Deal or No Deal - Season 4
Premieres: Monday, August 25, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. EST
Network: NBC
Creator(s): Dick Derijk
Starring: Howie Mandel (host)
Website: CWTV.com
Deal or No Deal is an NBC game show involving odds and chance in which a single contestant goes up against 26 briefcases, each containing a different dollar amount. At the beginning of the game the contestant selects one briefcase to keep next to them. After that, they eliminate one briefcase at a time and a “case girl” reveals the dollar amount inside. The round ends after a certain number of briefcases are open and at that time, the unseen banker gives Howie (the host) a dollar amount. The figure is based on how much money is still up on the board (meaning whatever hasn’t been eliminated from the suitcases). So if the contestant manages to avoid stumbling upon the cases containing the higher numbers ($500k, $750k, $1 million), the deal is usually fairly high. The more briefcases are opened, the better the deals get as long as the big amounts are still in play. The contestant has to decide if they want to keep opening cases, in the hopes that the million dollar amount is in their case (or some other large amount) or take the deal given by the banker.
Advertisements for the fourth season claim that this is the season we’ll see someone win the million. So far, it’s never been done.
For some reason, this series hasn’t gotten stale for me. I don’t know if it’s Howie Mandel’s charismatic nature, the way they build up the suspense throughout the game as we wait to see what’s in each case or if it’s the enthusiasm of the contestants but even after three seasons, I still find myself completely engrossed with this show whenever I stumble across it. I’d be lying if I said that learning someone will finally win the million didn’t cause me to feel a lot more excited than I should be given we’re talking about the season premiere of a game show but whatever. No deal!
For the full 2008 Fall TV Premiere Schedule: CLICK HERE
