Weekdays, 4pm,
ITV1
I ought to start by saying how much I enjoyed Deal or No Deal back in the day – in some ways it was the ‘making’ of this site, when people were offering live commentaries on a daily basis and I was stuck at work F5-ing like mad waiting to see what happened. Like most things that interest eventually wanes, but at its best Deal or No Deal was electric television and even years on after peak-Deal you’d occasionally find yourself at a loose end watching an episode and thinking “yeah this is a good television show isn’t it?” Partly the format. Partly the ability of unusual gnome Noel Edmonds to spin up the tension to extremely engaging levels. Partly a Banker with a wicked sense of humour and a very good ability at finding pain points. Partly the casting.
It’s only been seven years since it was axed so this reboot feels a bit quick – certainly the original is still in living memory. We don’t have unusual gnome Noel Edmonds hosting, now we have extremely slick magician Stephen Mulhern hosting – he is extremely good with the public, the jury is out as to whether he can spin the tension up in a believable way. I’m sure the casting will be fine. We will have no idea if the Banker is any good until broadcast. The format? Well, the second I saw the new board set-up my heart sank – sure, £100,000 is a lot of money but it’s clearly quite a lot less than the original. The fewer larger reds is what’s going to really kill it though.
Deal or No Deal is a game of luck, duh, but it’s a game about decisions and people living with the consequences of their actions. That’s where the entertainment is. It ought to be a rollercoaster, there ought to be moments of exhilaration and moments of regret. But the new board doesn’t allow for it, what the new board allows for is bank offers of between £2,000 and £5,000 for approximately fifty minutes, and if there’s a five-figure red still standing at the end (which the odds suggest will happen once twice a week, even if one of those reds is just ten-thousand pounds) maybe a slightly higher one in the last ten minutes. And that’s going to be an extremely stodgy hour of television to watch. I’d rather have £5,000 in my bank account than not, but as a TV journey I’m not sure if I can shrug any harder. Sure, a 1p vs £100k ending is universal, but the journey to get there certainly isn’t.
Tipping Point currently does about 1.7m in the slot, and we can take overnights as pretty much read for daytime entertainment, they aren’t going to add much in catch-up. I have no doubt this will open to similar numbers. I think it will be trending towards a million by the end of week 2. Thank goodness it’s not going in the The Chase slot as we thought provisionally, and I hope a lesson that if you can’t afford to do it properly, don’t bother doing it and do something else instead, it’s not like anyone was clamouring for a Deal or No Deal revival. Added to this there has not been a single successful revival of the format internationally in the last five years, and some big markets have tried.
Let us know what you think in the comments!
Do you know how many episodes ITV made? I understood twenty (five days a week for four weeks), but that could easily be completely wrong.
“There has not been a single successful revival of the format internationally in the last five years.”
Just checked – yeah, the CNBC version in the US was in 2018. Has it really already been five years?
I suppose the good news is, no matter how bad ITV’s version turns out to be (and I agree with most of what you wrote), it will be better than Deal Or No Deal Island on NBC, if\when that actually premieres. The apparent host of that – Joe Manganiello. I’m fully expecting a Howie Mandel cameo at some point.
20 episodes, plus two celeb Xmas specials.
Looking forward to this, however something about that money ladder does not sit right. Surely having these amounts so close together is not really going to cause many exciting gambles or big money wins.
Of course nothing avoids the Christmas special now.
There is no denying too that the show was a trickier watch at an hour than 45 minutes – that extra 30 seconds per box somewhat killed the pacing, even with the added twist or two. to pad out the hour. I guess technically too the jackpot has gone from £500k to £100k rather than just £250k once you factor in Box 23, although the potential for £500k never really affected the offers or in game decision making.
I did think about how the average winnings would probably drop from around £16k to less than £5k but hadn’t thought about how that would impact the offers throughout too – agree they’re very likely to be much the same and they’ll have to start relatively low, even with the new “power of 5” still in play.
There might have been an argument to keep the £250k in play but lower the lesser value reds instead.
I am pleased Magic Fairy Box 23 isn’t here, because it was rubbish.
I am guessing nobody ever won more than the £250k and the highest amount gambled on Box 23 would probably have been in the low thousands?
I think the most gambled was in the first episode where the guy said “they wouldn’t put zero in on the first one would they?” which through luck or judgement was correct, he doubled up, but yes there’s a very specific level of winnings where it becomes an interesting and difficult decision and it just didn’t hit.
I’ve always said that Box 23 *had* to be either removed or adjusted to a “one mini box per option” the moment that happened. To quote a regular from around here, it is not enough for the show to be fair, it has to be seen to be fair, and Box 23 had a perception of unfairness explode into life literally the first time it showed up.
Ironically the Box 23 decision zone is where most of the Mulhern offers will be stuck in!
Yes, although I’ve no doubt it was done fairly having them pick one of three boxes with double, nothing or same would have looked more in keeping with the show.
Honestly so happy to see it back it’s like it’s never been away. Very much enjoyed the first episode the format is exactly the same as we used to know it but it has a much fresher and more welcoming feel to a new audience of people. Stephen is an excellent choice of host i know he hosts a lot of programs on ITV and some people might get sick and tired of him but it works so well he relaxed with the contestants and adds his humor into the game sometimes presenters change their approach to how they present especially when it’s a classic gameshow but he is just brilliantly funny. The show runs smoothly with the perfect amount of chat and game play there isn’t loads and loads of waffle like on some quiz shows. I can see that from episode 1 that it will be a big hit with viewers i know this will get positive reviews from people, It’s so good to have something different as part of the daytime schedule to the standard shows such as Tipping Point. I will 100% be watching tomorrow and for the rest of the series even if it means i have to catch up later in the day well worth spending an hour watching. Yeah the prize board has changed which i know will annoy people especially with no £250,000 but it doesn’t really matter to me i loved it anyway.
I can only ever be honest when it comes to reviewing these things so here goes, unfortunately I have more gripes than positives:
Positives for me were:
1. Stephen was great at host albeit seeming a bit nervous and out of his comfort zone at the start (picked himself up and was very slick by the end)
2. Love the new set and graphics, not quite as good as the warehouse vibes from Noel’s tenure but done to reflect 2023 and the need to modernise everything, I suppose.
Things I wasn’t so on board with:
1. I get why they’ve made it an hour (to fit with the normality of an ITV daytime game show block) but to say it was padded was an understatement.
2. The need to introduce and chat to some of the players at the start of the show; again, I get this, it’s to add a bit of padding in so the show covers an hour. For a show that during Noel’s run was all about the player playing the game, I can’t help but feel this was taken away from with not only the chats at the start, but the occassional intervals of “[player opening box] so tell us about you”.
3. If today’s player is anything to go by, I can’t help but feel the casting team have casted ‘characters’ which is a bit annoying.
4. I’ll echo the sentiments of others but I can’t comprehend the decision to reduce the jackpot of £250k to £100k. It’s not like ITV are low on money – the channel has a returning show year-in-year-out which is willing to give away a million and the offers on Celeb Chase are, at times, astronomical (I remember seeing one recently of £201k). Yes, they’re primetime and DoND is daytime, but you get my point.
5. The box values or ‘money ladder’ so to speak are/is so compact and close to one another. This means offers are the same (watch today’s offers 1 and 2 to see what I mean, these offers also quite bamboozling given how the respective rounds went). It’s as if the amounts are set up so that in the very unlikely event that £100k, £75k, £50k, £25k and £10k all go in Round 1, you might as well stick on a repeat of Pointless or some cheap BBC daytime show because the money up for grabs on those shows are in the ballpark of what you’ll be getting on that day’s DoND.
Something I’m a bit neutral about:
– Stephen explaining the rules (even if just one or two at a time) at what felt like an excessive rate. I get why they’ve done it (to attract viewers who haven’t seen the show before, might not know the format, might hate Noel Edmonds, might think C4 is garbage, that sort of thing), but, surely, the majority of the show’s audience has seen the exact same format before (bar the weird 3-box offer which looks to be a permanent fixture so make of that what you will) so don’t necessarily need the rules explained to them by SM a few times over.
Phew. Rant over.
More to dislike than like I’m afraid – 5/10 – not must-watch by any means and I can’t see me sticking around for the whole 20 eps but, yeah, they’re my thoughts.
This probably reminded me more of what used to annoy me about the show rather than what I loved about it, and the lowering of the jackpot feels like it has really affecting things – especially with that opening offer after an all blue round.
Stephen Mulhern though is a very safe choice for it and as much as I like him I think a safe choice is probably the wrong choice here, but obviously it’s his first episode so have to take that into account. I just don’t think he injected much life into proceedings.
The use of a good safe choice like Mulhern ultimately serves to show how much DoND UK stood out for not taking safe choices. This was largely a very good ethos up to the point when the host made it painfully, regulator-baitingly clear he thought the contestants should follow suit.
Despite all the personnel and music retention, the revival just feels like another ITV daytime game show. Is DoND UK with the edges filed off actually good? Probably, but it can never be great. And DoND UK at its best was great even (especially?) when it was also teeth-grindingly infuriating.
£2100 for taking 5 blues in the opening round is quite frankly embarrassing
Feels like Deal or No Deal on daytime ITV for better or worse. It’s fine but doesn’t reinvigorate the format.
Losing the £250k hurts it, especially coupled with a decade plus of inflation. Unlike most game shows, a major part of Deal is the value of money to people – that’s less interesting when people are playing for relatively modest amounts.
I thought it was fine, Mulhern decent and Banker banter decent but despite quite a fortunate first game, at no point did I think it was electric television.
Opening offers ridiculously silly, you had the opportunity to make a statement with that first offer, which nobody is going to take anyway, and you blew it a bit really – if there’s another good round you don’t need to go up much but it’s really easy to get drama from the crash and you only need one box to go to make it happen. With such a compressed board you’ve got to take any opportunity for drama. And then the £17,500 offer was far too generous, 90% are taking that without a second thought and she especially was.
So it’s a bit frustrating really, within the confines of the board the very first episode offered opportunities – which probability suggests won’t be happening very often! – and nobody really capitalised on it.
Sorry to say I didn’t particularly enjoy Mulhern’s performance – as Brekkie suggests, it was all a bit cookie cutter presentation and definitely lacked the zany charm of Noel moving things along.
On the plus side, the main font is a lot nicer than Eurostile.
2.4m for episode one – extremely successful launch. I don’t think it will hold though.
Wow that’s really good for a daytime slot especially when most people are working and won’t be home to watch it. I bet that figure will be higher when you add it to those that watched on catch up which i would imagine will be around an extra 1M. Keep us updated with figures when you get them please
2.4 has absolutely shocked me, I never thought it would do north of a million let alone 2 so well done.
There is lots to like about this version. Stephen is a good pick for a show like this and a safe choice. They have cast some great contestants with personality which is important when you see them day after day.
The banter with the banker was good.
However the main issue which I thought would be the case is that board. I echo what others have said, there was points where offers should have been much better, but it is not being played with the sort of freeness the Channel4 version was, it feels very restrictive and confined to hit certain budgets.
Does anyone know if the board on the celebrity ones is the same?
Surely going primetime and with celebs over Christmas they can’t have offers around the 2-6k when the board dictates so much more.
The Banker’s choices of doubling the offer after a big red gets hit might be the unanticipated ingenious bit of the puzzle.
My brother during today’s show: “Where did they get this Banker, Wilko?”
So true – offers have been way off playing more to the average than the risk. Even above average at the end today, even if for a small amount.
1.9m for ep 2. 2.3m for the last fifteen minutes (vs 2.9m on Monday).
Churn to be expected after a sensational start, so the question now is where is the level going to be?
A bit of a drop on Monday then still respectable considering the time slot. The extra viewers in the last 15 minutes was probably waiting for The Chase to start hence the increase. I’m sure the combined figure once calculated to the amount that watched on catch up will shoot it right up. I think it’s level will be 1.8M as an overnight figure with an increase to 2.2-2.4M after catch up figures are added
No. Catch-up figure for daytime is very small, single-digit thousands. There will be some interest with the relaunch, but like every relaunch “Oh! It’s Deal or No Deal!” soon becomes “oh, it’s Deal or No Deal.”
Maybe so then you clearly know more than me about viewing data! with it being new to daytime i would have expected a bigger increase. It’s doing well at the moment even with the drop if it continues to perform well over the next week or so i can see it getting a second series with probably an increase on episodes from 20 – 40 or 50
Episode 3 held at 1.9m. Good result.
Great news pleased it’s held, Glad it’s doing well it deserves the figure it’s getting. if it was a prime-time show i imagine the figure may rise more hint hint ITV!
2.1m for this yesterday, think I’m just going to have to concede it’s held up way better than anticipated, fair play.
Thanks for keeping us informed of these figures. This is doing so good i did have a feeling that this had something special about it and it proves adding a change to their schedule really helps and benefits viewing figures. Honestly really enjoying this reboot it’s far better than the original by a long mile i do wish the £250K was there though.
Thanks to Little Timmy Halbert, Harvey’s Stat-o-Matic has been updated. Knock yourselves out:
https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/cellar/dornd.htm
Anyone know how many celebrity specials of Deal Or No Deal were made please ? Is it just the one christmas special airing on the 17th December or are there more over the festive period ?
Two weeks in, I think we’ve found the pattern:
17-box: about £1,000
14-box: about £2,500
11-box: about £4,000
8-box: about £6,000
5-box: about 18% of the top box
3-box: about 80% about the mean
2-box: about 90% the mean, unless the final boxes are crap than slightly above the mean.
It does not seem to matter a great deal if big money goes at any point.
On the edge of my seat today. Such a amazing game so happy for him biggest win of the series so far. Any ideas on viewing figures for this week has it held at round 1.9M – 2.4M ? or has it dropped ?
Held around 2.
Thanks that’s pretty good going. I’m rather impressed with how well it’s performed if it keeps this up i can see an extended second series coming on!
Do u know how many celeb specials are we expecting ? Is it just a christmas one or is there a new year one as well ?
Two were filmed as far as I know.
Much appreciated thank you 🙂
BTW Jeopardy start New Years Day.
Numbers for this sticking resolutely around 1.9-2.0m two weeks in. Well done everyone!
Yeah, I was on the side of “OK, it’s started well but it’ll drop off quickly”, but it’s definitely found its level and ITV will probably be acceptably happy with it. I’m surprised; your arguments were convincing. People really must like Mulhern an awful lot. Fair enough. Plenty of decent names have had vehicle shows that haven’t landed.
I was idly wondering whether it could be done within ITV’s budget to make the board a bit sharper. You’d have to make the blues a bit more comedy – I like the idea of making the bottom two blues “FORFEIT” (and I’m not thinking of anything too crazy here, more like a You Bet! experience day forfeit or a funny costume rather than anything messy or painful) and -£1, and introduce a couple of boxes with low-value physical prizes, perhaps changing for each contestant. Then the red side could be something like 500 – 750 – 1k – 3k – 5k – 10k – 20k – 30k – 50k – 100k – 250k. Sure, the arithmetic mean goes up a bunch, but the geometric mean and most of the other traditional metrics probably don’t move by more than 10% and I wouldn’t imagine that the Banker’s offers would actually move that much from that of the ITV show in practice. I imagine people remember the existence of the 250k, the 100k and the concept of a power five, and don’t remember the other specifics.
Mmm… that’s lined up unexpectedly on my screen. In case it’s unclear, I am suggesting the second bottom box being minus one pound.
2.3m yesterday, I’m told. Incredible.
What really! That’s better than some prime-time shows do.
Just when i thought the series had nearly finished leaving us wanting more commissioned we are getting treated to a further episode in the new year of Deal Or No Deal : Celeb Specials on Sunday 7th January at 7pm. whether it’s just the second of two eps like you previously mentioned to me or if there is anymore filmed and in the can ready to be aired is TBC. Don’t know about you but i’m buzzing the more the better
where did you find this out thanks daniel
In the new schedules. Last early release before christmas
Series over, avg prize £6k, a hit’s a hit and clearly I was wrong in initial analysis, job done, well done.
It’s a shame the tactics were a bit predictable and samey (£1k/2/4/6-ish/20%/around mean) but worked regardless and that there weren’t many big risks really. Still though. I don’t think anyone won anything really decent without bringing a large box to the table – no “you sold a 10p box for £50,000!” moments, but to be fair big amounts were coming to the table pretty regularly.
Do u know yet how many viewers the celeb christmas special got please ?