At the end of last season, we lost Deal or No Deal in prime time after watching the ratings tank. The cause of its decline has been attributed to an overdose of gimmicks, scheduling problems, a combination of the two, or something else completely. Now it seems there's a chance we may lose the daytime version as well.There are rumors swirling that production was halted before all of the episodes for this season were completed, and the possibility that the show will move away from its new home in Connecticut. Then there are the whispers that the show will likely not continue past this season at all. What's fueling all of this?
If you look at the ratings, they were never stellar but usually encouraging for a new syndicated game show. Deal or No Deal normally sits just above Family Feud, but below Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Take a look at the ratings for the week ending November 15, 2009, however. All of the other game shows were up, except for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, which stayed the same, and Deal or No Deal, which lost 8% of its viewers.
Now, before jumping to conclusions, consider that Deal hit a season high the week prior, and the following week gained back 6% of their viewership. So they're not doing as badly as some people think.
Still, the rumors persist. It doesn't help that recent theme weeks haven't really had the payoff that might have been expected. We had a Family Reunion themed week, as well as Nurses week. Neither of these produced a big winner. There was an "infrared case" week where we got to see where the big money cases were, and that had potential. Still, no big winners. Finally, the audience participation idea could have been a good one, but it fell completely flat when none of the audience members actually got to play the game.
Is Deal or No Deal in danger of all-out cancellation? Possibly. With roller-coaster ratings and reported scheduling changes across the country, it could happen.
What intrigues me about Deal or No Deal is that it is by far the biggest draw when it comes to people who want to be on the show. I get volumes of e-mail from people looking for information on how to be a contestant every single day. But these same people don't seem to be watching the show at all. How is this possible? Many of them aren't even aware that the prime time version is no longer airing.
Deal has always had potential to be a long-term game, especially in prime time. Now, it seems that we may be in danger of losing it completely in any format. If you were able to step in and take control of the show, what would you do to rescue and revive it? Is it too late to breathe new life into the game, or can it be salvaged?
Photo courtesy NBC
Comments
In my opinion the Syndicated Deal or No Deal isn’t very fun to watch. I always think about how the prime time Deal or No Deal was so epic because it gave away so much money; real life changing amounts of money. I occasionally watch “Deal” in syndication and the prime time reruns on GSN but it’s sort of a boring show. It’s the same thing every time, at least in trivia based game shows you get new questions.
I would really like to get on Deal too, who wouldn’t? it’s easy money, no trivia just saying case numbers.
If I were the people in charge I would put the syndication on hiatus after this season finishes and also stop any network from reruning the prime time version. After waiting a couple of months with no Deal or No Deal I’d bring it back to Prime Time late in the fall season as a once weekly installment, probably on Friday nights. Then I would pull it off the schedule early; so it would premier late in the season with much fan fare and leave quietly. I think the key to keeping Deal afloat is to not allow it to be seen too much or else people get bored with the tired format… If juggling it around in Prime Time still didn’t work I’d put it in syndication, but I wonder if there’s some way of making it so it only airs once a week like before and keep it as the same format (1,000,000 dollars, models, no deal wheel, Except a half hour)
You can’t simply take it out of syndication and then put it back in. Doesn’t work that way (and for that matter, you don’t get to decide if NBC wants you back in prime time…clearly they don’t). Pull it out of syndication because the ratings are tanking, and no one is going to buy it if you try to put it back in to the market–no one.
I, too, find the format deathly dull. A novelty in a stunt format quickly became tedious and pointless. No skill, no knowledge, no nothing but random guesses. Perhaps not quite as bad as the stupid light stick game show on ABC, but quite close.
Maybe this is just as much gas as the format had. It happens.
I stopped watching the show when it got away from its original version. When a show is good, they ought to leave it alone. It was so ridiculous when they would put 10 $1,000,000 cases on the board. The show was thrilling with only one $1,000,000 case. We did not need all of the gimmicks.
I’m not a big Deal or No Deal fan. So I’m not that sad to see it go south.
But what does sadden me about Deal is that the show-runners and NBC execs learned nothing from how ABC sent Millionaire down the toilet…in fact, they pretty much followed the ABC playbook in killing a cash cow.
Deal or No Deal could still be in primetime today if NBC hadn’t used it to fill every weak spot in their lineup (and there are many!). And they abused Million Dollar cases like ABC abused celebrities.
I don’t believe DoND can last forever…Jason S. is right: it can get pretty dull. But if had been handled properly, NBC could have gotten a few more years out of it and maybe game shows could have been a viable alternative to, I dunno, stripping Jay Leno at 10.
The good news is, they ARE improving. It lasted longer than Weakest Link.
Honestly, I think DoND’s best shot at survival is to let the syndicated show die, let it incubate for a couple of years, then lease the format to state lotteries.
Mmm. PowerBall and Mega Millions are actually considering joining forces (not a total merger, they plan to work it where you can buy either one in any of the states that they serve). It would make more sense to give it to them.
I used to be a fan of the show and quite watching it a long time ago because each episode drags out way too long. Way too many commercial breaks just to open 1 more case when they come back. I also agree that the show airs much too frequently which has added to the boredom. I don’t know if this show is savable, but I would start be taking off all of the re-runs!