'Countdown' letters give U, D, F, C, K, E

Two contestants on Countdown seemingly avoided spelling out "f**ked" when the six-letter word would have won them the round on the Channel 4 gameshow.

Co-host Rachel Riley had sequentially put the letters A, U, O, D, F, C, K, E, G on the board, causing a look of amusement from presenter Jeff Stelling, the Daily Mail reports.

Instead of winning the round with the six-letter expletive, the two contestants opted to share the points with the five-letter "caged" and "faced" respectively.

Viewer Douglas Bedford said: "As soon as the letters were picked, the swear word just seemed to jump out at you.

"You could see Jeff Stelling and Rachel had spotted it so everyone thought the contestants had too. But they played safe by going for shorter words even though it meant scoring less points. It was very funny to see their embarrassment."

When Stelling asked Dictionary Corner's Susie Dent for "any advance on five", she responded with the seven-letter 'dogface' and 'dockage'.