“What’s The Deal” Week on December 10th

23 Nov

Posted by Alex Davis as Deal or No Deal, NBC

Deal or No Deal is going gimmick crazy during the week of December 10th with some extra long episodes. But there is a positive note: most of the actual gimmicks are cool and welcome at a later time. One of them is “The Deal Wheel” which we discussed before. That is on December 12th. Here are some more.

On December 10th, Deal or No Deal adds something never done before in the briefcase game: competition. December 10th is “Winner Takes All”. During the two hour show, three contestants will play their own individual game. Whoever gets the most money in their game takes home everyone’s money. Meaning if Player One gets $200,000; Player Two gets $250,000; and Player Three gets $300,000; Player Three goes home with $750,000. Interesting way to up the money without going insane, plus this may make for some really interesting and hopefully cautious game play.

December 11th isn’t a huge gimmick. They are bringing in a small orchestra and members of the Broadway show “Wicked” to perform for the contestant. It’s also a special “case reveal” episode, where home viewers will get to see what’s inside some case values before the player does. It really doesn’t add anything special to the show, but it’s not a bad gimmick.

December 12th is the pretty cool “Deal Wheel” which can be found here. And Merry Christmas, that’s a picture of Anya for the Christmas special.

And that’s Deal or No Deal on the week of December 10th. I have to say that it looks like they are getting their act in shape now. The gimmicks add something new to the show without going insane with ponies. They add new game devices to the show which make it new, special, and exciting. What do you all think of the gimmicks?

15 Responses

andrew
1
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:08 pm

WINNER TAKES ALL SUCKS! it ruins the entire meaning of the game. just think, if someone was lucky enough to take home $750,000, then that means someone with .01 and 1,000,000 MUST play on, or they’ll lose everything. that doesn’t happen very often, and for all their luck and daring, they shouldn’t have to turn down 500,000 with no safety net just to have a chance at winning something! just imagine if you had wesley autrey’s board, and any reasonable man would deal. you are very sure you don’t have the 1M, and you’re pretty sure you’ll remove it. the offer is 322,000, and you’re all ready to deal when howie tells you that if you don’t beat 433,000, you don’t win anything. that’s bad enough, but if somehow you were psychic and knew you’d remove the 1M next, then you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. PLEASE get rid of this!
andrew
2
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm

DEAL OR NO DEAL HAS OFFICIALLY JUMPED!
Alex Davis
3
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 pm

You are aware that odds are the players won’t know each other’s scores, right? This means they will have to play more cautiously than before. Taking an early big deal might be the right thing. They made the show psychological. It’s a fantastic tweak in my mind.
Jordan S.
4
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:11 pm

That would make sense, Alex, but this is NBC and Endemol we’re talking about, not the producers of Jeopardy! during their special tournaments. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them goof it up. That being said, if it’s executed properly it could make for pretty good TV. The case reveal episode probably won’t be too bad, as long as they stage it right.

But I’m not much of a fan of the Deal Wheel - it just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the show (which even Australia’s Double or Nothing manages to do). Instead, I’d probably offer an endgame with various multipliers in five or six cases. Contestant picks off two or three, banker makes a given offer to multiply winnings, contestant can either accept that or take what’s in their case.
Michael
5
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:28 pm

The gimmicks are not bad, but I was really hoping that NBC and Endemol would make us really happy by announcing that there would be no more supporters for each contestant, a contestant would would have 30 seconds to make a descision on an offer or else it would be a NO DEAL, the games would go quicker and there would be no more “open the case……when we come back.”, they would open up the vault by making the top amount higher and higher for each game that the top amount is not won in, and they would do us all a favour and get rid of this upcoming “Million Dollar Mission”. This has to be the stupidest idea ever. I’ve given up on the show a while ago and from what I’m hearing, there a long way off for getting it right again.
andrew
6
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:33 pm

i know that, alex, but the audience knows what each contestant took..
Darren
7
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm

Assuming it’s the same audience.
David Howell
8
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:58 pm

‘Winner Takes All’ is either the best or worst twist ever, depending upon execution. With S&P regulations likely to ensure the execution is fair, I’m positive on it; conversely, if I heard the UK were doing it, I’d be terrified.

It’ll be very, very interesting to see what the winning ’score’ will be and how the tactics change. I reckon you’ll get one person who plays more cautiously than normal and one who will throw caution to the wind. I’d probably personally play a more ‘target-based’ game than normal, probably playing for $200k (which I reckon would win it). That’d mean taking more risks at the end with one huge amount left, but potentially walking away from a great board early.
Scott Meckley
9
November 23rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm

I don’t like this winner takes all idea. I think the wheel deal idea is somewhat interesting but this winner takes all idea is an awful idea. I am thinking that this could be the last season for the primetime version of Deal but i hope i’m wrong and it goes at least another season or two or longer.
Marc Power
10
November 24th, 2007 at 11:03 am

a few friends and I played a tourney-style DoND that might work better than winner take all, very simply start with 6 people each playing their own game, lowest scorer is elimanated but each person is not told the other’s scores. 1st round each game is for $1m, 2nd round: $1.5m, 3rd round: $2m, 4th: $2.5m, 5th: $3m and the winner plays a solo game for a bonus of up to $5,000,000. I won our little tournament for $1,876,000 (including the 6th round “bonus game”) but the 5th round was a disaster, I won only $10 in my game and my opponent ended his game with .01

My point is winnings wise $1.876 million is still exciting but it took six games and that bring seven more excitement. Plus, pint-size offers of less than $1,000 may still be worth taking in this format since one of your opponents may have had a bad game and you could lock up a high position.
KBGUY09
11
November 24th, 2007 at 11:54 am

With the right rules, they should be able to make that winner take all a permanent thing. But if we knew what the previous deal was, then we know whether someone won or not. So the 2nd person should know what the 1st person won, and same for the 3rd. I think that addition would make the game a lot more physcological. Unfortunately, I dont see it staying :(.
Nikolai
12
November 25th, 2007 at 2:00 am

The show has jumped the shark. Pretty soon NBC will have another good excuse to cancel another show which was perfectly fine to start with. It seems to be a tradition at that network.
Antonio
13
November 26th, 2007 at 10:15 am

Nikolai,

Deal or No Deal has already jumped the shark when they started all this mess…
Nikolai
14
November 26th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

Antonio, I’m just expressing an opinion. It just seems that they are getting desperate to keep their ratings decent. I just hope it won’t be messy once it goes into syndication next fall.
Antonio
15
November 27th, 2007 at 2:21 pm

Nikolai,

You can express your opinion I didn’t say you can’t…