Seriously, what WAS it with September always being such an unlucky month during the show??

2006 wasn't too bad compared to September in the following years but at the time, most people considered the month to be unlucky due the Ottis-Cocky Bill week near the start of the month, which was a pretty low budget week with the highest win being Sandra's £10,000.04, and then you had Matt swapping away a £50k box after the most powerful start ever and Khanny almost crashing to a blue after turning down £48k then just avoiding complete calamity by swapping at the end


2007 had all the bad luck in the Battle of the sexes nonsense, but the month was pretty much saved by £100k Maria's game in the last week. The month also had some underrated great wins during the women's half of the battle of the sexes in the form of Theresa, Zahida and Alexandra, and the month ended with Stuart's game which got off to a very powerful start, then had the first ever £425k NIGHTMARE ROUND mid-game, but lucky recovered after that to a very healthy TPW


Then after that, things really took a turn for the worst for the month of September. September 2008 was plagued by endless blue wins during the first half of the month (most of which were ludicrously covered up by post-game banker handouts ). The highest win of the month was £23k Mike at the start who dealt at 11-box and squandered a £50k box win. After the relentless run ended with Jay's £20k box win (EASILY the best game of the month), things weren't so bad for the rest of the month but still very mediocre, with the highest win for the rest of the month being £18k Martyne and the month of course ending with Meena's undeniable entry into terrible deal fame


September 2009 and 2010 were both full months of mediocre-bad games, with no power 5 level wins to be seen and the highest win of the month being around the mark £26k mark for both these years. 2009 had the Zoe-Diane week which had an easy £250k win squandered, 3 gamblers winnings blues and 2 mediocre wins resulting in power-5 wins squandered through hypo-swaps, while September 2010 was kind of the first "warning of things to come in 2011" as players were noticeably becoming more and more cautious and both Noel and the banker were really starting to get annoying


September 2011 got out of jail with the first few weeks of the season being shown 2 weeks earlier than planned due to the live shows in October, so the month was held up by Tegen, Kerrie and Tabitha near the end of the month. But if it weren't for the 11th hour changes made due to the live shows, all 3 of these games would've been aired 2 weeks later and been shown in October (incidentally, £53k Chris' game from August 17 would've been shown on August 31 of all days). Which would've made it another very average month with the best game possibly being £20k Gary as £35k Dave's game left a bad taste with him dealing for a crap offer on a £15k/£75k finish and having £75k on the table


September 2012 was another very poor month with more caution and mediocre-bad games plaguing the month and anyone who played to the end was basically forced on by poor boards and the banker not really trying to buy the box. Another downer from this month was the amount of cautious advice players were receiving from early stages of the game by literally half the contestants or more. This was one of those periods that got the forum into a miserable "the show is dying" mood but to be fair, a lot of the misery surrounding this month was due to a near-lack of large numbers being on the table and not just caution


Then you have September 2013. Ah the second half of 2013, the era of extreme caution where the vast majority of players were playing the game with 'safety first' priorities and were becoming far too scared of no-dealing beyond 8-box, making the show incredibly samey and predictable. September 2013 wasn't really a bad month, but it was a mediocre month with some good OPWs but still NOTHING in the way of huge wins


September 2014 is next and boy what a crash down to earth this month was after a very strong August with several huge wins. But once we hit September, the curse hit straight away with more bad luck and very bog-standard games plaguing the month. Even box 23 didn't help much either, and the highest win of the month was a whopping £18,000!! This month also marked the abrupt scrapping of the weekend shows (seemingly for good), with only Susan and Alan Carr's celebrity special shown on a Sunday afterwards and no more weekend shows until the last month or so of the show in late 2016 when they wanted to burn off the final studio shows


I can't really remember much about September 2015 as it was a very short month returning from a 2 month+ break and by then i'd kind of lost interest as a lot of us were pretty much resigned to the fact that the show was on it's way out. But why was September always such a bad month for the show?!

I think it goes without saying that September is the worst month for the show.

With that being said, I wonder which month has been the best month for the show?

January- Nothing too memorable in 2006 due to the show still finding it's feet, Laura's jackpot win and the "Wakey Winter aftermath leading a record 7 power wins in a month in 2007, no Power 5 amounts being brought to the table and mostly average games (with Clive, MJ and Mark being the exceptions) in 2008, lots of big money climaxes (with most resulting in players taking a VERY poor offer and missing out in the big red ) and Accidental No Deal Mary in 2009, lots of silly gimmicks that didn't really help any games in 2010 and 2011 (though £100k Dale did make January 2011 feel a lot better), lots of big wins in 2012 due mainly to an astonishing run of extremely strong 5 box boards, lots of spankings and talking points in 2013, the Box 23 era having a terrible start (with Joey and Lily being the only exceptions) in 2014, some good games in 2015, and lots of crazy games in 2016 (cautious Deals, £250k undersellings and blue wins galore, including Jen becoming Deal's biggest loser after dealing £10k and missing out on £500,000, and Jean's 1 in 26,334 nightmare opening round).

Yep, despite January 2007 and 2012 being some of the best months ever, the rest stop it from being the best month for the show overall. I think the main contenders are April, August, October And December. I'll examine those months later.

Interestingly, March has always either been great or extremely bland and forgettable

March 2006 - Great classic month without question.

March 2007-

March 2008- Ok, some great shows and big wins, but also some major low points, namely Matty's self-inflicted 1p win.

March 2009- Great for the most part. Lots of consistently chunky wins, Alice's jackpot win, and some chap with goats breaking the internet.

March 2010- Pretty average for the most part, with the exception of Caine and Stacey towards the end of the month.

March 2011- Disappointing month throughout. Some good wins, but no big ones as the Banker read the players like a book.

March 2012- Absolutely dreadful month thanks mainly to Damien's £40k crash at the beginning of the month leading to a run of caution.

March 2013- Absolutely excellent month with lots of great games especially toward the end of the month.

March 2014- A great month with many good games including Pat's £10k win.

March 2015- An eye-rolling month of total caution intertwined with unavoidable blue wins that prompted the continuation of said caution.

March 2016- Fairly good I suppose, even though the only game a good number of people actually watched was £80,000 Alison's game thanks to a classic hyped up game just so happening to coincide with a bank holiday.

So yep, March was a great month the majority of the time, but it stood out as a terrible month in 2007, 2012 and 2015, and to a lesser extent 2008 and 2011.

March was an interesting month. 2006 was the all-time peak of the show with lots of great games and big characters (though the huge wins during the month were won pretty easily due to crap offers).


March 2007 started out great but then steadily got worse and the second half of the month was dominated by bad luck, OPLs and squandered big wins, and the forum was really starting to get sick of the 'wakey era' annoyances like blue chants, offers being too high, not enough characters on the show, Noel's 'Wakeyism' etc.


March 2008 was a very mixed, it started badly (Andy's crying game and the three blue wins at the start) and ended badly (Matty's self-inflicted 1p win, Olga's heartbreaking trainwreck game, Brian squandering a big finish and Phyl JUST getting a 4-figure sum out of a nightmare game), but the middle part of the month was quite good and had some great games. Matty's game also marked the true beginning of the 'unlucky era', with trainwreck games, cautious/shell-shocked players dealing too early, and bad games leaving negative impacts on the wings dominating the next few months


March 2009 was great, a memorable month with £250k Alice, H2005's appearance on the show, and the 1000th show celebrations near the end of the month. There were great characters on the show and 2 underrated £35k box wins


March 2010 was a bit average but not bad. There were some great OPWs and £72k Caine's game was the highlight of the month, despite Michael's trainwreck game in the second week of the month leaving a bit of a fear factor. There were also some unusual gimmicks and twists during the month were overall that bought up some interesting discussion


March 2011 was very middle of the road with no power-5 level wins. In the early part of March, Franca had a great game with a £30k OPW, Archie was the big character who played this month, and the most memorable feature of the month was the run of FIVE consecutive shows with £50 on the table!! After Archie, not much really happened for the rest of the month, and March ended with the month's highest win, £31k Charlotte


March 2012 was very poor, with just 3 OPWs all month and the highest win of the month being £26,000. Damien had a spectacular crash to a blue win and h after no-dealing £40,000, and the month was dominated by a lot of caution, with £950 Dave doing one of the worst deals ever and so did Eugenia a few days later in a game full of SHOCKINGLY bad offers, and then, there was THAT show of the month poll


March 2013 was possibly the strongest month of 2013. The first half of the month was fairly average but the second half of the month was great and had some high wins, especially in the week leading into Easter (Most of which were just down to good luck and reasonable risks paying off beautifully)


March 2014 was pretty good and spawned two memorable huge wins, with one being the highest deal ever and the other one involving a 'box-gate' at the big reveal!!


March 2015 was very average and just had a dull run of caution and blue wins, and from here, the show started being on less and less due to horse-racing telecasts and being off screen for months on end during the middle part of the year. One of the first signs that 'Deal' was on its last legs


Finally, March 2016, the penultimate month of the penultimate season of DoND. It was also broken up by horse-racing telecasts after a solid run through January and February, it was good and had a couple of mega-money OPWs in the form of £50k Doreen and £80k Alison (Though you could say March and April 2016 were one month as April had just THREE shows before the show went off to a 6 month+ break before returning for its final run in October)


Man, March was all over the place during DoND's 11 year run!!

April has typically had it's great moments, and i think 2011 (and 2008 to a lesser extent) was probably the only time April was really bad month