About Countdown

Submitted by admin on March 31, 2009 - 12:49pm

The Countdown Story

About Countdown

Upon reflection of more than 50 years of Australian TV it’s hard to imagine a show that has made more of an impact on Australian culture than Countdown. In the late 70s and well into the 80s, Sundays at 6pm, millions of Australians could be found sitting in front of the television tuning in to Countdown. It was all about sharing the music chart's hits and misses, barracking for favourite artists, bagging the dags and puzzling over Molly's monologues.

Countdown beginnings

ABC Director of Television, Ken Watts had been responsible for some very innovative programming at the ABC (he green-lighted a pop show out of London in the late 1960s called Now Time). In 1972 Watts brought Michael Shrimpton over from Perth to Melbourne to take over the ABC entertainment unit and asked Shrimpton to find him the next generation of ABC viewers aged between 10 and 40.

The Countdown Influence

Both radio and the major labels soon discovered that Countdown and its audience were to become a force to be reckoned with. The ABC's nationwide reach gave Countdown a stranglehold on the Australian pop scene. This, combined with the introduction of colour TV as well as a charismatic host who was already well connected to many Australian music and international stars, made it an unstoppable phenomenon.