After 15 years as Countdown’s maths whiz, Riley said she had not considered going for the presenter’s job
(Picture: PA Archive)Rachel Riley has expressed her joy at Colin Murray being announced as Countdown’s permanent host last week.
The Northern Irish broadcaster had guest-hosted Channel 4’s long-running game show since last July after Anne Robinson’s exit.
The former Weakest Link presenter became the sixth host of the programme in 2021, replacing Nick Hewer. However, she was dogged by reports of on-set tensions during her tenure.
Riley said Murray was a hugely popular choice to succeed Robinson. She said that the show’s viewership had increased tenfold since he joined.
“We’re so happy,” Riley, who was made an MBE in the New Year Honours List for her efforts to raise awareness of the Holocaust and combat antisemitism, told The Standard. “He’s such a good host. He loves the show and really cares about it.
“He brings everyone together on the team — from me, [dictionary corner expert] Susie [Dent], the producers, everyone — and I think the proof is in the pudding, the viewers absolutely love him and there’s been a great response to him. It’s amazing.
“Viewing figures are multiple times what they were, they’ve gone up and you can just tell it’s a happy show. It’s such a warm, cuddly, family programme that’s been on for 40 years and it deserves someone who loves it and looks after it.”
After 15 years as Countdown’s maths whiz, was Riley ever tempted to swap her numbers for the coveted hosting chair? Riley, 37, said “you’d have to pry the numbers from my cold, dead hands” for her to have considered this.
“I like my job, I like the numbers game and I don’t think I could do it from far away,” she said.
“Colin’s so good at what he does. He’s always thinking of puns, or any little segue. He’s definitely the right person for the job.
“The Countdown viewers have always been friendly and supportive, so it’s a really nice show to be a part of.”
Away from Countdown, the mother of two recently joined forces with the online-only used car marketplace Motorway to launch their new Car Value Tracker. This is a tool that helps users to check the worth of their car and provides insight on the best time to sell.
“We had a 10-year-old diesel that we sold last year because when we got it, it was supposed to have cheaper tax and be greener but a decade later, we now know that it’s not,” Riley said.
“With the new legislation that came in, we realised it was getting really expensive and we needed to get rid of it so we swapped it for an electric vehicle, which we love.”
“The used car market has completely changed in the last couple of years because of microchip shortages, supply and demand issues and long lead times, so the price of cars is going up and down while used cars are increasing in value. Therefore, the Car Value Tracker is a really interesting tool.
“It not only tells you the current value of your car, but the value of it over the past 24 months so you can look at the patterns and the graphs and see the best time to sell your car.
“It’s interesting to see the car we’ve got rid of has gone down, down in price while our electric car has mainly increased in value.”
