Deal or No Deal

According to The Countdown Page, Countdown returns NEXT MONDAY! And will be on at 3:30pm instead of 3:15, but will still be 45 minutes long!

I think though with this series running till June it's way to long!

While the original 3 month standard meant 4 series a year once Countdown took the slot permanently, six months was too long, but not so bad once the cricket came and the equivalent of a month or two of episodes were lost.


I think three four-month series a year be best - I'd have this series run until Easter, then one over the summer with the next beginning in September.

Ads for both Countdown and Deal or No Deal running today.

The Countdown one has the familar them and letters appearing on screen to reveal "Back Monday at 3.30pm". They've not changed the set, but hopefully the titles will change more than just having clips of Des in them instead of Richard Whitely!


The Deal or No Deal ad has a phone ringing, then goes on to suggest you could win £250,000, so not sure if this is implying viewers at home will also be able to play the main game, or perhaps it be a contestant hotline like Millionaire. Anyone know if Deal is going out live or recorded?

They're recording now up to the end of November, so definitely recorded.

There will definitely be a viewer competition. I read £10,000 daily.

But on the weekday version of Deal or no Deal in Australia, on a Friday it's a home contestant who plays the game.

So, if it's a studio day on a Friday, and we all know the host is upto hosting a live show with a home contestant element, then there is no reason why the EndemolUK/Channel 4 version should not have this end of the week twist to the format.

True.

Although it was always my understanding that the Friday show was still recorded but someone was picked out of a hat beforehand who won what the contestant in the studio won.

From Wikipedia, so I can't vouch for the quality:

""Double Deal Fridays" were introduced in the 2005 season of the show. Home viewers were invited to ring a phone number charged at AU$0.55 and register their details. Every Friday, a home viewer was randomly selected to win the same prize as the studio contestant each Friday. The host of the show, Andrew O'Keefe, has mentioned that Double Deal Fridays receive over 100,000 calls each week."

In the Dutch and BElgian episodes I've seen, they actually run several phone competitions in each show, each one lasting about ten minutes.

That is true, but dont make the mistake that home viewers actually play the game as in chosing their briefcases etc. They just phone in for the chance to win whatever the friday contestant does - the studio contestant plays the game just as any other day.

There have been alot of $1 winners on fridays - boy would i be pissed if i phoned in and spent more on the calls than the prize.

I notice they haven't been brave enough to schedule it against The Weakest Link.

That would incur the wrath of Richard and Judy, truly a more terrifying prospect than Anne Robinson.

Anyone know how long Richard and Judy are signed up for?

While Paul O'Grady trounces them in the ratings though, IIRC Richard and Judy had the upper hand against Des and Mel, which returns to ITV1 in the New Year.

At the risk of turning this into a general C4 Daytime thread, it also seems the earlier daytime line up has been rejigged with programming introduced against the extended ITV News, with The Coach Trip and House Auction currently airing from 12.30pm, pushing back the film to 1.30pm - and possibly being the reason why Countdown has been put on later at 3.30pm.

I thought Des and Mel had been axed?

Well no doubt we'll get some..er..new guests on again like er...Joe Pasquale and err..Cannon and Ball...err..that old comedian who did standup at Butlins back in 1979..Oh and not forgetting...Alan Carr..yeah so...great stuff.