Yes, we're back with the original, biggest and in my opinion best version of the show. Very unexpected, normally the show has runs in May/June and November/December. I'm going to recap the whole show, quiz and all, in detail for one time only (probably).

The rules of the quiz are simple: there are ten blocks of 50 in the audience, each divided into two tiers of 25, and one of those 500 will get to play what we know as Deal or No Deal for €5,000,000. The game starts with three questions for all 500 in the audience, with the most correct answers amongst the 'red' half of the audience (blocks 1-5) or the 'blue' (6-10) qualifying. Question one asks which of Mick Jagger, Tina Turner and Tom Jones is 70! It's Turner. Oh that's novel - the video question that's always asked second in the round is now actually asked on the video by a roving reporter. Works very well, in a bizarre manner.

Fantastic start to the series - the two blocks of the audience tied going into the final question, which I think was about a radio stunt in Australia. Blue wins, so blocks 6-10 go through to round 2.

Surprise from the Postcodelotterij, who sponsor this show. It's an LG portable DVD player for EVERYONE IN THE BLUE SECTION! All 250 of them!! Already the show's given away more than DoND UK on an average day. The next round sees all five blocks competing against each other, same rules apply. Second video question features a David Attenborough documentary clip on flying penguins and the correct answer is something to do with aluminium foil. I'm glad I can't translate this stuff.

Block 8 pull clear on that question... but where did that come from?!? Block 10 come through by 1! They were nowhere after the penguin question, having been one behind on the first question of three in that round.

Phone lottery plugged. Sounds like a special edition.

No more special prizes. Final three-question round determines which half of Block 10 will be on case-opening duties in the main game - the top five from that sub-block of 25, plus a randomly chosen player, compete in the final round. The lead changes hands, but it's Block A (lower tier) that win.

Top five from those 25 now make the final round. The names are utterly incomprehensible but there's a bunch of old men and only one woman. The sixth finalist is chosen randomly from the audience, triggered by a prop that various English-language sites call 'the random remote of doom'. As usual it's from the half of the audience eliminated first... block 4A, seat 22, and it's a middle-aged man.

€10,000 given away at this point to a random audience member - Florian Stena from block 3! A young man of African origin. There's also a phone lottery winner now. We'll repeat that double giveaway again before the show is done, and add a third phone lottery at the end too, but now the six-player quiz round.

Linda talks about - I think - the diversity of the audience/contestants, coming from all walks of life. The six in the 'semi-final' now play a game that asks the other 494 in the audience to answer a true/false question about themselves. The six then have to guess how many answered 'true', and the furthest away is eliminated. €1,000 for the first to be eliminated, €2,000 for the second, etc until there are two left. First question asked how many of them had looked up their own name on a certain search engine; Wim, an old man, goes out with a wildly inaccurate guess. Question two, which I couldn't translate but was only asked to half of the audience (by gender I presume), eliminates another old man, Robert. Question three triggers a laugh but I'm not in on it; Linda interviews people in block 9 and there's a few laughs out of that, again I'm not in on it. 111 answered 'yes' and Linda is in total bewilderment. And so is everyone else. Berber, a young lady, goes out, having guessed just 5. Freetranslation.com suggests the question is 'do you carry sometimes two days the same underpants behind each other?'. Make of that what you will. PHILIP'S CONTESTANT BADGE FALLS OFF! But he guessed the exact correct answer to the last question! Eugene, the random remote pick, goes out with €4,000.

That leaves Loes and Philip (whose name seems to be pronounced as one syllable sounding like 'flip') in the final. Loes has two kids and five grandkids, and looks about 60 to me - though her hair looks younger than her face. Philip... oh it's 'Phlip' and the name has been changed for some reason he explained but I couldn't understand. Two kids, 18 and 13, and he does look about 40. He's about a foot taller than Loes and looks intimidating, which may even matter here. Essentially, this is a game of chicken; a money clock counts up, press the button and that money is yours but the other player gets to play the DoND endgame. The clock stops somewhere in the high five figures and if neither stops in time, a question on the buzzer decides who plays the endgame.

This is a very fast clock... and Loes is pretty quick to stop too, at €36,400! She has 'no idea' why she stopped if I understood her. We now reveal where the clock was set to stop... €98,000!! That's the highest I've ever seen it. I did think it'd go a long way from the pace of the increase and suspect I'd have pushed it to about €70,000 given the chance.

Phlip briefly touches the remote but it is activated by Linda... Loes's place as a case-opener is taken by another old lady, and she gets a chance to win money guessing what her case has. The other 25 case openers are the 24 members of Block 10A plus Eugene.

After an adbreak, the models bring the cases to the stage wearing identical shiny blue dresses. Unlike the US version, that's all they do. Pointless and sexist, although we have seen male models and even females dressed in promotional material for a feminist political campaign before. Anyway, Phlip picks case 20. We get a clip of the independent adjudicator, who's an old man.

Another €10k double giveaway. Anneke Duits from block 6 gets one, a forty-something black-haired lady; a viewer gets another. There'll be another phone lottery winner later. There's a pre-game interview but I didn't get a word of it.

A reminder of the board for everyone:



The original case-opening pattern came from here, and is used in the US and many other countries - 6-5-4-3-2-1-1-1-1.

The case-openers are contestants eliminated earlier, as mentioned before, and they get to guess what they have in their cases. If they're right, it's €1,000 for each case left unopened at that point - up to €26,000! (The expected value, strictly speaking, is always €1,000.)

Round 1
Case 1 (guess €1,000) - €0.50! No audience reaction, as is all too common on this show though it was easing in 2008.
Case 5 (guess €5) - €10,000.
Case 18 (guess €2,500,000 from Eugene) - €1,000.
Case 23 (guess €50,000) - €50,000! That's €23,000 for him, and the first applauded case-opening of the night! He thought he got €24,000 there... near enough.
Case 9 (guess €1,000,000) - €0.01! Comedy case opening but no cheers for the contents!
Case 14 (Guess €0.20) - €5,000,000!! And it was going so well!

Even Linda said it would've been a 'perfect round'.

Offer €15,000

The crowd just mumble. There's a button on the set, US-style, though there wasn't until 2008 - press the button it's yours, say no and it's another round. It's another round. NO DEAL.

Round 2
Case 4 (guess €300,000) - €1! 'Ooh yeah!'. Linda's words not mine.
Case 21 (guess €100,000) - €0.20! €5 guaranteed and still no crowd reaction!
Case 12 (guess €5,000) - €400,000. Second big hit, right in the middle of a power block of nine.
Case 15 (guess €75,000) - €5! When he takes out small sums, they really are small! Bottom five gone already!
Bit of comedy precedes...
Case 13 (guess €100,000) - €75,000. Oof.

He seems happy with that. It's a good round.

Offer €45,000

Triple the opener as Linda notes. The wife is saying something but it's obviously No Deal, and NO DEAL it is from Phlip obviously enough.

Round 3
Case 25 (guess €300,000) - €20! A few did clap that!
Case 7 (guess €50) - €1,000,000! Linda reacts more than anyone else, and emphasises the €2,500,000.
Case 8 (guess €100,000) - €750,000! It took ages for her to open and we now wish she didn't!
Case 6 (guess €25,000) - €50!

First serious offer now, so time for a board recap:



Offer €80,000

Serious money, certainly now. But on this board, with five higher, easy to go on. After a bit of a fakeout, he does say NO DEAL.

Did they say his wife's a hooker? I suspect in the Netherlands this is not that shocking.

Round 4
Case 11 (guess €2,500) - €2,500! €11,000 for Berber, her total for the night now €14,000!
We go to an adbreak at this point. The crowd will be more energised after this. They always, always are.
Case 3 (guess €300,000) - €5,000. Now it's looking good, six-figure median.
Case 22 (guess €300,000 for Wim) - €2,500,000! Crowd don't know how to react.

50% chance of six figures pointed out by Linda.

Offer €45,000

Back to the second offer. Easy No Deal for me, and the stability suggests a game that's conceivably going well into the one-to-open rounds. Phlip starts talking, I don't understand him, but NO DEAL it quite rightly is.

Round 5
Case 10 (guess €300,000) - €300,000! Someone had to have it... €8,000 for a young man there.
Case 17 (guess €25,000) - €500! There we go.

The Final Six
€10
€100
€25,000
€100,000
€200,000
€500,000

Linda calls it 50-50...

Offer €80,000

Phlip says 'yo-yo' before I can. Three higher, one to open, I'm playing on. So's he. NO DEAL.

One at a time now.

Round 6
Case 24 (guess €100,000) - €200,000. Linda quite rightly didn't like that but points to the half-million.

Stick?

Offer €80,000

Stick. Linda points out the €10. First truly dealable offer of the game, almost 80% of the mean and no longer stable. I think I'm gone. Crowd reactions sound mixed to me. His wife's advice sounds mixed too. His hand's over the button... now it's not... NO DEAL!

Linda looks a bit shocked. I thought he'd be going. Linda points out the offer was 'serious money'. I think Phlip implied he just wants to go one more. If that one is the half-million, he's going home with Case 20's contents.

Round 7
Case 16 (guess €500,000) - €500,000!

He's going home with case 20's contents. Linda points out that could still be €100,000. I don't think he's taken this well.

Offer €20,000

That was pretty painful. Linda talks through the possibility of taking out the €100,000. Seems an easy enough No Deal to me. It's being talked over a while though... Linda mentions the 25% chance of €100,000 being in his case, I think... is he going to quit while he's not far behind? 'Make up your mind'. He half-closed the case, checked with his wife, then closed it entirely. NO DEAL!

He's chasing the money now.

Round 8
Case 2 (guess €100) - €10!

Well he's going away with more than today's UK contestant at least.

Offer €36,000

More like it. I think I'm gone... yes, I'm gone if I'm not gone already (which I probably would be anyway). Phlip talks through what the money would do to him I think. Now his wife says Deal I think. Linda mentions the one-in-three chance... of something. Then he presses the button! DEAL!. Confetti released, as is obligatory on this show. Could have been better, could have been worse... a frustrating game in all though.

Round 9, proveout
Case 26 (guess €25,000) - €100,000! Got out just in time!

Would've been a €100 vs €25,000 final two, no proveout offer but it'd have probably been €12,000.

Case 19's holder guesses that she has the €25,000. And she's right for €2,000... €100 in Phlip's case. But as it turns out the biggest winner, by a mere €400, was Loes!