Rachel Riley says 'Countdown' producers sometimes have to come up with other words when contestants say something "too rude for telly".
Rachel Riley
The 32-year-old television presenter is in charge of putting the letters up on the board for contestants to make words out of on the daytime game show, but has revealed that when the hidden words are too naughty for television, producers will sometimes have to find other words with the same amount of letters, and make the contestants use those instead.
She said: "Often if a word is too rude you substitute in another word so that it works.
"If it's too rude for telly they'll say 'can you say this word instead?' so the points still work out.
"But we had one where the two contestants got 'shagged' and 'shagger' and the only other seven-letter word found in dictionary corner was 'doggers'.
"That's the fun of it - it's for kids and adults."
Sometimes though, more crude words slip through the net, and the blonde beauty says her mum has had to get used to seeing her discuss the phrases on national television.
Speaking to The Sun's Bizarre TV column, Rachel then added: "She brought me up in Essex, she's made me an Essex girl ... what does she expect?"
Meanwhile, Rachel - who has been a member of the 'Countdown' team since 2009 - previously revealed she loves spelling out the crude words.
She said: "I think it's the fun part of 'Countdown'. A lot of rude words, you'd only know they were rude if you had a dirty mind. So I'll put up a word knowing it's filthy, and Susie and Nick won't have the blindest clue why half the audience is laughing. That's the fun of it - you don't have to be serious all the time."
Rachel's boyfriend and 'Strictly Come Dancing' professional Pasha Kovalev was a culprit of one naughty word when he guest starred in dictionary corner, as he came up with the seven letter word 'bumhole'.
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