Skip to main content

No Big "Deal"

So, I was sitting in the airport in Aspen, waiting for the plane that would take me back to Los Angeles, when what comes on CNBC? Deal or No Deal, of all things. Everyone who reads this blog knows of my confusion about this show. But, desperate to understand what thrall Howie Mandel and a bunch of silver briefcases seem to hold on viewers, I decided to watch. (Plus I couldn't get the airline staff to change the channel.)

Purportedly an "international sensation," Deal or No Deal is one hell of a bizarre show. Basically, the rules are this: a contestant chooses one of 26 numbered briefcases, which may contain dollar amounts between $.01 and $1,000,000. Their selection remains closed on their podium. Still with me? In each round, the contestant then chooses a certain number of other briefcases(starting with five), each of which is opened to reveal a dollar amount which is then removed from the board (because the original suitcase could not contain those amounts). At the end of each round, the mysterious "banker" calls on a phone, which follically-challenged host Howie Mandel (?) answers as the stage goes shockingly red. The banker offers an amount of money to "buy" the original briefcase, based on the likelihood of how high that dollar amount might be. The contestant can choose "deal" or "no deal" (hence the clever name). If they choose "deal," then they accept the banker's offer and either made a good decision (if the money in the chosen briefcase was lower than the offer) or a bad one (if it were higher). If they choose "no deal," then they can choose another briefcase or three to open.

Sound confusing? It is.

It's also the first gameshow that I can think of that is based purely on luck. There's no skill or intelligence needed to win Deal or No Deal, other than maybe the ability to count up to 26 and deal with Howie Mandel's lame jokes. Who Wants to be a Millionaire, I get. The Weakest Link with its overly cruel British host Anne Robinson, I get. But Deal or No Deal, with its endless briefcases and forced suspense, is just a ghastly display of how far gameshows have sunk. Is it a gambling show? Perhaps. Perhaps we at home are expected to live vicariously through these people as they maybe, just maybe, might walk away with a cool million if they hold instead of folding.

Is it meant to be enciting and dramatic, like roulette or blackjack? (I think that's the intent, anyway.) While every now and then a ticker with the percentages may pop up on screen telling the audience at home the chances of $1M being contained in the briefcase, perhaps in an attempt to make us think that there is something akin to Vegas oddsmanship going on here, in the end, Deal or No Deal is just about some sap randomly picking numbered briefcases, which are then opened by comely female models a la Wheel of Fortune's letter-turner Vanna White.

To that I say: no deal.

What’s On Tonight

8 pm: Survivor: Panama--Exile Island (CBS); The Biggest Loser (NBC); One Tree Hill (WB); George Lopez/Freddie (ABC); Bones (FOX); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Beauty & the Geek (WB); Lost (ABC); American Idol/The Loop (FOX); Veronica Mars (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Invasion (ABC)

What I’ll Be Watching

9 pm: Veronica Mars.

Praise Jesus, Vishnu, and whomever you like. Veronica Mars is finally back with new episodes, after a painfully long hiatus. In tonight's episode ("Versatile Toppings"), Veronica has to uncover a blackmailer who is extorting money from in-the-closet teens and threatens to out them on an online bulletin board. Guest starring Laguna Beach's Kristin Cavallari, if you're into that sort of thing. Meanwhile, will we inch closer to solving any of the many mysteries of the season? For the love of god, Rob Thomas, give us some clue to the solution of the bus crash mystery. Or at least some more Cassidy/Mac love.

Thankfully, Lost is a repeat this week, which will give me some time to catch up on the programs burning a hole in my TiVo. Still haven't seen last night's Amazing Race, so that might be where I start. Everything else can sit on the backburner for a bit.

As for The Loop, I've heard mixed things about it, but I might check out the first episode just to see. Plus, I am a sucker for anything with Phillip Baker Hall in it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
re: Deal or no Deal. I could barely sit through the commercials. Now that I actually know how it works, I am flummoxed at its mild success. Wasn't Press Your Luck essentially a pure, um, luck show? There wasn't any skill involved on that show, right?

VM - yippee!!!
Jace Lacob said…
I will second your yippee for the return of Veronica Mars!

As for Deal or No Deal, it needs to be seen to be believed. I don't usually believe in cruel or unusual punishment, but that's what this is. And yet the ratings are solid gold.

Popular posts from this blog

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj