Deal or No Deal (Australian Game Show) - History

History

The first incarnation of Deal or No Deal originally debuted in late 2003 as an hour-long program. Screening on Sunday night, it indirectly competed with the Nine Network's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? by offering a maximum prize of $2,000,000. In order to fill the longer timeslot, the initial stages of the game were significantly longer than in the current half hour format. This included an interview with the man who supposedly placed the values into each briefcase, assuring that selection were indeed random. The preliminary round was also longer than the more recent format. Due to poor ratings, this incarnation of the show only lasted for one season. In the second episode, a contestant won $515,000, which currently stands as the biggest amount of money ever won on the Australian version of Deal or No Deal, and at the time was the biggest amount of money won on any Australian TV show.

In 2004 Deal or No Deal was shortened to a half-hour format and moved to weeknights at 5:30pm, directly competing against the Nine Network's The Price Is Right. This incarnation of the show was more successful than the first. Due to the increased number of episodes airing (5 per week over the course of the ratings period rather than 1 per week) the maximum cash prize was lowered from $2,000,000 to $200,000 and the number of blocks reduced from eight to six (200 potential contestants to 150). Deal or No Deal received high ratings in its newly revised format. Shortly after the popularity of Deal or No Deal began to rise, The Price Is Right altered its showcase round to a similar format, where contestants were forced to choose between cash incentives or the showcase periodically as the prices were lit up. Despite this Deal or No Deal continued to grow in popularity, and is believed to be a factor involved in the ratings resurgence of Seven News (which follows directly after Deal or No Deal). The popularity of the show led to Nine Network game show rivals The Price Is Right, Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune and the half-hour version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? being cancelled. However since 2009, the ratings in Deal have started to drop off slightly due to the popularity of the rival Nine Network show Millionaire Hot Seat.

Rival Nine Network for many years has produced various game shows for the 5:30pm timeslot, notable game shows include Burgo's Catch Phrase hosted by John Burgess, and The Price Is Right Hosted by Larry Emdur. Both game shows were successful in the ratings, in 2005 The Price Is Right was cancelled, due to Larry Emdur signing a contract with the Seven Network, Emdur hosted Wheel of Fortune, which was cancelled only a few months later due to declining ratings, after Wheel of Fortune was axed, the Seven Network introduced Deal or No Deal in the 5:30pm timeslot, Which was a high success in the ratings, and overtaking the Nine Network's Bert's Family Feud, which was axed in 2007. In 2008 the Nine Network revived Wheel of Fortune, it was renamed as Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune, which did poorly in the ratings, and resulted in the show being axed. After Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune, the Nine Network introduced Millionaire Hot Seat, which has resulted in much higher ratings, and since 2010, has started to overtake Deal or No Deal.

The game shows ratings mainly contribute the 6pm news bulletins ratings that air immediately after the game shows.

Many alterations to the game have been made throughout the years, mainly to entice viewers against the game show rivals, including the briefcase values (see below), and the addition of many new gameplay features (see Features). During the 2004 $12 Million Month, the Supercase, Chance and Megaguess features were introduced, and have become recurring segments ever since. In 2005, a car was introduced as a prize (replacing the $25,000 amount on the 2004 amount board). The cars have been the Peugeot 307 from 2005-2007 (briefly replaced by the Renault Mégane II in 2005, valued at $33,000), the Peugeot 306 in 2008, the Peugeot 207 in 2009, the Peugeot 206 in 2010 and the Peugeot 207CC from 2011 onwards, all valued at $30,000. In 2013 the car will be removed. In 2006, Double or Nothing was introduced to the show. Since the 2007 season, the game's format has remained the same. The only changes in the 2007 and 2008 seasons were the logo change, which occurred in 2007, the removal of the preliminary quiz (which determined who would be the main contestant) and onscreen graphics and music have been updated several times. Double Deal Friday was dropped in 2008. In 2009, not only was the layout of the money board and the cases changed, but also, once a case is opened, instead of closing it and putting it on the table, the case is remained opened to let the contestant know what cases still remain.

To date, there have been four winners of the top prize: Dean Cartechini on 17 June 2004, Anh Do in a celebrity special on 19 September 2007, Leanne Benbow on 2 June 2010 and Chris Doyle on 23 August 2011.

The biggest ever winner is Nathan Cochrane who took out $515,000 on The Deal in 2003, in just the second episode ever. At the time, the top prize was $2,000,000.

On 3 July 2012, a contestant was offered $-150 after knocking out the $200,000 on his first selection, Fantastic $75,000 and $50,000 in the first round, making it the lowest bank offer in the history of Deal or No Deal.