My god, this show is awful. How can anybody stand it? Greedy, stupid contestants guessing suitcases? This is supposed to be entertaining? The premise is dumb enough but they make it even worse by milking every decision for like 20 minutes. Constantly interrupting with that stupid “banker” gag, interviewing moronic relatives, playing the “suspenseful” Who Wants to be a Millionaire? music etc. The only reason to watch is the futile hope that one of these grinning imbeciles will go home empty handed but the show unfortunately seems to be designed so that the players always sell out on a bank offer before they have any real chance of getting skunked.
And Howie Mandel is an embarrassment.
Why is this thing a hit? Is this really where America is at when it comes to taste in television? This thing is all but unwatchable.
Also…the bimbos with the suitcases. Why do they always have to make faces or run their mouths off when they open the stupid cases? They’re all desperately trying to get some extra attention. It’s like they all think Steven Spielberg is going to be watching at home and suddenly sit up in his chair crying out “Who is that girl? I must have her in my next movie.”
Just open the stupid cases and and keep your mouths shut, you department store mannequins. If you actually had any talent you wouldn’t be there.
Yes, it’s truly horrendous. I ranted about it in an earlier thread, but can’t remember where.
What can I say. People are stupid. I was just channel surfing, thinking to myself, “There’s just nothing but SHIT out there.” Even Discovery and the History Channel have sunk to new lows.
Thank gawd for my DVD player and VCR. If only I could afford Tivo …
The thing I really don’t understand is why the creators of Deal or No Deal think it’s a good idea to give the players, and I use that term in the loosest possible sense, about thirty seconds to yell “YEAAAAAHHH!!” every time they feel like they picked a desirable case. No other game show has this yelling. Is Deal or No Deal allowing the contestants to express a primal, more natural state of humanity by allowing them to exult over the revelation that their case does not contain $100? Does Jeopardy stifle the bestial urge toward roaring and chest-beating by denying its players a moment or several to trumpet their triumph after every correct response?
I was over at a friend’s house a few weeks ago and, as often happens in these cases, we ended up watching the lowest common denominator-- Deal or No Deal. We turned it on about 10 minutes after it started, and it took us a looooooong time to figure out what the rules were. Man, this is one stupid game. No skill, just dumb luck.
But, the chicks are hot, Hot, HOT! Maybe that’s it. I was wondering if they put the least amount of money with the hottest chicks as a decoy. Anyway, my on-screen guide shows a 2-hr show tonight. Is that special or is it always 2 hrs?
Some woman led the audience in a chant tonight that was almost excruciating to watch.
I also wonder why they always have to confer with tehir half-wit relatives over which numbers they should pick. It’s not like there’s any conceivable strategy or reasoning that can be employed. It’s completely random.
John Mace, it’s usually only an hour. I think they stretched it to two tonight as counter-programming to the NCAA Finals.
I dunno, the question of whether to take a deal or not makes for an interesting exercise in probability theory. But the contestants are such idiots that I find it too painful to watch.
You can’t entirely blame America for this one. Several countries have had their own hit versions before the virus spread to us, including Britain. I don’t know where it originated, though.
Now, the hour-long infomercial series that is The Apprentice, on the other hand, is 100% Made in America. Frankly, I don’t know which show is more of an insult to my intelligence.
I watch it because there’s little else on, and I love watching greedy bastards get screwed. Some lady brought her whole damn church choir with her, and left with $5 or so. Priceless.
I was fascinated with it for a few viewings, but disillusionment set in and now I can’t watch it. My problem with the show is twofold: 1) the banker always lowballs the offers to a ridiculous degree, driving the contestants to continue guessing (for ex., if the average value of all the cases is $117,000, with none having been opened, his initial bid will be in the mid-twenties, which isn’t tempting to even the hardest of the hard-luck contestants.). His offers don’t approximate the average value of the remaining cases until very few cases are left; and 2) few of the contestants seem to have any understanding of the odds and possible strategies involved, making decisions based on either their own whim or those of their family.
The contestants always get a lift out of uncovering the low values very early on in the game, but that’s not unalloyed good news for them. While preferable to opening the largest-value cases, the banker’s offers begin to go up sharply when low figures get knocked off after at least half of the cases have already been opened, and for that to happen, you need to have some of them still on the board when entering the final rounds. Reveal too many of those low figures early on, and you’ve cooked your own goose, but the contestants I’ve seen didn’t seem to understand that.
I have yet to see anyone get screwed, though my patience has only had the strength to endure two contestants. Even the desire to see these people, who wouldn’t even survive the first round of Hollywood Squares, crash and burn can’t compel me to sit through the whole two hours of this show. Even the audience seems below average (in too many senses to name); their shoutings and gesturings make me long for the crowd from The Price is Right, of all things.
Also, does anyone know what the “deal” is with the six cases they always show before commercials and you have to send them a text message for a chance to win $20,000? The announcer says there’s a $1 fee. Does this fee go directly to NBC, or what? Certainly more than 20,000 people will enter the guessing game. It would be like printing money.
There’s something wrong with the AI in that game. I was down to 3 cases including my own, they were $200,000 , $400,000 , and $750,000. The banker offered me $150,000. WTF? I was guaranteed at least $200,000. I didn’t take the deal of course and picked the case with $750,000 in it :rolleyes:. The offer didn’t even change, so I rejected it and left with my $200,000 case. Maybe there’s an offer limit of $150,000.
My son and I visited my parents who were wintering in Spain last year. Despite not speaking a word of the language, this was my dad’s favourite show and we watched it every day trying to figure it out. Seeing it in English and actually understanding what is going on has made it suck for him. Sometimes it’s better not to understand.
This was a special, trying desperately to siphon off an audience from the playoffs.
My wife and I actaully enjoy the show. While there is no possible strategy in picking specific cases to open, there is some decision-making involved in figuring how far to press your luck based on what’s left available. The low probability that you will beat the banker’s offer becomes the lower probability that you will knock out those higher amounts if you refuse it. It speaks to peoples’ gambling instinct.
The lights, music, tits (What, are you going to tell me that Vanna White has served a practical purpose all this time?), jokes, and fake suspense are all just there to make more attractive television out of a fairly simple concept.
The show’s a hit because it’s simple (come on, it you don’t get it in 10 minutes, you’re pretty dense), requires no skill, appeals to greed, and gets the audience involved. I watch it to observe human behavior, especially contestants who have no concept of rational decision-making. And, of course, I enjoyed watching meltdowns.
