Deal or No Deal
Gameplay
The general gameplay of Deal or No Deal involves a contestant, a host/presenter, a banker, and a set of numbered briefcases (or boxes), each containing a different value. The values themselves are known at the start of the game, but which case contains what value is unknown. At the start of the game, the contestant picks a case for themselves that they hope is one of the most valuable. The contestant then begins choosing the other cases one at a time for rejection and removal from play. The amount inside each selection is immediately revealed; by process of elimination, the amount revealed cannot be inside the player's chosen case. Throughout the game, after a preset number of cases have been opened, the banker offers the contestant an amount of money and/or prizes to quit the game, the offer based roughly on the amounts remaining in play and the contestant's demeanor. The player then answers the titular question:
- "Deal", accepting the offer presented and ending the game, or
- "No Deal", rejecting the offer and continuing to open cases
The process of removing cases (or boxes) and receiving offers continues until the player accepts an offer to quit, or until all offers have been rejected and all unselected cases revealed, the player then winning the value inside the case initially selected. If a player takes a deal, the game is typically continued to see how much the player could have won if they had remained in the game.
The values of each of the cases is indicated by a label or card located inside it. Various versions of the show have between 20 and 26 values; some versions have only cash values, others include prizes such as a car or booby prizes. For instance, there are 26 cases in the U.S. version, containing cash values from 1 cent to $1,000,000. Alternately, the Australian version has 26 values from 50 cents to $200,000, but includes a car as one of its more valuable prizes.
Since the range of possible values is known at the start of each game, how much the banker offers at any given point changes based on what values have been eliminated. To promote suspense and lengthen games, the banker's offer is usually less than the expected value dictated by probability theory, particularly early in the game. Generally, the offers early in the game are very low relative to the values still in play, and approach (or even exceed) the average of the remaining values near the end of the game.
Only a few people have ever won the top prize on any version of the show (see table below). For a contestant to win the top prize, they would have to select the case containing the top prize, and reject every offer the banker makes during the game. While the chances of a player selecting the top prize are reasonable (4-5% depending on how many amounts are in the game), the chances that a player will be able to turn down a number of inevitably large offers to win that top prize are much smaller.
Worldwide, the largest active-play offer made (after adjusting for exchange rates) is €1,495,000 on Dutch version Miljoenenjacht, offered on November 13, 2005. The offer was accepted, and stands as the biggest win in the history of the format, despite many versions (either occasionally or permanently) having higher top prizes.
Deal or No Deal and scientific research
Deal or No Deal has attracted attention from mathematicians, statisticians, and economists as a natural decision-making experiment. A team of economists has analyzed the decisions of people appearing in European and US episodes of Deal or No Deal and found, among other things, that contestants are less risk-averse or even risk-seeking when they have seen their expected winnings tumble. In their follow-up article they find that contestants behave similarly in ten different versions of the show, despite large differences in the amounts at stake; amounts appear to be evaluated in relative terms, for example in proportion to the initial average, and not in terms of their absolute monetary value. The research project received a great deal of media attention, appearing on the front page of The Wall Street Journal on January 12, 2006 as well as being featured on National Public Radio in the United States on March 3, 2006.International versions
The show has many versions that air around the world:
Véronique Landry is the only model to appear on more than one version of the show, on both the French and English Canadian versions. Howie Mandel, Héctor Sandarti, and Linda de Mol each have hosted multiple versions of the show: Mandel, with the American English and English Canadian versions, Sandarti with both the American Spanish and Mexican Spanish versions, and de Mol with both the Netherlands Dutch and German (in 2004) versions of the show. In the UK version Deal or no Deal helped relaunch Noel Edmonds career.
Other countries that have their own versions of the show include Albania, Armenia, Austria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Portugal (SIC network), Puerto Rico, and Vietnam, according to the UK version's website.
Top Prize Winners on International Versions
NOTE: All amounts below the prizes are their equivalents in United States dollars, and those in USD at the time of their big win.| Country | Name(s) | Amount won | Previous offer | Other amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dean Cartechini (June 17, 2004) | A$200,000 ($178,659, back then $136,986) | A$102,500 ($91,563, back then $74,818) | A$5 ($4.47, back then $3.65) | |
| Anh Do (celebrity) (September 19, 2007) | A$200,000 | A$125,000 ($111,662) | A$75,000 ($66,997) | |
| Paulo (April, 2007) | R$1,000,000 ($557,678, back then $492,611) | R$444,000 ($247,609, back then $218,719) | R$100 ($55.77 back then $49.26) | |
| Veneta Raykova (celebrity) (February, 2006) | 75,000 BGN ($54,819) | unknown | unknown | |
| Mauricio Hermosilla (May 4, 2007) | CL$10,000,000 ($19,938) | CL$6,500,000 ($12,960) | CL$5,000,000 ($9,969) | |
| Farándula (August 29, 2007) | CL$10,000,000 | Change Box | CL$50,000 ($99.69) | |
| Sabrina (November 29, 2005) | €500,000 ($714,750, back then $588,235) | €350,000 ($500,325, back then $411,764) (the banker also offered €200,000 and €300,000, which is rare for a contestant to have more than one offer after one single round) | €75,000 ($107,213, back then $88,235) | |
| Gogo | €200,000 ($285,900) | €80,000 ($114,360) | €1,000 ($1,430) | |
| Clarissa Meneghini (December 19, 2007) | €500,000 ($714,750, back then $714,286) | €170,000 ($267,477, back then $242,857) | €30,000 ($47,215, back then $42,857) | |
| Paty (June 3, 2006) | $1,000,000 ($92,379) (weekday) | $550,000 ($51,500) | $100,000 ($9,238) | |
| Laura (March 2, 2006) | $1,000,000 (weekday) | $700,000 ($64,665) | $400,000 ($36,952) | |
| Luis (December 6, 2005) | $1,000,000 (weekday) | unknown | unknown | |
| Elena (June 11, 2005) | $5,000,000 ($461,894) (Saturday) | unknown | unknown | |
| Timothy Shim (March 2, 2008) | RM100,000 ($31,250) | RM 50,800 ($15,875) | RM 250 ($71.83) | |
| Arno Woesthoff (September 2, 2001) | Fl10,000,000 ($6,600,000) | unknown | unknown | |
| Terry Lim Cua (December 29, 2006) | P2,000,000 ($47,790, back then $40,800) | P1,400,000 ($33,453, back then $28,560) | P1,000,000 ($23,895, back then $20,400) | |
| Vidoje (October 19, 2007) | RSD1,500,000 ($24,475) | RSD615,000 ($10,035) | RSD500,000 ($8,158) | |
| Gilbert de Tarragona (June, 2007) | €600,000 ($857,700, back then $800,000) | €240,000 ($343,080, back then $320,000) | €1,500 ($2,144, back then $2,000) | |
| (Unknown) (October 22, 2007) | TND1,000,000 ($797,130) | unknown | TND500,000 ($398,565) | |
| Laura Pearce (January 7, 2007) | £250,000 ($512,826, back then $480,769) | £45,000 ($92,309, back then $86,538) | £3,000 ($6,154, back then $5,769) | |
| Jessica Robinson (September 1, 2008) | $1,000,000 | $561,000 | $200,000 |
Spoilers in a promo on the U.S. version following Jessica Robinson's win suggest that there may be a second millionaire later on this season.
Antecedents
- The Bong Game, created by Capital FM in the 1980s, also tested contestants by offering them increasing returns in tandem with increasing risk.
- Let's Make a Deal, a long-running game show involving contestants deciding whether or not take offers based on what may or may not be behind a curtain/door or inside a box.
- Treasure Hunt (US game show), a 1970s and 1980s Chuck Barris game show similar in concept to Deal or No Deal
- Take Your Pick offered contestants the choice of taking a money offer or risking opening a box.
- Win Ben Stein's Money pitted contestants against an in-house adversary.
- Kabarkada, Break The Bank is a live game show of Studio 23, the UHF network of ABS-CBN which has almost the same format as Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal.
Variations
South Korea
A variation of "Deal or No Deal" was embedded in a variety show called Idol World. Super Junior-T played the game and there were only 10 cases, the prize goes from ₩10 (about 1¢ US and ¥1, less than €0.01, 1p, and 1¢ AU) to ₩1,000,000 (about US$1,073, €723, £521, AU$965, and ¥116,000). See Yes or No.Taiwan
Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) has a variation of "Deal or No Deal" embedded within its Saturday night weekly variety show hosted by popular TV host and one time recording artist Jacky Wu. The portion involved 16 boxes wherein celebrity contestants will play for NT$1.5 million top prize (about US$46,000, €32,000, £22,000, AU$49,000 and ¥5,280,000), in denominations starting from NT$1.00 (about 3¢ US, €0.02, 1p, 3¢ AU and ¥3). In this game though, Wu the TV host, also acted as a banker. He would randomly come up with an amount when the choice of boxes become fewer. Contestants however have to win a talent portion of the show before playing this game.Even when they don't make $100,000,000, the lucky ones usually get a $200,000 grant for making a record on the show.
In popular culture
- Deal or No Deal is a regular sketch on the comedy show Bremner, Bird and Fortune
- On the series finale of The O.C., Seth and Summer were addicted to a show called "Briefcase or No Briefcase".
- Deal or No Deal was parodied twice on Madtv. Michael McDonald portrayed Howie Mandel and on both skits, the contestants walked away with what they had in their briefcase (each contestant had low amounts; one was $400 and one was $5).
- In March 2007, Innovative Concepts in Entertainment released a ticket-based arcade version of Deal or No Deal, where gamers can get a small taste of the pressure put on an actual contestant on the show.
- In the film Meet the Spartans, one of the Spartans was given a choice by the enemy to either join their army or die. After the enemy says "Deal or no deal", all of the models urge the spartan to take the deal.
- Deal or No Deal was parodied on an episode of NBC's own 30 Rock as a game show called Gold Case, created by Kenneth Parcell.
- On the April 8, 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live, Deal or No Deal was parodied with Fred Armisen playing Howie Mandel, and Antonio Banderas as the contestant.
- On the Family Guy Star Wars Special, Lois Griffin playing Princess Leia portrayed Howie Mandel. One of the 26 cases she presented to Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader was supposed to hold the plans to the Death Star. The case Stewie had held $5.
- On short-lived NBC drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Howie Mandel cameoed as host of the titular show-within-a-show. During Mandel's SNL-esque monologue, he is interrupted by Bradley Whitford's character and forced to choose a case to determine how the monologue would end.
- In the Philippines, Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal was spoofed in an ABS-CBN show GUDTAYM by Toni Gonzaga as Kris Aquino(Kapamilya Deal or No Deal Host) and it was named MEAL or NO MEAL.
See also
Online versions
- Officially licensed game of Deal or No Deal (UK Version)
- NBC game
- Official United Kingdom Deal Or No Deal website
- Official Quebec Le Banquier (Deal or No Deal) website
- Official Italy Affari Tuoi (Deal Or No Deal) Website
- Online Flash Game Version of Deal or No Deal
- Official German Deal Or No Deal website
- PKR poker room includes an Officially licensed Deal Or No Deal version
References
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 09:52:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
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