Strictly star Chris McCausland’s secret strategy that shocked everyone on reality game show

Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland revealed the impressive strategy he used to score highly during his appearance on the comedy panel show, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

The comedian, who went blind due to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, detailed the clever tactic he created before competing on the show while chatting with Rob Brydon on his podcast, Brydon And, earlier this year. 

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For those unfamiliar with the game show, hosted by Jimmy Carr, it sees two teams of comedians go head to head in a spoof edition of the puzzle programme, Countdown.

Chris revealed that the producers of the show felt that even if he was “rubbish” at playing the game, he’d still be funny to watch. However, the 47-year-old thought it would be even more entertaining if he was “amazing” at the game and wowed his fellow contestants. 

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“I think they thought as well that I’m able to make a joke out of being blind, and I’m able to banter and improvise so if he’s rubbish at Countdown, it’ll be really, really funny, I’ll make it funny, there was a faith in me there,” explained Chris. “I thought, ‘What would be funnier than my being really rubbish at Countdown? If I was amazing at Countdown’.

“I drove my wife insane. I must have watched 60 or 70 episodes of Countdown,” he continued. “I came up with ways of getting the letters, building the words in my head, doing the maths in my head and I battered everybody. It became really funny because we got the other guys to do a round with a blindfold on.”

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Chris went on to say that the conundrum round was the only part of the show he couldn’t practice for. Despite this, he still guessed the word correctly and “almost had a panic attack” out of excitement. “I didn’t know what to do with myself!” he added. 

Chris, who is partnered with Dianne Buswell on the latest season of Strictly, went blind at the age of 22 due to retinitis pigmentosa, which is the name given to a group of conditions that result in the gradual degeneration of the light-sensitive cells of the retina.

Opening up about his experience of blindness, Chris told iNews last year: “They say that when you lose your sight, your hearing gets better. It doesn’t. But you do pay more attention to it. So when you’re sat at a beach resort, and you’re hot, and you can’t see what’s around you, then you just end up concentrating on how hot you actually are. I suffer more for it.”

The comedian and actor is no doubt a favourite among Strictly viewers, who have loved watching his and Dianne’s incredible routines every Saturday night. 

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Chris recently opened up about the pressures that come with being the programme’s first blind contestant during an interview with The Independent. While he’s loved for his personality and humour, Chris said he didn’t want to be known as the “fun” guy.

“Because if I come on the air and because of my blindness I fail, that’s no good for anyone,” he continued. “The whole point of being here is to surprise people, to represent people and maybe expose people to somebody they might think would be incapable of doing these things.”