The music might have been focus of Countdown, but the fans kept the records spinning. Scores of screaming girls would often hide some low production backing track or a missed lip sync. The fans were not always kind in the early days. Female fans gave female artists a tough time. When Debbie Byrne performed 'He's a Rebel', she was in tears as the crowd booed and abused her.

Being part of the Countdown studio audience was highly prized. One regular, who became known as 'Black Bess'(named because she always wore black) managed to get herself to nearly every show. Audience tickets were allocated from envelopes drawn out of a barrel but Bess had her friends write about 100 letters each so that sooner or later one would get drawn and she'd get in.

The Countdown Council was sort of a research body that doubled as a fan club. The ideas was to have a number of high schools provide feedback to Countdown about what they had most like or disliked on the previous week's episode. Researcher Caroline James would collate the responses and the lucky schools were given tickets to tapings.

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