You know you've been waiting for this since the spring. I know I have. It's the return of Miljoenenjacht!

This is going to be a very detailed recap this time around, for the benefit of those new to the show.

If you're one of them - welcome! This is the original, biggest and possibly best Deal or No Deal. 500 contestants, all here courtesy of local lottery tickets if memory serves, are packed into the audience and whittled down through a rapid-fire quiz to just six. These six then play in a round which seems to change every year to reduce six to two, and eventually to one who gets to play the game as we know it for the world's biggest regular game show jackpot, €5,000,000 (£4.45m/US$7.49m at current exchange rates). Oh, and a viewer at home wins what the player wins. With a bunch of other prizes in the quiz bit too, especially at the end, this is undoubtedly the world's most lucrative game show right now.

For those who care: prizes aren't tax-free here like in the UK. They're treated as capital gains and taxed at a flat 25%. With that in mind, divide by 1.5 (or multiply by two-thirds) to roughly convert pre-tax euro into tax-free sterling. To equate with US game show prizes, multiply everything by 1.6 to turn pre-tax euro into pre-tax US dollars.

Enough maths. Let's play! This show (through its lottery tie-in) raises money for development charities - Unicef and Oxfam get displayed in the introduction. Linda de Mol, the show's presenter, gets a suitably huge reception as we introduce the show and the 26 case-holding (but not case-opening; more on that later) models. Tonight's outfit: sparkly.


They used to wear identical wigs for this bit. Thankfully they don't anymore.

We start with the quiz. The audience are divided into ten blocks of 50, numbered 1-10; 1-5 are coloured red, 6-10 are coloured blue, and for the first round each colour group competes against each other with the higher-scoring after three questions (one point per correct answer per question) goes through. Since last series, each of the 250 in that side of the audience gets a prize.

The three questions are all multiple choice with three options, voting is by keypad, and I wish I could translate them for you. I can't. I can tell you that the second question is always a video question with promotion for a charity... and that the blue half won this time. All 250 of them win a Phillips Wake-Up Light. Yes.

NEW TWIST ALERT!! In previous series, the final contestant for the final six was chosen randomly from the entire audience after the multiple-choice quiz. Now, someone from the red half has been randomly chosen in that way already, and offered either that place in the final six - or a prize. A high-end home entertainment system, to be exact. Erika is the player who gets the choice... she opts for the place in the final six! So would I. Crikey, they're now orange seats, a redesign from previous years - I spy another new semi-final...

Skipping through a bit more of the quiz, with the five blocks of 50 now competing against each other with the top scorers going through to round 3... 'Vak' 9 win by a huge margin, 18 points clear of their nearest rivals. And just like that, 500 have become 50... oh hang on, another random player choice from the eliminated blocks! He could take a place in the final six... or the home entertainment system AND an electric scooter! He takes the place in the final six. Again, so would I.

An adbreak at this point, along with a plug for the phone-in competition for €10,000. Another €10,000 gets given away at this point to a random audience member, or has been in previous series at any rate. Now the top and bottom half of the block (A and B respectively) compete in another three-question round. Complete with a video question themed around Oxfam, which needed Dutch-language subtitles because the guy asking it was inaudible! Block B win on the final question after trailing for the first two... but one contestant from Block A is randomly chosen, and he now gets to choose between a place in the final six... or the home entertainment system, electric scooter AND AN AFRICAN SAFARI!! He still chooses the place in the final six... THE PRIZES ARE GOING TO A RANDOM AUDIENCE MEMBER!! And she looks remarkably restrained upon being chosen. Although she gets rather more excited when speaking!

The top three contestants from Block 9B - based on number of correct answers and then speed of answers, I presume - join the three previously confirmed contestants in the final six. Now, this has had about four different rulesets before (and before that, it was a final 26, with the entirety of one half-block and one random choice playing another quiz round)... I reckon we have another. But first, Nico Veldt is randomly handed €10,000, as is an H.C. Bos watching at home. And just like that, we open the phone lines for the second phone-in.

Oh they're not orange stools now, they're standing on the same podia used for the last two six-player rules... and we're keeping the same rules as the last two series, where Linda polls the audience on a yes/no question and the players have to guess how many answered yes. The furthest away is eliminated; the first to go gets €1,000, the second €2,000, the third €3,000 and the fourth (believe it or not) €4,000.

The final two are ERICA, a probably-50-something brown-haired woman, and MANFRED, a probably-40-something bespectacled man. I want his glasses.


Eye-eye!

Now, one of these will play for €5,000,000... but first, we have to make sure nobody too targetist plays it. A display counts upwards from €1,000 to an unknown point, and the first person to press their button wins that amount and hands their place in the final to the other player. If neither press in time, a maths tiebreaker is played. Very slow increase in the cash amount compared to normal, I swear... but it's going up quite a lot now... stops at €53,000 JUST as Manfred was about to press the button!! Linda confirms he was just too late to a big groan... now, that's either the luckiest or unluckiest half-second of his life. THE €53,000 GOES TO SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE!! It's lucky for them... aand it's an old lady! She sounds understandably shocked... and thanks Manfred for being slightly too late!


The biggest beneficiary of circumstances you could ever get.

He'll be glad himself if he gets this. Maths question on the buzzer, three possible answers, get it wrong and the other player plays, get it right and you do... 91-19? Manfred buzzes - RIGHT! Big hug with Linda as his 'mistake' proves inspired! Poor Erica, agonisingly close to playing but leaving with nothing.

Right, the bit we're really here for. After another model walk (the first at the start was just to get the crowd going), Manfred gets to choose his case. He jokingly picks case 27... but really chooses CASE 9. We see the independent adjudicator in this, which is good. Second €10,000 winner: Peter Koelewijn (pronounced 'Cool-a-wine'). He does a little dance, which is something I wish more contestants did after being chosen to win something from the audience.


THAT, folks, is how you celebrate!

Interview with the player: he's played the lottery since 1990, he's got his elderly dad in the audience (who looks like Bruce Forsyth).


Nice to deal you, to deal you...

He mentions treating the kids, and getting a boat, and I don't think they were one and the same. The remaining members of block 9B and/or the semi-finalists from earlier have the other 25 cases, and can guess what's inside. Get it right, they get €1,000 for each unopened case at the point of guessing.

Your board is the same as it has been since 2006 (older versions had €7,500 instead of €750,000):



ROUND 1 (6 cases)
1 - guess €500,000 - €0.50.
3 - missed the guess - €300,000.
12 - guess €25,000 - €500.
8 (Emil, who was in the final six) - guess €5,000,000! - €0.20! Laughter. Laura pulls a bit of a face at him.
6 - guess €0.01 - €50,000.
26 - guess €2,500,000 - €5.

Three of the bottom five gone in that round, top six in play. Brucie (I didn't hear his real name so the nickname sticks) looks happy... it's a very good start...

OFFER €28,500

Greeted with absolute silence. The recently-installed US-style button is opened... Manfred pretends to think about it, gets the crowd to say the obvious... then does it himself. NO DEAL.

ROUND 2 (5 cases)
15 - guess €5,000 - €750,000! 'Oo-ee!'
14 - guess €1, he almost forgot to guess before opening - €5,000,000!! Hands over mouth time for Linda.
13 - guess €25,000 - €25,000! That's €18,000 for him!
17 (Carla, who was in the final six) - guess €1,000 - €100. Manfred claps, nobody else does. They never cheer low amounts at the start...
16 - guess €1,000,000 - €400,000. Ooh, nasty!

Dreadful round... Linda points out she took out an 'enormous amount' from the board...

OFFER €32,500

'Oh.' Linda speaks for us all as the offer actually goes up after that round. Still an obvious NO DEAL.

ROUND 3 (4 cases)
19 - guess €1,000 - €5,000.
4 - guess €200,000 - €1. They cheer that one!
21 - guess €500,000 - €20. And that one! This is a great round so far... Linda talks up the potential offer if another small amount goes...
24 - guess €75,000 - €75,000! €12,000 for the least photogenic contestant I've ever seen on a game show!


Unlike some versions, this show does not cast on looks.

Linda mentions the odds of there being a seven-figure sum in the case, although I think she said one in five rather than one in 5.5. Anyway...

OFFER €115,000

Crowd actually react to that one. I'd go on for sure, though. Manfred asks how many to open in round 4 (it's three). Brucie says Deal. Some audience members clap. ADBREAK!

A board reminder:



Linda talks about the possible ways the offer could double, or triple, or that it could be €2.5m in the case, having earlier mentioned the offer being very good. 'Your father said stop.' Three to open, we again are reminded... crowd have their say... 'come on Manfred! Press the button is deal, close the case is no deal!' She actually counts him down to make a decision... and DEAL it is! He was obviously unsure - maybe Linda put him under totally inadvertent pressure to Deal, maybe, and I certainly would have gone on... but it's a lot of money and when Linda says the amount again it gets a big round of applause.

Proveout round. No guilt trips here, just a rapid-fire attempt to get more winners.

ROUND 4 (3 cases)
2 - guess €300,000 - €50
7 - guess €0.01 - €2,500,000! Linda points to Manfred as if to go 'aren't you so smart?'.
23 - guess €10,000 - €2,500.

The offer would probably not have been very (if any) different, but we don't even get proveout offers here.

ROUND 5 (2 cases)
5 - guess €1,000,000 - €10. Uh-oh... Linda reminds Manfred it's now a one-in-7 shot the million's on the table...
10 - guess €1,000,000 - €10,000!



Offer would be over €200,000 here I suspect. It'd have to be for me to even consider it.

ROUND 6 (1 to open from now on)
22 - guess €200,000 - €1,000!

Oh dear. Linda, amongst pointing out the board strength, mentions the cent...

ROUND 7
20 - guess €100,000 - €0.01!!

Complete and utter shock. I think Linda said it was 'the wrong deal'.

ROUND 8
11 - guess €100,000 - €100,000! €4,000 for her, and the OBW confirmed for Manfred.


Placed on behalf of the sadists who like to laugh at safe players getting big OBWs.

ROUND 9
25 - guess €1,000,000 - €500,000... Linda over-reacts to that... but then says €200,000 in the case wouldn't be so bad...

Other case guesses €1,000,000 - and does have it for €2,000! €200,000 in case 9.

That button actually looks ridiculously oversized. Nonetheless, nice to see it back