OK, so you may have noticed that Deal or No Deal has recently been revived by ITV. And, if you have, you're probably wondering A) if I've been watching it, and B) what I think of it.
Well, before I get to those questions, here's a quick summary of the story so far for the uninitiated...
Deal or No Deal originally began airing on Channel 4 in late 2005. Over the years, its initial high ratings gradually melted away before collapsing completely in 2013 due to a combination of no more CBBC on BBC1 and the rise of Tipping Point on ITV.
The introduction of Box 23 at the start of 2014 was presumably designed to claw lost viewers back, but all it ended up doing really was alienating those who'd loyally stuck by the show. After plodding on a few more years, it finally came off air at the end of 2016.
And that was that. Until, in the summer of 2020, Weaver's Week reviewed an episode of the show as part of a chronicling of Noel Edmonds' career. The episode in question was one where the contestant dealt at about £20,000, but missed out on a £50,000-£75,000 finish. And being reminded of episodes like that in a modern day context made me realise how stupidly seriously we took the competitive element of the show.
My interest in the show reignited, and as we were still very much in lockdown at this point, I decided to watch a few episodes online, even re-reviewing a few of them for the forum that, yes, does still exist! I mostly found noticing stuff that hasn't aged well, such as a contestant who, I'm guessing, supported Arsenal going for "Fabregas' number, No 4", which got a pretty big laugh out of me given what that particular player went on to do!
Watching all these old episodes and re-reading their commentary threads on the forum reminded me of how great the original show used to be, and how the dynamic of having contestants from all walks of life playing (and living together in a hotel during the filming) really worked.
It did lead me to conclude, however, that such a format wouldn't work nowadays in the very divided society we currently live in. Memories being fresh in my mind of the revival of The Weakest Link and how it only half worked because the contestants really didn't want to vote each other off. (I caught one episode where the girl who plays Bernie Taylor in EastEnders was a contestant and she looked really scared and upset when announcing who she'd voted for)
And so, when it was announced earlier this year that Deal was going to be revived by ITV, with Stephen Mulhern as the new host and the same format of players being on the show for weeks beforehand before playing their own game, I was very apprehensive about it, to say the least.
Thankfully, my fears have been unfounded. The new series hasn't been groundbreaking, but it hasn't been terrible either. It's been simply just fine, in the same way that the revived Fifteen-to-One was simply just fine.
Anyway, onto the revivial itself.
The game itself is largely the same as before: 22 boxes, containing various sums of money from 1p up to a reduced top prize of £100,000. Players open five other boxes in the first 'round', then receive an offer from the unseen 'Banker', which they'll decline because no-one takes the first offer.
Another three boxes are opened before they receive another offer, which they'll also almost always decline. (Only one person dealt a second offer in the entire original show) Repeat a further three times for Rounds 3 to 5. Round 6 is a bit different to the original in that the player only opens two of the remaining five boxes before getting another offer which, if they turn down, they only have one more to open before their final offer. If they turn that down, they win what's in their box.
The big difference, as I've already alluded to, is the top prize has been reduced from the original £250,000 to just £100,000 (the second prize in the original). This has meant the games of the revival have been at a lot lower stakes, which has also resulted in quite a lot of gambling which, I suspect, we might not have had in today's current society with the original stakes.
But, those two differences and the change of host aside, it's basically the same show as before. Really, if the show had carried on past 2016, it honestly feels like this is what it could've naturally evolved into.
As for the new host, Stephen Mulhern has been perfectly acceptable. I can't really comment on his performance as I've been mainly watching with the sound off and the subtitles on, but he's done a fine enough job from what I've seen.
As for the games themselves, a lot of them have been low stakes deals for four figures sums, albeit statistically good sums for the board, but there were some pretty good sums won; the highest sum won was, I think, £30,000, won this past Tuesday.
There were also a few blue box wins, including one particularly gutting one where a contestant with MND won just £5. However, a GoFundMe page set up by another contestant for him has so far raised over £100,000!
Anyway, the commission was for just 20 shows, which have been airing for the past four weeks, plus a celebrity special with Michael Owen which aired this very evening. And I'd like to think the series has done sufficiently well that ITV will order more. It's been nice having the show back and, while I've certainly not been following it as closely as before, I've certainly be keeping an eye on it, and will do so again if/when it comes back.
Back tomorrow with a quick summary of OC and Mastermind, so, see you then...
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