'Countdown' owner to pull the plug?

Marcel Stellman, the Belgian businessman who owns the rights to Channel 4's Countdown, has threatened to axe the show in the wake of Carol Vorderman's departure.

Vorderman confirmed her exit last week only days after host Des O'Connor announced his intentions to leave. She had claimed that producers requested she take a 90% pay cut.

Responding to Vorderman's comments, Stellman told The Mirror: "I control the format and without the format there is no show. I am upset for Carol, more than that. This is a person I have known for 26 years who started Countdown.

"If I am Mr. Countdown, she is Mrs. Countdown. She is delightful and loyal and cannot be treated in any other way than [with] respect.

"If they don't come up with things they have promised in writing, and are now being dealt with by my solicitors, from now on I don't wish to talk about the future."