11Jan2007
Canadian “Deal or No Deal” Launches on Super Bowl Sunday
Canada has a terrific launch date for their version of “Deal or No Deal”: Super Bowl Sunday. The show will air directly following Super Bowl XLI on February 4th. The remaining four episodes will air every Thursday at 9PM starting February 8th on Global in Canada. This means extremely fast editing from them, since their shows tape on January 23rd, 24th, and 25th. Scott St. John is involved in this version of the show, as is director R. Brian Dipirro.
Edit: Wow, can’t believe I forgot this. Howie Mandel is hosting this version as well.
Howie is hosting the Canadian version!? Jeez mo flip! He’s gonna be one busy bank messenger with the two or 3 a week in the U.S., plus the Canadian version. If Howie doesn’t watch himself, in 20 or 30 years, all this DoND exposure is gonna isolate him. It’ll be all he’s known for, no comedian routine, no Bobby’s World, no St. Elsewhere…
Yeah, thats a good point. However, he must be racking it all in right now, by then he’ll be ready to step out of the limelight for good
Howie Mandel was born in Toronto, so he’s qualified to legally host this version. And Leyla Minali who holds case #13, is eligible to be there too, since she grew up in Toronto. Leyla & Howie also attended the same high school in the North York region of the city.
The pre-production on the Canadian “Deal” has been remarkable. They took their applications in December, and got about 100,000 of them. They’ve been doing casting through the Christmas holidays for models (five audition cities, and they’ll pick one from each to join a cast of 21 coming up from the U.S. version. That wraps up in Toronto tomorrow, from what I’ve heard.) And they’re taping in late January for airdates in February when they said that the show was going to air in the spring (presumably as a summer replacement).
Clearly the show is enough of a hit right now that they’re going to get their dibs in. And with a premiere right after the Super Bowl, I don’t possibly see how they can lose.
They should be careful, though – rival network CTV is clever enough to schedule the Canadian version of the “Idol” series after American Idol ends. It could be that if ratings are favourable, Global does the same and waits for the American version to go on hiatus for the summer.
Deal vs. idol hmmm. depends on what part of the season idol is in. The ratings only get REALLY REALLY high when they’re down to the final 6 or so IMO.
I just want to know, Will the set for the Candian version be different than U.S. version, or the same?