Deal or No Deal/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Game Breaker: The Nintendo DS version has no randomization for the first round.
  • Hate Dumb / Misplaced Nationalism: The American version was disparaged simply because "They "Copied" the British." Problem is, DOND is a Dutch format.
  • Heartwarming Moments:
    • Any time a genuinely nice contestant goes home with as much as he needed (or more).
    • Any time the Banker decides to be nice for once.
    • On the British version, any time the contestants encourage their new friends.
  • Hype Backlash: Deal or No Deal could be the posterboy for this in the United States. It being so aggressively promoted by NBC and aired so frequently lead to its quick downfall; people just got tired of it.
  • Padding: The NBC run might as well have been Padding: The Game Show. Seriously, did it really have to take 44 minutes to pick out 12 cases?! The syndicated run improved in this department with a more fast-paced game.
    • A YouTube user chopped out the filler in the January 3, 2007 show, and got an episode just 2:47 long. Need further proof the show wasted time?
    • The show seems to actually speed up the game and avoid the trope when the contestant has knocked out all the big money amounts off the board. Once the contestant isn't going to win a big amount of money, the game suddenly starts to pick up the pace to get rid of the contestant.
    • The 200th episode special completely averted the trope by rapid picking each case (Howie picked each case and then the contestant would pick cases on their own after a certain amount were left) and then knocking all the money amounts chosen at the same time instead of one by one. No phone calls to the Banker were ever made, opting to show the offer right away and giving the contestant 20 seconds to make a decision. The whole purpose behind the change was, of course, a stunt — if the show gave away at least $1,000,000 that night, the Banker would dive into a cake made to celebrate the 200th episode; if not, Howie would jump into the cake instead. The goal wasn't reached.
    • Proof if proof were needed that game had a lot padding is that, on the U.S. version, recordings of a single player's game could take upwards of 8 hours. 8 hours. For one contestant. For a 45 minute show.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Removing the family members, whose basic purpose on the NBC version was just to shout, "You're a risk taker!!!! No deal!!!!" and give bad advice, made the game run a lot more smoothly.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Oh, boy.
    • The syndicated run took a great element of the British one (prospective contestants holding the 22 cases) and took away the one thing about it that makes the Brit take on the format great. On the British version, those holding the boxes stay on the show until they're chosen by the producers — which may be days, weeks or even months — and in the meantime the group becomes like a family (as can be seen in virtually any episode); in the syndicated version, however, each week was self-contained...until the very end, at which point They Just Didn't Care anymore and taped four weeks with the same group which then aired Out of Order.
    • The Dutch original's 2011 series. They dropped the "block versus block" part of the quiz, and instead the top player from each block comes down and plays against another player in a survey question, with the closest answer going through. The third round works a bit like the British game show Number 1, and it works fine, but the greatest atrocity committed comes in the briefcase game. They've dropped having the players from the winning block open the briefcases and make predictions for cash, and now the models themselves have been given the task. A major sting in the tail comes when you realize that almost all the temptations, a major part of the original game, have been removed.
  • They Just Didn't Care: The syndicated run, whose main draw was having each week be self-contained, used the same gallery of 22 contestants for four weeks near the end of the run — which then got aired Out of Order.
  • What an Idiot!: Both those who deal with a safety net still in place, and those who keep going despite the odds, can fall into this category. Indeed, this contestant on the British version is the best example of just what can happen if you deal too early.
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