Deal or No Deal?

There is absolutely no skill in this "gameshow" at all - it is pure luck. Having said that, it is incredibly addictive. Noel Edmonds, finally back on TV after years in the wilderness, hosts this UK version of a game-show that I think originated in Australia, before being sold all over the globe. Channel Four and Endomol (the people behind "Big Brother") bought the concept for the UK market and are showing it some six times a week in the afternoon slot at 4.15pm after the ever-popular "Countdown" show.

The idea is quite simple - 22 numbered boxes (each with a different sum of money ranging from just 1p up to £250,000) and 22 contestants. For each show, one of the contestants is picked at random and comes to the table with his or her box and then has to choose which boxes to open in order, hopefully leaving themselves with the box or boxes that have the most money in right to the end. At set points during the game after opening a certain amount of boxes, the phone rings and Noel talks to the mysterious "banker" (a person whose secret identity is second only to "The Stig" from BBC's "Top Gear" motoring magazine show) and tries to tempt the player to sell their box to him - the question being "Deal" or "No Deal".

As I said before, this is pure luck. Sure, you can try to pick numbers based on birthdays or use odd and even numbers or even try to make a spreadsheet based upon all the shows so far, but ultimately the process is completely random. The only skill involved is taking the money that is offered at the right time and maximising your winnings. No-one has yet won the biggest sum possible - a cool quarter of a million, though there has been one poor guy who walked away with just a penny and another 10p winner, so the key factor is not to be TOO greedy - just do well enough to get a sum of money you are happy with and walk away. It will take a very brave person indeed faced with a choice at the last box to decide whether to accept an offer of £120,000 from the banker or open his box which MIGHT have £250,000 in it, but equally might have only £50. Do you take the £120,000 you've been offered and be grateful, or do you go for the big one and come away with something much smaller? I'd love to go on this show, but after watching so many games unfold I'm still not sure whether I'm a real gambler or a bottler. As soon as I was offered £10K or more, I'd probably walk, even if I had the best game-board possible. Maybe I'd feel differently if I was up there. Somehow, I doubt it. I'm not that greedy - £10K is plenty. I'd love to get on this show!!

I'll admit that I really enjoyed this show. Once. A welcome return for Noel and every game entertaining with the different personalities of the contestants.

Sadly, they've all run out. The show has become a stagnant shadow of its former self, and yet it still continues to run without any sort of break. Where the early shows had the anticipation of whether the quarter million would be won, the media ruined it by printing the first winner several weeks before it was aired, thus eliminating any point in watching this show. It's pure guesswork, that's all it is. And there's too much hype surrounding it even now. I, for one, have lost favour with it.

I wont bore you with details of how this show works. There are plenty of other article's that will give you that information.

I will go onto my personal views on the show.

This show was a great programme when it first started. It was fresh and a novel idea with nothing much like it on TV. I tuned in every day to watch and was stuck to my seat! However, this show has now become tired, boring and predictable. It is more like a problem page show. Everyone has a sob story as to why they "deserve" the money, everyone cries all the time and everyone pretends to like each other. Even though you know they don't! The "Holding hands" and chanting is painful to watch. This is a game of pure luck and although there is nothing wrong with positive thinking, its just stupid. Also why do Players insist on making fools of themselves by trying to guess whats in the box? Like todays player (1st March) was convinced the £100,000 was in her box, she dealt at £20,000 which brings up 2 points a) if you believed it was you wouldn't deal and b) it wasn't, she had 10p! I wonder if they are told to do this.

The banker is the most interesting element of the show and you never see him! Noel Edmonds also has become a bit stale. He is simply running out of things to say and tries to big it up as much as he can but sadly it isn't working anymore.

A problem is, a bit like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, now the top prize has finally gone, its kind of lost its edge. Why it took so long I don't know but now its happened, the show is not as exciting anymore! Although this show has not been around long, I think the time has come for it to be changed. Maybe a new presenter or rule change I don't know but something needs to be done.

Watch Deal Or No Deal...NO DEAL!

'Deal of No Deal' was for a time the biggest game show on British TV, with people throwing both love on it and scorn at the simplicity of its format at the same time.

That was part of its appeal really. You got to know the players during their time on the show, and genuinely wanted them to go home with big money. Some had systems, some had quirky personalities - it all added to the fun.

But like with all game show formats, it had it's time, and no amount of format tweaking could hide the fact that at the end of the day it was just someone opening boxes.

At the time of writing the show has recently ended, after 11 years. It was fun while it lasted.

MY GOD I HATE THIS SHOW. Where do you start? The presenter: most repellent piece of pond life ever to crawl out onto land. The audience: brain-dead, gibbering apes. The contestants (90% of them): same as the audience. The format: strictly for cretins. No general knowledge or intelligence required, just guesswork. It makes the average game show look like a new version of 'Who Wants To be A Millionaire', with the £100 question at the same level of difficulty as the million pound one. I keep thinking, 'surely this country's sunk as low it it can' - and then something like this comes along. It's a bloody disgrace. If a small meteorite ever hits Earth, one just big enough to destroy a single building, I hope and pray that it lands on the studio where this effluent is being recorded.