Comments on: Howie Mandel to take Syndie Deal

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:29:31 +0000

That sounds like a good idea. In other words, you’re letting the contestant determine his own top prize. Cool!

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:08:57 +0000

Here’s an idea. They only need to have a possibility of a million, right? So let’s say there’s 3-5 “luggage racks” with different prize levels. The contestant picks one, the top prize for that rack is revealed, the models dutifully take their suitcases from the selected set and play begins as usual.

Say the show has one $250,000 set, one $500,000 set and one $1,000,000 set. The average top prize would be under $600,000, and the overall payout could be further adjusted by distributing the case values differently for each set. You could keep the $250,000 set interesting by still providing five or six $100,000+ amounts, while making the million-dollar set go $100K, $200K, $300K, $500K, $1M.

By: Jerry Adkins

Jerry Adkins — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:26:04 +0000

Well,NBC could lure Rosie hosting DoND! Howie should do fine!

By: Jordan Hass

Jordan Hass — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:10:56 +0000

i was expecting either duplicate VAS O NO VAS…
or Keep It Normal…

—

If I would guess… i would say they will steal the Oprah $100,000 Concept.

By: Joe Capitano

Joe Capitano — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:41:27 +0000

Oops. Strike the extra 2500 on the middle line. That should be 5,000.

By: Joe Capitano

Joe Capitano — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:39:43 +0000

My idea for the syndie board:

Left side: 0.01, 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, 750 ($1,941.01 total)
Upper Right side: 1,000, 2500, 2,500, 10,000, 15,000, 25,000 ($58,500)
Power Block: 50,000, 75,000, 100,000, 250,000, 500,000 ($975,000)

Total Board Value: $1,035,441.01
I wouldn’t put any amount above three figures on the left side.

As to game play, adopt the UK format outright: or with a slight modification to 5-4-4-3-2-2. No one-pick rounds.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:44:06 +0000

Double or Nothing should be used in the syndicated version for every contestant.
If the ratings on NBC’s DOND contuine to decline then Howie will only have to do two versions because NBC might cancel its version next year. Who knows how DOND Canada in the ratings?

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:12:08 +0000

IMO, I think a good way to lead fans of the show into the new syndicated version would be to follow Millionaire’s example, they ran from 1999-2002 on ABC and then immediately went into syndication. What Deal Or No Deal should do is complete the 2007-2008 season which will be it’s third and then have the syndicated version start in the fall of 2008. If they do that they would be doing what the producers of Millionaire didn’t do until the ratings started to fall, end the primetime version and ease into with little problems the syndicated version

By: JD Nole

JD Nole — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:50:36 +0000

I’ve given up on the primetime show, but just might watch a daytime version. I think keeping the prize package Deals on primetime and going “strictly cash” for daytime might also be a good way to Deal with the daily version.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:24:29 +0000

I think syndicated Deal will do just fine as well. As for board configurations, a tone down to 22 cases would be nice, and have a Power 5 like the UK ($100,000-$200,000-$300,000-$500,000-$1 Million). I say a top prize of either $500,000 or $1 Million would work. Having a “5 cases to open then 3 after scenario” would be more exciting towards the end. Even though it may create bigger risks, the reward and excitement is there!!! There are even some countries that use a 20-box system, and it’s 3 to open each round.

All I know, is that when the syndie version is released, it’ll be fine the way it is. Hopefully, anyone who reads ALL our posts on this topic, and that works for NBC, could take these ideas into consideration. We are the fans, and we know what will and will not work.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:06:54 +0000

I think perhaps a way to make the top prize $1,000,000 could be worked out. Perhaps the top prize on the board could be $500,000, but at the end a double or nothing option could be given out. The cases could be reset, with half of them having “Double” inside and the other half having “Nothing”. Of course I know that no one is even going to risk $500,000 for a chance at a million, but it gives the show the opportunity to offer a million dollar grand prize.

Or they could give the contestant the chance to select the top prize for their game at the beginning, with values ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000.

By: David Howell

David Howell — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:40:16 +0000

One way of doing that - probably the quickest and easiest - is to dump the one-to-open finishes. That completely changes the game.

They could do a lot worse than stealing the UK’s £500,000 board, changing to dollars, and keep it as five in round one and three between offers thereafter (both £500,000 games have gone one-at-a-time from the five-box point). Then you have big money, but it’s very much more detached than in the US show - the top three would be $100k, $250k, $500k - and furthermore the three-to-open structure will make it far more dangerous to continue, facilitating lower Deals than would occur otherwise. Furthermore it’s a quick-and-dirty way to speed up the gameplay.

By: Neville

Neville — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:57:21 +0000

Although people want to win the million dollars, it would be much easier to get on the syndicated version than the primetime version simply because its on five days a week, even if they didn’t speed up gameplay (which they really ought to, just like they did with Millionaire.) Personally, if I were trying to get on the show, I know I’d pass up a chance at going for the million in order to increase my odds of getting to play, so from a contestant’s perspective, I don’t see it as a big of a deal, especially since only two cases are above half a million in primetime. However, I can see that, to the average viewer, this might look like an attempt to cheapen the game - a thought that many had about syndicated Weakest Link. Here’s the thing - no one won really big money on either Weakest Link, and people still don’t win that big of money on syndicated Millionaire (some of the upper tier questions are rather esoteric). Endemol’s probably figuring out a combination of suitcase values to ensure that big winners are few and far between, while still putting the million dollars at the top - perhaps an immediate drop to $250,000? We’ve seen Jeopardy up the ante with unlimited returns and Wheel with the $100,000. Syndicated Weakest Link only put $75,000 on the line and it bombed, but the new Millionaire’s still going strong… but they really couldn’t change the top prize payout without changing the name of the show :) If the New Deal wants to retain viewership, they;ll have to keep the prizes big without giving to big prizes away.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:00:02 +0000

I was thinking $500,000 for the top prize in order for the syndicated version to be successful. If the top prize was $250,000 that would be too cheap. If they use the same board as the NBC version then the syndicated version will suffer. If they use Canada’s version with “Looney” “Tooney” that would be even worse. By the way, has anyone on the Canada version got the penny or a “Looney” or a “Tooney”? The lowest given in the US is one dollar, but the penny was almost given away. A contestant had the penny and ten dollars left on the board, but sadly won ten bucks instead of the penny. I think someone in the US version will win the penny first before someone wins a million.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:33:49 +0000

With a $250K or $500K max payout, everyone will want to go to the network show. Everybody wants a chance at a million. To me, a million dollar top prize has become a prequisite to having a successful game show these days.