Deal or No Deal is an American version of the international game show of Dutch origin of the same name. The show is hosted by Howie Mandel, and premiered on December 19, 2005, on NBC. The hour-long show typically aired at least twice a week during its run, and included special extended or theme episodes. The main series ran for four seasons (2005 to 2010), and was revived in 2018 for a fifth season. A daily syndicated half-hour version of the show debuted on September 8, 2008, and continued for two seasons.
The game is primarily unchanged from the international format: a contestant chooses one briefcase from a selection of 26. Each briefcase contains a cash value from $0.01 to $1,000,000. Over the course of the game, the contestant eliminates cases from the game, periodically being presented with a "deal" from The Banker to take a cash amount to exit the game based on amounts left on the game board. Should the contestant refuse every deal, they then win the amount in their originally selected case.
The show was a success for NBC, typically averaging from 10 to 16 million viewers each episode in the first season, although the subsequent seasons only averaged about 5–9 million viewers each episode. It has led to the creation of tie-in board, card, arcade, and video games, as well as a syndicated series played for smaller dollar amounts. The show went on hiatus in early 2009, and its Friday night time slot was replaced with Mandel's other series Howie Do It. The network later announced that Deal or No Deal would return on May 4, 2009, to air its remaining episodes. These remaining four were taped in September 2008, and aired on three consecutive Mondays, May 4, 2009, May 11, 2009, and the final two on May 18, 2009.
On December 3, 2018, the show returned to NBC as a holiday special with original host Howie Mandel. New episodes of the program began airing on CNBC on December 5, 2018. The show aired its final episode on August 7, 2019.
Gameplay The contestant chooses one of 26 numbered briefcases at the start of the game. These cases, carried by 26 identically dressed female models, each hold a different cash amount from $0.01 to $1,000,000. The cash amounts are randomly placed in the cases by a third party before the game and no one, including the host, models or the producers know which amount is in which case. On the stage is a video wall that displays the amounts still in play at any given moment. The contestant's chosen case is brought onto the stage and placed on a podium before them and the host.
In the first round, the contestant chooses six cases to eliminate from play, one at a time. Each case is opened as it is chosen, and the amount inside is removed from the board. After the sixth pick, a cordless telephone on the podium rings and the host answers it to speak with "The Banker", visible only as a silhouette, who sits in a skybox overlooking the studio. The Banker's face is never seen, and their voice is never heard. After the call ends, the host relays the Banker's offer to buy the contestant's case. The contestant can accept the offer and end the game by saying "deal" and pressing a red button on the podium, or reject it by saying "no deal" and closing a hinged cover over the button.
Each time an offer is rejected, the contestant must play another round, eliminating progressively fewer cases: five in the second round, four in the third, three in the fourth, two in the fifth. Beyond the fifth round, the contestant eliminates one case at a time, receiving a new offer from the Banker after each. The ninth and final offer comes when there are only two cases left in play: the one originally chosen by the contestant and one other. If the contestant rejects this final offer, they may either keep the chosen case or trade it for the other. The contestant receives the amount in the case taken.
The Banker's offer is typically a percentage of the average of the values still in play at the end of each round. This percentage is small in the early rounds, but increases as the game continues and can even exceed 100% in very late rounds. At times, an offer includes a prize tailored to the contestant's interests, either in addition to cash or instead of it. Also, prizes are occasionally substituted for some of the cash amounts on the board. Starting with the Banker's offer in the second round, the contestant can bring a "cheering section" (e.g., friends, family members or colleagues) to the edge of the stage for advice on case selection and whether to accept offers. However, only the contestant's decisions are counted as part of the game.
If a contestant accepts one of the Banker's first eight offers, and if time permits, the host encourages the contestant to play through additional rounds to see what would have happened if they had not accepted the offer. If time runs short, the last value that was higher than the contestant's taken offer is eliminated in the proveout, if the contestant wasn't going to win much, or if there are only two cases remaining, the host opens the contestant's case to see whether their deal is a good or bad one, and then all of the remaining cases are opened at once.
2018 changes For the 2018 revival on CNBC, the Banker was female instead of male, and instead of a wireless phone, Mandel used an iPhone to communicate with the Banker. Once per game, the contestant could counter the Banker's offer after any round by naming a higher price to stop playing. If the Banker accepted the counter-offer, the contestant received the amount they had stated and the game ended immediately. If the banker rejected the counter-offer, the contestant had to play onto the next round.
Similar to the syndicated series, there was no option to swap cases after the final round, when only the contestant's case and one other were still in play. If the contestant rejected the Banker's final offer (and the contestant had their own counter-offer rejected, if applicable), they received the amount in the originally chosen case, plus any applicable bonuses.
Payout structure On Deal or No Deal, the values hidden in the 26 briefcases typically range from $0.01 to $1,000,000: $0.01$1$5$10$25$50$75$100$200$300$400$500$750 $1,000$5,000$10,000$25,000$50,000$75,000$100,000$200,000$300,000$400,000$500,000$750,000$1,000,000
Some special episodes feature a board with doubled values, and others feature multiple increases of possible prizes.
Models Each season of Deal or No Deal features 26 models who each bear one of the cases in play. There have been 68 different models over its five seasons, ranging from tenures of one season (39 models) to the full five seasons (two models).
Case Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 51 Claudia Jordan Soraya Yd2 Stacey Gardner Taylor Clark3 Lisa Gleave Katie Luddy4 Lindsay Schoneweis Keltie Martin Brenda Lowe5 Ursula Mayes Lani Baker6 Megan Abrigo7 Sara Bronson Jordana DePaula8 Pilar Lastra Lauren Shiohama Mariela Arteaga Neka Stephens9 Patricia Kara10 Anya Monzikova Vaeda Mann11 Katie Cleary Brittany McGowan12 Jill Manas Lauren Shiohama Sarati Toups13 Leyla Milani Mahogany Lox14 April Scott Pilar Lastra Olga Safari15 Lanisha Cole Brooke Long Madi Teeuws16 Kimberly Estrada Kasie Head Krissy Carlson Lisa Lakatos Jessica Lee17 Jenelle Bronwyn Moreno Ashley Jones18 Alike Boggan Marisa Petroro Elissa Ingrid19 Mylinda Tov Amanza Smith Natasha Ward20 Marisa Petroro Alike Boggan Amanza Smith21 Tameka Jacobs Malika Miller22 Donna Feldman Laura Shields Lianna Grethel Crystal Monte Anchal Joseph23 Aubrie Lemon Anne-Julia Hagen24 Nancy Stelle Meghan Markle Kelly Brannigan Kizzi Barazetti25 Sonia Vera Hayley Marie Norman Summer Bellessa26 Lindsay Clubine Michelle De Leon
Broadcast history Seasonal rankings (based on the average total viewers per episode) of Deal or No Deal on NBC.
Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times mentioned are in the Eastern and Pacific time zones.
Original series Season 1 (2005–06) TV Season Timeslot Rank Rating 2005–2006 Monday 8:00 p.m. #15 9.6 Wednesday 8:00 p.m. #21 9.0 Friday 8:00 p.m. Not in the Top 30
Early ratings for the show were extremely encouraging. According to Zap2it, "all five shows [during the week beginning December 19, 2005, and ending December 25, 2005] finished in the top 15 among total viewers, peaking with 14.1 million people watching the Wednesday, December 21, 2005 installment. For the week, Deal or No Deal averaged about 12.7 million viewers and a solid 4.3 rating in the adults 18–49."
The show appeared again on NBC each night February 27, 2006 through March 3, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT with the top prize (and some of the higher-valued cases other than the top prize) escalating until the prize reached $3 million (and the lowest-valued case going up to $.03). As of March 6, 2006, the show settled into regular time slots at 8:00 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, with the top prize returning to its original $1 million. Wednesday episodes were added at 8:00 PM due to the show's consistent ratings success. In something of a ratings coup, the April 3, 2006 episode of the show, a two-hour special, outperformed the NCAA basketball tournament final in a head-to-head competition. During both of the two-hour shows, the second hour scored even higher ratings than the first.
Once it became a regular series, Deal or No Deal consistently placed within the 20 most popular programs on television, at times landing the top 10. The June 5, 2006 two-hour season finale, which featured Celine Dion via satellite, marked a series-high rating for the program, bringing in over 18 million viewers and a strong 5.5 share in the 18–49 demographic. The episode was easily the highest-rated show on any network for the week of June 5, 2006 through June 11, 2006, outdistancing the number-two show, a repeat episode of CSI, by almost six million viewers. The finale experienced similar success in Canada, with 1.5 million viewers tuning in. (However, CSI and nearly all other fall TV series had completed their seasons two weeks earlier and were either in reruns or pre-empted by this point.)
Season 2 (2006–07) TV Season Timeslot Rank Rating 2006–2007 Monday 8:00 p.m. #13 9.2 Friday 8:00 p.m. Not in the Top 30 Sun/Wed/Thu 8:00 p.m. The show returned with new episodes in September 2006, airing on Mondays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m. and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. the latter time slot being perhaps the most competitive in U.S. television, as Deal or No Deal faced a pair highly rated programs, CSI on CBS, and Grey's Anatomy on ABC. Both shows were in the top 10.
Deal'''s Thursday time slot had initially been intended for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip when NBC announced its fall schedule. However, the program moved on May 25 from its announced Friday time slot to Thursdays. The drama Crossing Jordan, which had been planned for a mid-season run, was to be brought into the Friday lineup in what would have been Deals second weekly time slot. However, after Deal or No Deal completed airing special episodes in that time slot to success, NBC moved Crossing Jordan back to midseason and used Deal on Fridays as well to help launch another game show, 1 vs. 100.
The show premiered with a two-hour edition on September 18, 2006, and one-hour episodes that each aired on September 19, 2006, September 21, 2006, and September 22, 2006. The show used a $21 million prize pot over the first week to kick off season two of the game, coupled with the at-home Lucky Case Game for $1 million. During the season premiere week in 2006, the main game had maximum amounts start at $1 million, and increased $1 million for each game, up to $6 million. The top prize case was only chosen once by contestant Matty Sollena on the season premiere. He took the deal for $675,000, but his case contained the top prize of $3,000,000.