O U

The cross over i never expected to see on this video

James reid-

or Steele, Nixon, Reyes, Star, Evans, Shy, Mason, Ray, Jean,

I believe you are on the wrong website sir

I see you 😏😉

Thanks Einstein, I’ll send your cheque in the mail.

False, it’s a vowel. I get your point, but all vowels work like that.

What about the word sky? Is it not a vowel there?

@@presidentskroob522 OP thinks that because you have to pronounce vowels as consonants when they are alone, they are consonants. I pretend to be introverted when I am in a lecture but that does not mean I am introverted.

sky, cry, rhythm?

A bit of a nutter on Twitter...

Whats a Riley Reid?

@@jioelg5438 i'd say you knowing it depends on your age

@@ozgundoganay I'm 26?

@Samuel Ward drama or comedy?

@Samuel Ward what like.. horror movies and thrillers?

You know the fact that even our ancestors ate bread, and we still eat bread to this day, proves to me that bread is the best food the world has ever known. Wait a second that might be unironically true depending on how loosely you define bread...

@@MusicbyWordPlay without bread there would be no pizza

@@MetalheadSean666 Thank you MetalheadSean666, very cool.

@@MetalheadSean666 So what we are really eating is Italian cheese on toast

Current presenter count: 7 (Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer, Anne Robinson, Colin Murray)

Are you a bit bored by any chance?

@@LawClapp95 Probably just likes numbers and calculates whatever is calculable. I'm like that too.

@@JimmyBoosterCrateyeah thats fair. i wouldnt even know where to begin to try and work something like that out

I agree

Andrew explained his calculations in the tags. He used the letter distribution from countdown (there's a link). For the calculation of the odds I'd use a different approach: I would not assume that the participant's choices are purely random (since an alternate choosing of vowel and consonant is very common). Further, I believe that the last letter was chosen in anticipation of a possible Y. In the end you could definitely say that the odds for getting her last name is 1 in (at least) 140,000. With (74/9)*(67/13)*(73/5)*(66/21)*(72/1)=140,000 (in your calculations you assumed that there's an infinite amount of letters available). We could use a '2' multiplier, if we assume that the contestants start with either a consonant or a vowel in almost as many occasions (but I think that the contestants do start with a consonant a lot more often) PS: open for discussion :)

Shut up nerd

Yeah cause Dream is based

@@henrylansing9734 absolutely not

@@thewhatwhat12333 cringe

@@henrylansing9734 says the one calling dream based lmao

Ah, someone else who knows pigeon hole principle. Combinatorics, amIright?

The one in 32 figure must assume that the letters are deliberately stacked but also must assume that its the first word drawn for the game OR that the stack is deliberately restacked for the next game in the show as well. I've been and looked and it doesn't look like they reshuffle or restack the cards between games so it would also have to be the very first word in the game to be 1 in 32.

Assuming both stacks are random, the odds of getting RILEY if you pick c-v-c-v-c are 1 in 21x5x21x5x21 . No? (1 in 232,525)

@@keirbourne5323 Thats the odds of that specific draw if the cards are random. Its not the odds of ANY draw. Remember, the player gets to choose between a vowel and a consonant. so this sequence was c,v,c,v,c. But in reality the player could have chosen any sequence of vowels and consonants. The odds of any draw would be far greater than that. However, what Ash is arguing is that the letters aren't random but specifically arranged by the show to form the word. Therefore, the player would only have to choose the right sequence of vowels and consonants. So instead, you look as how many possibly combinations of vowels and consonants are possible in a 5 letter word. That 2 (v or c) x 2 (v or c) x 2 x 2 x 2 which is 32. These are only the odds under very specific circumstances.

@@callumscott953 yes but as its not possible to use the player's choice as a chance, would think it makes more sense to go on that basis? And the cards are random by the way, that's how the game works.

and i've just finished my milk

"....and I'm all out of arse"

@@MusicbyWordPlay Dammit 🤣

@@scrabble1457 my number was correct. What you're suggesting would mean that 0.2 is a 1 in 2 chance, when in reality it's a 1 in 5 chance. If you divide 1 by 0.0000043192, you get 231,525. Just like if you divide 1 by 0.2 to get 5 which is the actual probablity of 0.2

@@scrabble1457 you do realize we're doing roughly the same thing right? I'm just presenting mine in the form of a ratio. If you divide 1 by 231,525 you get 0.0000043. What I'm saying is that you took 0.0000043 to mean that there's a 1 in 4.3 million chance which is just not true. The difference in our calculations is that I'm dividing 1 by it at the end. Since they're all multiplied fractions, you can essentially write it as 1/((5^2)*(21^3))... that's why I divide at the end (it's easier to type into a calculator). I hope I explained it better here...

you haven't consider the likely-hood of the individual picking a consonant or vowel. if you factor that in (treating it as 50/50 chance each time) you get a 1 in 7408800 chance of this event occurring of course if you consider that the guesser probably noticed the trend and chose purposefully on the last letter that drops to 1 in 3708400.

@@scrabble1457 0.2 is a 1 in 5 chance, not a 1 in 2 chance because 1/0.2 = 5. You don't just move the decimal to figure out what the chance is. You do 1/x if you're doing it that way.

Maybe it's not so much cause it's some kind of joke? The letters need not be random - some intern who did this must have planted this 🤔

If the letters are used up it would be 21x5x20x4x19 = 1 in 159,600 But looking at those letter stacks, there are multiples of each letter so not totally accurate either..

@@Sam-xx6pu So you proved your entire post was pointless. Thanks.

@@stargazer7644 it wasn’t my post. But thanks for trying

@@Sam-xx6pu No, it wasn't your original post. Your reply post was the pointless one. So even your second reply was utterly pointless. Good job.

@@stargazer7644 I explained what the odds would be if the tiles were constant, and what they would be with multiples. Pretty straight forward stuff. I’m sorry it triggered you so much, I’ve never seen someone get so worked up from a trivial comment. Good luck to you.

Your parents were siblings, weren't they?

@@HazyWave1974 You've got a keen eye for recognizing such things don't you? Learned the signs from experience dare I say?

@@HazyWave1974 I bet that seemed smart in your head. In fact, my guess is you've copied that insult from someone else as you don't seem sharp enough to have created it yourself.

This is the correct answer everybody based on the standard letter distribution used on Countdown.

Well, for proper calculation you would also need to know the exact number of individual letters on 'letter pilles'. Perhaps, certain letters have higher chance of appearing than others, and you need to take into account the letters which are already used, i.e. on the board. Also, Rachel did a bunch of episodes, so for even more exact calculation you would need to know how much times the letter game was played with Rachel, prior to this one.

@@Apophis051 Andrew explained his calculations in the description. There you can find a link to the letters distribution, which is what I used for the calculation. Yes you could do that, but the question usually isn't "what are the odds that it happens at some point in her life?" but rather "what are the odds for this to happen in a show?" Using these odds, you then can calculate the mathematical expectation like "It is expected to happen after x episodes"

There's also the question of what the odds are that whoever arranged the piles of letters intentionally rigged the decks.

@@JohnDoe-ti2np Everything's bs on TV until you can prove it otherwise has alway my philosophy.

Looking at the numbers in the description, I'm was surprised to see how rarely the letter Y apparently comes up. If I understand the numbers correctly, there are 74 cards in the consonant pile and only 1 of them is a Y, so when Rachel got to the fifth letter there was only a 1 in 72 chance even if you picked a consonant. The 140,000 to one odds sounds about right for the probability of it happening again at the start of the next episode, but it's bound to happen again if you play the game a few million times.

Also the letters aren't evenly distributed. And she does this multiple times per episode, having done thousands of episodes. After a while it becomes pretty likely that something like this will happen. Still cool though.

The OP has now changed the odds to 1 in 4.8 million - still way too high.

The odds are 1 in 1, because it already happened.

I would say the odds of RILE are not that long. The most impressive thing is getting a Y for the fifth letter

For simplicity's sake if we say there are 20 equally consonants, five vowels, then after (again for simplicity) 20 seasons of 20 episodes with 20 draws each, we're left with odds of 1 in 25 (before even accounting for letter frequency distributions). Accounting for (near) equally surprising things, like getting "Rachel" or another person involved or a word related to the show or getting the name later on (e.g. ABCRILEYD), it'd be less likely that something like this never happened.

It's a bit like selecting tiles to play scrabble.

Samee

The set was "RILEYADOS." Her job is to pull cards from the set and display them. Her name is Riley.

If you say it backwords, are you forced back to the 5th dimension? It won't make sense if you're unfamiliar with Mister Mxyzptlk :-P

Ah, Poland, I hear it's lovely.

My name's Tnetennba

@@martingoldfire Used to buy lots of Superman comics as a kid, so I know what that means.

Nice

you haven't taken into account that the contestant has to chose consonant vowel consonant vowel consonant, which is a 1 in 32 chance.

@@handy1964 I don't think we need to consider it though, otherwise what about the odd of their birth coinciding with this universe etc haha

@@handy1964 That assumes that the contestant chooses vowels or consonants randomly, which doesn't appear to be the case.

I don't understand a single thing. Can someone explain please?

@@vivekpanchal9890 they're laughing because it's staged and everyone fell for it like a bunch of idiots

@@m_i_g_5108 You are absolutely right.

*shrug* I guess it's a British thing

@@m_i_g_5108 if it was 8 out of 10 cats does countdown I would've thought so too, this is regular old countdown and I guess it may actually have been dumb luck. Also after getting the three in order, picking vowel and consonant in order seems like the only logical thing to me, everyone who wouldn't would be a psychopath. Thing is, if the contestant would've gone for two vowels or consonants, everything would've gone to waste.

Yeah... And it's not entirely random wether they pick consonants or vowels. It would've been weird if they had picked 5 consonants for instance.

Im fairly sure there have been contestants who just say "5 vowels" or whatever, they tend not to be the bright ones, but yea they do try it (can't remember if they allow it or not though)

@@james14294 it still would not be independent though. The fact is unless there is complete independence (a total impossibility given that people do not make decisions independently), the odds are lower.than calculated.

@@drmadjdsadjadi didnt disagree with that, just your claim that no one would ever do a thing they have done before

@@james14294 Then I have no issues - I suppose some people are super dumb and I keep forgetting that!

"No contestant, for example, would every choose 5 consonants in a row to start a word" You've obviously never seen Joe Wilkinson play.

You're stunning!

It was the conundrum. LIFEFAIDS (Falsified).

@@steeviebops oh right thanks. i think the daily express printed a story and got their facts mixed up about it. its not so significant now if thats the case.

@@davidmyles9967 I think what was so creepy about it at the time was exactly because it was the conundrum. So it was the very last game Richard introduced. It was also the second conundrum because the first one was tied. I saw an interview with Carol where she brought it up.

Also you can add in the liklihood of it spelling out 'Susie', 'Nick', 'Carol',etc thay would also have been noteworthy

No, the 1 in 140,000 is only for fixed selections of consonant/vowel/consonant/vowel/consonant. If you allow any combination of consonants and vowels - as they do for the first five letters on the show - then it becomes one in several million.

@@andrewmay1299 I was indeed assuming this, since this is the combination of vowels/consonants the guest chose, so I was calculating the probability you'd get RILEY already knowing the guests choices. But I wouldn't know of a way to calculate the probability that this combination of vowels/consonants are chosen given that we can't place equal probabilities on choosing combinations CVCVC and VVVVV for example. Good point though, so I edited out the crap about parallel universe Countdown.

@@spencerpescod2234 We can put a reasonable estimate in though. I’d guess from experience that this order of consonants and vowels is chosen around 5-10% of the time. I can’t see that it could possibly deviate much from that. Puts us around the 1 in 1.5 million to 1 in 3 million mark.

the boris bit at the end creased me hahahahahahah

Yeah wonder what series it’s on?

It's complicated in English. It's taught as something which can be a vowel and a consonant.

@@johnball320 Very true but it's worth adding that it's only a vowel for pronunciation purposes. You wouldn't claim that 'Riley' had three vowels and 'hymn' is still classed as a vowel-less word, even though the 'y' is pronounced like an 'i'. :-)

It’s because it is taught wrong in English. In English, it is either a vowel or a semi-vowel. It is NEVER a consonant.

@@peterfireflylund That's just complete and utter BS.

@@peterfireflylund It is definitely a consonant in words like yes, yard, yield, yak, yellow, and youth.

say that one more time please mate

who careeees

This observation is a bit late, but I feel I really ought to point out that it isn't Rachel Riley who's choosing the letters. It's the contestant. Although that doesn't rule out the possibility that the contestant may have decided to go for that sequence as soon as, say, the R and I came up. Though having said that, the [consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant] alternating sequence is a pretty common one for contestants to pick, regardless.

why does it have to be that way? unlikely doesn't mean rigged

@@aislingoda6026 fair enough, i don't know for an absolute fact. just too skeptical is all

Exactly! Right!? I mean this odds of things happening BS is ridiculous! Just as much chance of these letters coming out as ANY OTHER LETTERS!! 🤣

She’s incredibly famous in the UK. Been on many programmes on the telly here!

@@TheUKNuttershe super smart just watched a few of her math clips

Actually they don't, the cards are shuffled at random and the contestant chooses either vowel/consonant at will. Source - I made that letters board and have worked on the show

@@SavageSmithy Note that Rachel is going for the vowels/consonants before being asked, I think it was rigged.

@@davidd5448 what the fuck no she wasn't

@@bengee2902 Hey Ben, close your filthy mouth and open your fucking eyes.

@@davidd5448 you open your eyes and watch a few episodes.

& amazingly enough, that dress she's wearing is pretty much the same colour as the board behind her, another just by chance or sheer coincidence maybe? 😆😆😆

God damn that woman in the dress

No need to brag

At least make it last a minute

Likeability, I'm not sure, given she pissed all over black history with her t shirt, and her false lawsuits.

She's a Tory shill

Really? Damn, she just got better!

@@BradTheThird loser

@@ben_retrop5179 Says the guy with a gay communist flag profile pic and who liked his own reply.

further.