Comments on: Syndie “Deal” Plans Couples Edition and Scraps Episodes

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:20:31 +0000

I guess we need to eliminate the appearance of every Millionaire contestant who bombs out on the first five questions, and leaves with nothing.

Give me a break Endemol. Either show the damn contestants or get out of the game show business. It’s bad enough other shows want to follow your crappy model of game show production (obnoxious contestants, peanut gallery members who don’t shut up, pregnant pauses to simple questions), now you want to get cut-happy. You win some, you lose some, that’s what makes this a game of chance.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:52:30 +0000

You know, the $5,500 final offer down to a penny may have not been a good idea overall, but it’s only 2.65% of the total loss that she suffered.

Criticizing someone for going too far at a low level of money can’t make sense when they have already lost a whole lot of money earlier. Because then why are you not attacking that loss instead?

People who think that a normally bad deal is justified because you cannot argue with winning $280,000 fail to spot that you could not argue with taking the offers before either.

By: Measles!

Measles! — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:33:43 +0000

To those who don’t think there isn’t any intelligence required to win on this show, go ahead, go on, and enjoy looking like a damn fool, I’ll be the first in line to laugh in your face. You have to have the brains to know when to quit and when to take your chances. You’ve got to have a strategy and stick to it. These people on DoND just seem to pick blindly without any sense of what they’re doing…and you wonder why they’re scrapping shows and sending them home? I personally would rather see them play to the end and be embarassed, but that’s another point for another time.

It’s a shame that all the new game shows don’t seem to care about people knowing what they’re doing, as long as they’re OD’d on caffeine and/or drugs. Know what? Let’s just put a “Dumb People Encouraged” label on all these shows and just water the whole damn concept down entirely.

Rant over. Many more rants to come, probably. Enjoy my lunatic-ism :P

By: David Howell

David Howell — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:19:10 +0000

This isn’t on anything like the level of 21 and Dotto, or even the phone-in scandals I’ve written about for this site. But it’s bad alright.

The only thing that made Heather an imbecile was turning down an above-mean $5500 final offer. Even then, a lot of people would unthinkingly do that anyway. I’d have gone at $207,000, but probably a majority wouldn’t. As for most episodes producing six-figure wins - that’s down to the Mission isn’t it? Everyone plays until there’s one $1m case left (or so it seems) so everyone ends up with a six-figure Deal (nobody’s left two millions at the end, somehow).

By: James

James — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:10:48 +0000

That’s the thing about TV nowadays…they try too hard to be TOO polished, and TOO perfect. Somehow this reminds me of wrestling becoming “sports entertainment” now.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:54:32 +0000

First: There is zero brain power required. Therefore, there is zero brain power shown. You remember the people who claim the $1,000,000 case is theirs without thinking that that means risking their family futures, and then quit for that reason?

Second: You didn’t scrap Heather McKee’s episode. Why remove this one?

Third: I don’t think Heather is an imbecile when the majority of the difference between $207,000 and one cent ($161,999.99 or 78.26%) was lost by a freak round 5 ($1M and $1M) with a 3.57% probability.

By: ImHomerJay

ImHomerJay — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:16:12 +0000

Regarding Measles’ post, there is zero brain power on display in playing Deal. That’s the reason I bored with it so quickly–there’s absolutely no skill to it. I’m fine with luck playing a part in a game, but for me, and just me maybe, I like there to be some element of thought, be it solving a word puzzle, thinking about how people answer a survey question, estimating the price of an object or answering trivia.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:56:50 +0000

I sincerely hate NBC for being picky about what episodes of DoND they air. Is it any wonder why I’m starting to now hate NBC? Las Vegas ends with a “To Be Continued”, 1 vs. 100, despite good ratings, is nothing but a sacrifical lamb to NBC, and now NBC is picky about what episodes they air. No wonder NBC is now in 4th.

By: ScottNotSteve

ScottNotSteve — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:28:03 +0000

I have long considered a special rule for situations like this. Once the right side of the board is cleared at any point, game over, contestant wins the top amount that remains on the left side. That may be essentially what they do now, but if you make that a formal, known “rule”, Howie can play up the tension in those games that are going bad, and when the big values are gone, then aw shucks, here’s your money, bring on the next contestant. That would be the honorable way to do things, without locking the show into playing out an entire bad game on tape. And it would reflect “reality” in an era of reality games — imagine that!

By: jaymich1128

jaymich1128 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:03:28 +0000

I also think that this is considered rigging…it’s like the original “21″ and Dotto…they brought on the game show scandals when people realized that the answers were given to them…and, while there is no Q&A on DOND, giving away the highest amount and telling the contestant(s) to get off the stage is (in my opinion) the same thing.

Think about it…people come on these shows for more than one reason…while getting a lot of money is great…they also come on for the risk of the game.

Hey, if getting a big amount was guaranteed, I’d be on the first flight to Vegas.

By: Measles!

Measles! — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:53:36 +0000

Here’s a simple answer to their little scrapping games problem:

BRING IN SMARTER PEOPLE!!!. Being a glorified cheerleader does NOT get you anywhere. That’s why I stopped watching. I don’t root for these people. I don’t root for people who seem like they’ve had way too much caffeine. You want to improve the ratings? Bring in contestants who know just what the **** they’re doing.

Forget the personality bulls***. That gets you nowhere in game shows and in life. You want to win? HAVE A BRAIN…AND FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIVES, USE IT!

Rant over. NBC and Endemol win my “Go F*** Yourself” award for today.

By: Mathieu Plante

Mathieu Plante — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:36:10 +0000

I agree with Marc, they should just speed up the rest of the game. They could probably finish it in under 2 minutes if they just asked the person to choose their remaining cases quickly, no need to tell us what the banker would have given them. Or they could just ask them to open their own case right away, since it would be a low amount anyway…

By: Marc Power

Marc Power — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:28:54 +0000

well, I remember a ngihtime show where the contestant had eliminated the entire right side of the board after the 3 cases round (I think that round), the hghest amount left was $750, and they went through the rest of the game (albeit at a MUCH faster than normal) and her and Howie just played up the comedy which actually made that a really fun game.

in my mind, what Endemolis doing is borderline rigging, albeit, thiese cases were obvously not planned and the contestants are still getting their winnings, but that’s life you’re gonna have some boring games every now and then. WWTBAM for instance, had tons and sitcoms even occasioanlly have eps. that bomb. it’s like their being little kids calling for a “do-over” becuase things didn’t go how they wanted.

By: James D.

James D. — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:06:00 +0000

Didn’t DoND do this with at least one nighttime contestant? I believe LeAnn Rimes was brought out as a celebrity guest for said contestant.

I’m kind of mixed on this. From a business standpoint, I can understand DB25’s argument that the shows fears viewers will walk away if a dull game is played (particularly if, say, the entire right side of the board is wiped out in one fell swoop).

But, at the same time, it is interesting to see contestants react when they are in such a situation. Do you remain enthusiastic about playing? Do you just go through the motions?

I’m curious what the contestants in question think of the show’s decision not to air them. Did they know this was a possibility ahead of time? Are they happy they at least got a few bucks for their troubles?

By: DB25

DB25 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:52:07 +0000

My guess is it’s probably a good business decision to stop tape and give the couple the highest amount. Let’s say it costs them $2,000 a minute to tape an episode (I’m guessing here) and if you have 5 minutes left in the show and $500 is the highest value, it’s cheaper to stop tape and give them the $500. Sure they’ve already spent $ by playing the game, but if it’s boring they are guessing people will change the channel. While somewhat “planned out” and kinda cheap, I guess I understand why.