Deal or No Deal? Online

So here's the format: There are random boxes containing cash awards that the contestant eliminates one by one. Occasionally a phone will ring which the presenter answers and then offers the contestant cash to drop out now (the call was from 'the banker', rhyming slang perhaps?). The offers are poor at the start, until there are only a few boxes left. And that's it, no intelligence required.

How anyone can watch this is beyond me, but to make it worse it's hosted by the retard pandering king himself, the excreable Noel Edmonds. I can't watch him without the hair on the back of my neck standing up. So smug, so slimy and insincere.

This is THE worst thing on TV, bar none.

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!

Noel Edmonds returns as host of this new spin on the tired gameshow genre. Instead of using questions to test a contestants knowledge, the show uses a series of random boxes to test the players luck and nerve.

The programme when watched for the first time seems to be an interesting new idea that has not been done before. Its not until you watch a few of these episodes that you realise how tedious it can be. All that seems to happen is a rather annoying contestant chooses boxes by calling out numbers and seeing which amount is inside. After a week of this you suddenly realise how boring it is compared to other gameshows.

In other gameshows the viewer is able to 'take part' by shouting answers at the TV screen. Here all the viewer can do is to watch and become increasingly bored.

A good idea, maybe for a one off programme. I do not think it will last long though.

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!!

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.

22 contestants stand with 22 red boxes in front of them. The computer selects one at random and he or she must come to the front of the others with their box. They must then select boxes from the remaining 21 to try and identify which ones has the smaller amounts of money to eliminate them while keeping the location of the big money in play until the end. At times here and there a mystery banker will call in to try and convince the contestant to sell him their box for a certain amount of money – to which the contestant must decide whether to "deal" and take the money or "no deal" and keep playing for more money.

I glanced at the viewing figures over the Christmas period and noticed that, at a time of a year with loads of films and television events on the box, that "Deal or No Deal" won the highest ratings on Channel 4. Confused I decided to watch a show to get a grip on what about this show was making it so well watched. After a short time I realised that this was very much just a big game of chance dressed up as something suspenseful, skillful and tactical. This dressing seems to be enough for many viewers but I just found it amazingly dull; each decision is delivered slowly and occasionally talked through but really it doesn't matter what number is "lucky" or who's birthday they represent, it essentially comes down to luck and being aware of the odds. It does confuse me that it should do so well on afternoon TV given that it follows Countdown – a show that is the exact opposite and requires a real word power.

It is to the credit of the producers that they manage to stretch it out for over 30 minutes and keep a reasonable air of suspense – again, not enough for me but it is obvious that it grips some viewers. They use the music well and the cameras are slightly wobbly and mobile giving the show the slight feel of a cop drama rather than a studio quiz show. A lot rests on the shoulders of Noel Edmonds and he tries hard but cannot convince with so little to work with. He talks about keeping it positive and he works the contestants well, stressing the need for them to do something (although they can only open the box in front of them). He says that he likes their style, likes what they are thinking, likes what they are doing etc; he does well to keep the mood of tension in the studio but to me it just seemed like he was desperately flogging a dead horse. His conversations with the banker are the weirdest thing I've seen in a quiz – we can only hear his side of the conversation and he then gets to build the offer up tension-wise, however he wants; it is just a little weird and false.

The whole show feels quite low rent and I do give credit where credit is due, because the producers have managed to squeeze so much tension out of it. Personally I just found all the talk of tactics etc to be pointless because the whole show is based on luck and a very small amount of playing the odds; for me it was only this latter section that was of interest but it made up so little of the show to be not worth the effort. So despite topping the Channel 4 ratings, I just can't see the fuss. Noel Edmonds seems to be really enjoying himself and be totally enthralled by every move the contestants make but this all exists in his head and, despite trying really hard, he just couldn't make me care about a series of rolls of the dice.

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.

This pointless rubbish just involves random opening of boxes - there's no skill involved. When I watched the first episode, I was expecting that they'd move onto something better in later rounds, but it was the same boring thing throughout the show. I've never watched another episode.

'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.

I really really really hate this show. Whenever my gran has to stay for a while in our house, we always have to put this on for her as she LOVES it which is torture and horrible. I used to love this when i was young and it was only new on the television but i just got bored of it after watching it a year.

Noel Edmounds is just so annoying and stupid, he isn't even a proper host. Its like, they just picked him because he was in Top of the Pops years ago but didn't see the quality in hiring him as a proper host. They might as well have picked Terry Wogan or someone younger to properly host the show. Noel is just a complete rubbish host!

The contestants look too smiley, they look like they really hate being part of the show. You can know well by looking at their expressions on their faces that they don't really like being there! The way they act by participating on this show with excitement is just chronic and you would honestly feel sorry for them!

Also the audience really look dead and don't seem to give the game have a good vibe. Normally in game shows, the audience really bring light to the game show but this didn't happen at this particular one which is very disappointing.

I still cant believe its still on television, I honestly wish it was taken off our television screens on Channel 4 or have the whole show rebooted with a properly new host, new set, enlightened audience and better contestants who truly want to be there.

At the time of writing this comment, The UK version of Deal or no deal has just passed its 2,500 show, which is extraordinary, For a show which has contestants needing no skill whatsoever (despite what Noel Edmonds may say to ratchet up the tension) All this is, is a game of luck, nothing more nothing less, but it's incredibly addictive and while coming up to 5 years since it started, it may have lost it's edge and may not be the must watch evening telly it was a when it started, it's still one of the most watched shows on Channel 4, and there's no end in sight.

When this started I gave this a few weeks before the Axe would fall (as did the National Press at the time) it just goes to show how a Game which requires no intelligence whatsoever has become a National Institution of sorts - which at one point (And it may still have) a waiting list of over a Year to appear on it!

***1/2 out of *****

When 'Deal on no deal' was first mentioned in the National press before it started in 2005, they were very sceptical as was I, about how a 45 minute show, with just a contestant picking red boxes at random would be much of a hit, but here we are close to 4 years later, the show which stated in the Netherlands is now practically everywhere in the world very much like BBC's The Weakest Link,

There is no skill to this game - and I wish Noel Edmonds would stop banging on about....'How well you're playing the game' & 'psychological game of cat and mouse with the banker'

IT'S PICKING BOXES FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!

But I have to say I, like many others am addicted

22 people, 22 sealed boxes with 22 different cash prizes, and no questions but one, deal or no deal? The last time I saw BAFTA and National Television Award nominated Noel Edmonds was probably with the awful Mr. Blobby, but this "return" is a really good programme for him to do. Basically a contestant from 22 is chosen at random, he/she has a numbered box (1-22) chosen at random. Basically the contestant has to ask the other contestants to open all boxes one by one, and make sure they get the lowest amounts coloured blue. The highest amount available is £250,000. Along the way, a dealer who rings on the phone gives the contestant a cash offer to that they may want to deal on (the meaning of the title). If they choose to carry on, they go with whatever boxes they are left with till the final amount, and if they deal a certain amount, they go away with that. It is quite nerve-wracking, but a really good teatime game show. It won the National Television Award for Most Popular Daytime Programme. Noel Edmonds was number 26 on TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Very good!