Countdown (MuchMusic TV series)

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For other uses, see countdown.

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.

1 Chart Patterns
2 Trivia
3 Links
4 External links

[edit] Chart Patterns

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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 a 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 positions 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.

[edit] Trivia

Information can only be found from 1995 - Present

Notable #1's (Songs that have stayed at the top of the charts for over two weeks from 1995-Present)

Weeks at #1	Year	# of Weeks to Reach #1	Weeks	Artist	Song
5	1999	6	January 8 - February 5	Britney Spears	...Baby One More Time
4	1996	5	March 1 - March 22	Alanis Morissette	Ironic
4	2004	7	January 30 - February 20	Outkast	Hey Ya
3	1995	5	November 17 - December 1	Smashing Pumpkins	Bullet With Butterfly Wings
3	1996	6	February 9 - February 23	Oasis	Wonderwall
3	1997	5	February 7 - February 21	Spice Girls	Wannabe
3	1997	11	April 4 - April 18	Our Lady Peace	Superman's Dead
3	2000	7	May 26 - June 9	Britney Spears	Oops!...I Did It Again
3	2001	11	May 25 - June 8	Destiny's Child	Survivor
3	2001	10	October 26 - November 9	Nickleback	How You Remind Me

Highest Debut on the countdown was #18. All of these songs have debuted at #18

Year	Date	Peak Position	Artist	Song
1996	January 6	#2	Everything But The Girl	Missing
1996	June 28	#1 (one week)	Metallica	Until It Sleeps
1997	January 17	#1 (one week)	U2	Discothèque

Most debuts in one week was five on September 27, 1996 and April 18, 1997. The songs were:

Date	Debut Position	Artist	Song
September 27 1996	#30	Marylin Manson	Beautiful People
	#28	Crash Test Dummies	He Liked To Feel It
	#25	Moist	Leave It Alone
	#23	Celine Dion	It's All Coming Back To Me Now
	#21	2Pac	I Ain't Mad At Cha
April 18 1997	#30	Blur	Song 2
	#28	Hanson	MMMBop
	#27	Notorious B.I.G.	Hypnotize
	#26	The Chemical Brothers	Block Rockin' Beats
	#24	Wide Mouth Mason	Midnight Rain

Hoobastank's "The Reason", Nelly's "Dilemma" and No Doubt's "Don't Speak" spent six weeks within the top three, the longest stay in these ranks.

Falling from grace: the biggest fall on the MuchMusic Countdown from the #1 spot was 12 positions, to #13 accomplished by Britney Spears's "Toxic", and also by Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man".

Hilary Duff's "Come Clean" peaked at #4 on the Countdown. It began to descend and when it reached number #22, it reascended to #19. When a song has peaked, it is rare for it to reascend.

The Largest ascent on the Countdown in one week was ten positions. This was achieved by The Prodigy's "Breathe" (#23 to #13) in 1997 and Elvis Presley vs. JXL's "A Little Less Conversation" (#18 to #8) in 2002. Rising nine positons in one week was Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes" (#24 to #15), K-os' "Crabbuckit" (from #20 to number #11) and D12's "My Band" (from number #24 to #15).

The largest descent in one week on the Countdown was twenty positions. This was achieved by N'Sync's "It's Gonna Be Me" in 2000 falling from #10 to #30.

The quickest a video fell from #1 and off the countdown was in 2007 with Billy Talent's Fallen Leaves which reached #1 on February 23, fell to #8 on March 2, then to #18 on March 9. The following week, it ceased to exist on the countdown. This might have been tied with other previous videos.

Mobile's "Out of My Head" reached #1 for one week (May 26) and descended to #10 before starting to ascend the Countdown again. It reached #1 again seven weeks later (July 14), which is the longest gap for the same song at the top position. This feat might have been achieved because the dance remix of the song was released with an edited version of the music video. When it debuted, this probably counted the song as a new entry at number ten. The song spent twenty-two weeks on the Countdown, to date the most since the program's premiere.

Two videos stalled at the lowest position: one was P. Diddy's "Show Me Your Soul", and the other's was Kid Rock's "Forever", both of which stalled at #27.