We tuned-in in the middle of this show (for the very forst time) and we were clueless! What the heck is going on? Can someone explain how the game is played? Also, why is Howie Mandel always on his cell phone…and most importantly, what happened to all his hair? - Jinx
Probably would have helped to start from the beginning of the show… but the game (in a nutshell)
There are 26 suitcases (and 26 lovely ladies 1 assigned to each suitcase 
). Inside each suitcase is a dollar amount ranging from $.01-$1,000,000.
The game starts with the contestant picking 1 suitcase (For purposes of this example we’ll say case #1.)
With Case #1 beside them, the contestant then starts picking suitcases. Inside each suitcase is a dollar amount, whatever is in suitcases 2-26 is obviously NOT what is in Case #1.
After each round after the contestant has picked a certain # of suitcases (It starts with 6 then 5, etc) the “Banker” calls Howie Mandel and offers to buy Case #1 for a certain dollar amount. The contestant, based on the dollar amount’s still available to win can either sell it to the banker for the amount offered or continue to eliminate prize dollar amounts.
The idea is that you want to try to sell your case for much more money than its worth. The banker trying to buy it for less than its worth to prevent paying you a higher prize. For example… after eliminating several of the cases through many rounds… the big board shows possible prizes of $1 $5, $500, $1,000, $25,000, $500,000. The banker will call Howie and offer you, say… $20,000 to sell your suitcase to him. If you say deal, you win $20,000 (At which point Howie opens your suitcase and reveals if you made a good deal, your case had #1 or you made a bad deal, your case had $500,000)
The prizes eliminated is nearly all luck… but when it gets down to picking one case at a time an element of odds/logic plays into it a little bit. Again, using my scenario… I’d totally reject that deal. Even if I pick the $25,000 case my deal will probably go up, so even though I probably don’t have the $500,000 case I’m not likely to pick it… making the bankers offer increase an dmy prize amount go up. The rub being that on the offchance I do pick the $500,000 case I’m totally screwed.
It’s a pretty fun show. My wife and I each pick a case and play our own home version where we bet each other chores- but thats a whole other long post of different rules.
Play it for yourself on NBCs website here.
It’s a show you only need to watch once, since each game is EXACTLY the same. Unfortunately NBC’s contingency plan for the strike is to air it every night, since there is no writing involved.
I believe this was also the gameshow that invented the “piss off the contestant by going to commercial” which every modern gameshow host seems to be using now…
It’s Let’s Make a Deal boiled down to it’s essential elements: he gives you something, then makes progressively more lucrative offers to buy it away from you. The only difference I could see the time I watched was the element of random chance.
I think credit for that may go to American Idol and Ryan Seacrest.
It might be an interesting show if this actually happened - if the player and the banker could negotiate over the price. But in reality all that happens is the banker makes an offer, which is always significantly lower than the statistical value of the case, and the player can take it or leave it.
He shaves it so he doesn’t have an old man fringe. He doesn’t want to be old.
They’ve got suitcases?
You aren’t the only one. I can’t make sense of this show at all, despite everyone else’s insistence that it’s perfectly straightforward.
Saturday Night Live did a good parody of the show’s utter inscrutability.
I keep waiting for the inflated latex glove on the head gag
In the UK version, the people with the boxes are the future contestants. After everyone has a box, the first thing decided is who will be today’s playing contestant who then goes on to play and depart and is replaced. You could be on that show for weeks before you get your turn, and then you may walk away with 10 pence or some crappy amount like that. Not a quiz show I’ve ever wanted to apply to…
They eliminated the models? WTF? They’re the only good thing on the show.
In fact, scratch my earlier suggestion about having the players haggle with the dealer. I have a much better idea to improve the show. We eliminate the suitcases. Before the show each model has a prize amount temporarily tattooed on some portion of her body and when the player picks their number they have to strip down to reveal what prize they had.