Deal or No Deal is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was produced by Dutch producer Endemol.
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Format
Deal or No Deal involves a contestant, a host/presenter, a banker, a group of female models (in the American version) or other contestants (in the original version), and a number of briefcases (or boxes), each containing a different (and initially unknown) value. The game begins with the contestant picking a case which he or she believes will have the highest value. During the rest of the game, the contestant selects the rest of the cases one at a time for rejection, the value of each case being revealed after it is selected. Each time after a specified number of cases have been opened, the banker offers the contestant a certain amount of money. If the contestant accepts one of these offers, the game ends and the player wins the offered amount; if the contestant refuses all the offers made, they eventually end up with the money from the first case (unless they decide to switch their case with the last one in the gallery). Since the range of possible values for cases is known at the start of each game, how much the banker offers at any given point changes based on what cases have been eliminated. To promote suspense and lengthen games, the banker's offer usually strays from the expected value dictated by probability theory, particularly early in the game.[1] However it is not uncommon for the bank's offer to exceed the player's expected value very late in the game. Worldwide, the largest amount offer (in terms of exchange rates) was €1,495,000 on the original Miljoenenjacht, on November 13, 2005 (which was accepted; the contestant's case only had €1,000). Only a few people have ever won the top prize on any version of the show. To date, no contestant on the U.S. version of Deal or No Deal has ever won the top prize, although their cases have had that in them before.
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 have 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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]
Theme song
- The theme song for Deal or No Deal is composed by Martin Schimmer. It is published from Sony BMG and Endemol.
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.
List of people who have won the top prize on all international versions
NOTE: All amounts below the prizes are their equivalents in United States dollars.
| Country | Name(s) | Amount won | Previous offer | Other amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Australia |
Dean Cartechini (June 17, 2004) |
A$200,000 ($178,659) |
A$102,500 ($91,563) |
A$5 ($4.47) |
| Anh Do (celebrity) (September 19, 2007) |
A$200,000 | A$125,000 ($111,662) |
A$75,000 ($66,997) |
|
 Brazil |
Paulo (April, 2007) |
R$1,000,000 ($557,678) |
R$444,000 ($247,609) |
R$100 ($55.77) |
 Bulgaria |
Veneta Raykova (celebrity) (February, 2006) |
75,000 BGN ($54,819) |
unknown | unknown |
 Chile |
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 | Charge Box | CL$50,000 ($99.69) |
|
 France |
Sabrina (November 29, 2005) |
€500,000 ($714,750) |
€350,000 ($500,325) (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) |
 Greece |
Gogo | €200,000 ($285,900) |
€80,000 ($114,360) |
€1,000 ($1,430) |
 Italy |
Clarissa Meneghini (december 19, 2007) |
€500,000 ($714,750) |
unknown | € 30,000 |
 Mexico |
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 | |
 Philippines |
Terry Lim Cua (December 29, 2006) |
P2,000,000 ($45,444) |
P1,400,000 ($31,811) |
P1,000,000 ($22,722) |
 Serbia |
Vidoje (October 19, 2007) |
RSD1,500,000 ($24,475) |
RSD615,000 ($10,035) |
RSD500,000 ($8,158) |
 Spain |
Gilbert de Tarragona (June, 2007) |
€600,000 ($857,700) |
€240,000 ($343,080) |
€1,500 ($2,144) |
 Tunisia |
(Unknown) (October 22, 2007) |
TND1,000,000 ($797,130) |
Unknown | TND500,000 ($398,565) |
 United Kingdom |
Laura Pearce (January 7, 2007) |
£250,000 ($512,826) |
£45,000 ($92,309) |
£3,000 ($6,154) |
Antecedents
- The Bong Game, invented 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.
- The New Treasure Hunt, 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 game show of Studio 23, the UHF network of ABS-CBN which has almost the same format as Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal.
Variations
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, and ¥5,280,000), in denominations starting from NT$1.00 (about 3¢ US, €0.02, 1p, 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.
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 and 1p) to ₩1,000,000 (about US$1,073, €723, £521, and ¥116,000). See Yes or No.
Trivia
- 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 1 cent).
- On a preview of the movie 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.
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 Italy Affari Tuoi (Deal Or No Deal) Website
- Official German Deal Or No Deal website
References
- ^ Formula for offers in the NBC online version of Deal or No Deal from the personal website of a former physics and finance student
- ^ Post, Van den Assem, Baltussen, and Thaler (December 2004). "Deal or No Deal? Decision Making Under Risk in a Large-payoff Game Show".
- ^ Baltussen, Post, and Van den Assem (December 2007). "Risky Choice and the Effect of the Relative Size of Stakes".
- ^ Economists Learn from Game Show 'Deal or No Deal' from the NPR website
Other international versions
