Countdown (Canadian TV program)
Countdown is a ninety-minute music video program block that airs on Canadian music television station MuchMusic. The program airs a playlist of the most well-known songs in the mainstream; the first half of the show plays recently released and most popular music videos, while the second half focuses on the top 10 videos, whether they be ascending or descending the chart. Countdown is one of the oldest programs that continues to be aired on MuchMusic since its debut.
The order of the videos goes from #30-#1, although only about 17-20 of those videos are actually played, while the rest are just mentioned in a clip that shows the 3 most recent videos played (i.e., #19, 18, 17) that is aired before commercials. Most of the videos that go unplayed are old videos that are fading off the chart, or less popular videos. Every video in the top-10 is played, however. A music video that reaches the number 1 spot usually stays there for 1-2 weeks. The number 1 video for the week of August 4 is Unfaithful by Rihanna.
Recent Top 30 Countdown
The patterns that Countdown follows become very predictable to someone who regularly examines the weekly list. A few very obvious patterns are:
- When videos that have been progressing slowly stay at a position for two consecutive weeks (i.e. #15), they often fall in the third week. If an video were to stay at #15 for two consecutive weeks, it would likely drop to somewhere in the 20's for the third week.
- Videos almost never jump from any position other than number two, up to the number one spot. This means that a video that is at number three or four for a week will almost never jump to number one for the following week. This leads videos almost never failing to reach number one after reaching number two.
- Recently, videos rarely stay at number one for more than one week. This could be attributed to there being numerous popular videos being on the Countdown at a certain time. However, some of the most popular videos such as The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" or Rihanna's "S.O.S" climb to number one in a very short period of time, but then fall from the top spot after just one week. Other videos that take a long time to climb to number one such as Fall Out Boy's Dance, Dance manage to hold onto number one for two weeks.
- Videos that fall from number one often drop several position the week after being at number one. Again, this could be attributed there being numerous popular videos being on the Countdown at a certain time.
- Videos almost never begin to ascend the Countdown after already being on the Countdown and falling off, or peaking and beginning to drop.
Trivia
- No Doubt's "Don't Speak", and Hoobastank's The Reason spent six weeks in the top-three, the longest stay within these ranks.
- The highest debut on the MuchMusic Countdown was #20, done by Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi and Eminem's Just Lose It.
- The greatest jump on the MuchMusic Countdown was nine spots by k-os' hit single, "Crabbuckit", which went from 20 to 11 in one week.
- The largest descent on the MuchMusic Countdown was 17 spots, accomplished by Usher's "My Boo" falling from 13 to 30, and again a few weeks later by Sum41's Pieces (11 to 28).
- Hilary Duff's " Come Clean peaked at number 4 and descended until number 22, then ascended until number 20, which is rare on the countdown.
- Mobile's "Out Of My Head" peaked at number 1 and descended to number 10 and started to go up the countdown again, once again reaching number 1, which has never happened before.