Indeed. the series producer is Damian Eadie, who was Countdown champion back in the mid-90s. Longtime viewers may remember him in dictionary corner before Susie took on the job permanently.
Those particular nines were a very common set of letters. Someone like Damian would know that NOTARISES = SENORITAS = ASSERTION. He'd only need to spot one to get the other two.
I should probably declare an interest here, in that I was a contestant in the last series and am an avid countdown nerd.
The Daily Mail's stories are a load of bollocks. The low ratings they refer to occurred on the warmest day of the year so far, when all tv shows experienced a ratings dip. Countdown had lower numbers that day, but the same audience share. They also harp on about how Richard and Carol used to get 5 million viewers, ignoring the fact that this figure was achieved in a much better timeslot.
Also, Rachel is pretty damn good at the numbers. She beat me on all three numbers games the other day and the numbers was one of my specialities when I was on the show.