So here we go with another episode of the biggest-money game show in the world! AND THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS ARE UP!


Ooh, shiny.

It's the last episode of the year!! Only five in this run of episodes, I expected six or seven.

For completeness, I must note that the models are wearing pink dresses tonight.

ROUND 1: blue win, 236-193 (lowest score on this bit I can ever remember), all 250 of them win a weekend away in one of a chain of Dutch hotels, if I understood that correctly. 2A/14 (Corrie) is chosen randomly and offered a Samsung LED TV. She rejects it.

ROUND 2: again ludicrously low-scoring, Block 10 win with 32 with the rest gathered around 23. Almost all of them got question 3, strangely and suspiciously enough... 8B/2 (Ruud) is offered the telly and a weekend for four at Disneyland Paris, and INSTANTLY rejects it.

ROUND 3: B beat A 35-31 thanks mostly to question 2, and will be the case-openers for the game with a shot at correct-guess money. 10A/3 (Claudine) is offered the telly, Disneyland trip and 16 nights in some tropical island or other, and takes the spot in the final six. Those prizes instead will go to 1A/13, a very excitable older lady! Henriecke, Dennis (who took ages to stand up!) and Johnny complete the final six... but it's an all-female final two, Corrie and Claudine.

Linda seems to imply this is unprecedented. I certainly can't remember it happening before. Claudine looks about 35, she has two kids, Corrie might be older but almost looks younger with her blonde hair and fairly slim build. She's got a nine-year-old kid, so probably is about 35. Time for the push-the-button eliminator, with the stop point hidden in a case guarded by a male model... and is that an H2005 lookalike?


He's never been seen in the same room as our very own H...

Fast increase at the start... very briefly. CORRIE STOPS AT €31,900!! Clearly nothing like Corinne from the UK. Claudine is stunned! Corrie wanted €30k, I think double that is in the case... €106,000!!!


Who said our H didn't laugh at safe decisions gone wrong?!?

Now to the case opening. Oh they're peachy-gold dresses, couldn't tell in the light. She has chosen CASE 23. Husband Nick is there with her... we know the rules, let's go!

ROUND 1 (6 to open)
5 (Johnny, the butt of jokes earlier in the game - guesses €5m becaue it's case 5!) - €1,000,000! Nobody wins with that.
8 (guess €500,000) - €0.50! To laughter and cheers.
18 (guess €100) - €50! Nearly, and still applauded.
11 (guess €200,000) - €5,000, again applauded.
24 (guess €0.20) - €0.20!! CORRECT GUESS FOR €22,000!!
1 (guess €2,500) - €300,000.

Linda points out six of the twenty cases left have €400,000 or more in them.

OFFER €35,000

These openers are slowly going up. Nick jokingly suggests Deal. Obviously it's not taken seriously. NO DEAL.

ROUND 2 (5 to open)
9 (guess €5) - €1! Nearly.
16 (guess €1,000) - €50,000. That's fine.
26 (guess €5,000) - €500. Applauded still.
14 (guess €10,000) - €10. Oh this is good now!
3 (guess €100,000) - €2,500! What a round!

"Fantastic!" says Linda, and she's not wrong.

OFFER €98,000

"Almost a ton [€100,000]," Linda expresses somewhat excitably. Bit of playful discussion before the NO DEAL.

ROUND 3 (4 to open)
13 (guess €10,000) - €1,000! Four on the left, ten on the right!
17 (guess €200,000) - €200,000! CORRECT GUESS FOR €13,000! I swear, I guessed it before he guessed it!
15 (guess €10,000) - €10,000! CORRECT GUESS FOR €12,000! What a game this is turning into!!
21 (guess €750,000) - €5,000,000!!

Oh. "No! No!"

Still a very, very good board in most regards. In fact, this is almost identical to last week's game in that €5m went just before the third offer but with other huge amounts still intact. This time, though, there's no €1m, but there's three in the top-right, compared to none last week.



OFFER €106,000

Just over a ton. "Serious money." She checks how many cases are left in this round, has it confirmed it's three, Linda talks through the situation with her, and it's a NO DEAL.

Linda emphasises €2,500,000 big time in this round.

ROUND 4 (3 to open)
2 (guess €0.01) - €500,000. Linda does not look happy.
19 (guess €25,000) - €0.01! There it was!
6 (guess €25,000 - adbreak before the case is opened) - €20!

Only two on the left, and three massive sums left. The offer is going to be very serious indeed...

OFFER €206,000

Big money. Big decision. Linda immediately points out it's two to open, talks about the worst-case scenario, mentions the flipside I think... Nick says No Deal and gets cheers for it... I'd go on... so does she! NO DEAL!

ROUND 5 (2 to open)
Nick flatly refuses to pick a case for her. Laughter.
7 (guess €100) - €100!! CORRECT GUESS FOR €8,000 and Linda bursts into what can only be called a 'squee'.
Claudine wonders if this'll be €5.
4 (guess €25,000) - €400,000 STILL GETS APPLAUDED!

That's the round survived.

THE FINAL SIX
€5
€25,000
€75,000
€100,000
€750,000
€2,500,000

Linda points out it's one-at-a-time now. Reminds us of the last offer, wonders if this will be €300,000...

OFFER €345,000

And the rest. Nick sends some signals down to Claudine, although I couldn't decipher them. Claudine points out there's one to open, perhaps to signal she's wanting to go on and he's not so sure. Someone in the audience shouted something very loudly to general amusement. Take out the €2.5m and you're left with... low six-figures, I think. Just about enough to be happy with, so I'd go on... DEAL! Can't argue with that either. A big win!

PROVEOUT
25 (guess €750,000) - "that would be exciting if it is" - €750,000! CORRECT GUESS FOR €6,000! We'd probably be looking at a marginally changed (one way or the other) offer and an easy Deal, so this bit is almost moot now
10 (guess €100,000) - €25,000. It gets applauded, no Noel to ask who clapped. Not an OPW now.
20 (guess €75,000) - €100,000. This might be €600,000 or more, ludicrously... Linda asks what the offer would have been... and we get it!!
PROVEOUT OFFER €800,000
We don't get that very often! It's believable with the very rigid offer patterns here.
12 (guess €2,500,000) - €2,500,000! CORRECT GUESS FOR €3,000 and we have, for once, a correct score for this game.

22 guesses he has €75,000 - no, he has €5, Claudine has €75,000.

And that's it until the spring. Yet another reason to be desperately waiting for spring!

Nice recap, KP. H2005 didn't say he was making clones of himself with the money he won. I can see his cunning plan, intending for them to play on his behalf on every version of the show worldwide!

I'm fascinated as to why Claudine dealt at €345,000. That is a massive amount of money to risk, but the banker there doesn't seem to punish players, as far as I can tell. The loss of the €2.5m would still have brought a life-changing sum of money. But then, nothing is guaranteed, and no-one would want to leave with €5 there.

I guess the reduction to 5 episodes is a cost cutting operation. Makes sense rather than cut back on the show's giveaways and affect its character, though I could be wrong and it returns to normal next year.

Just the other day, I was thinking that the US should port Miljoenenjacht's board to theirs, with a $5m top prize and making it a television event 6 weeks at a time. After reading this, though, the show probably wouldn't last more than a season, as US players would have gone crazy on that 6-box board, and the producers wouldn't be able to afford the money from just advertising revenue!

Good thing to know the Dutch producers can afford to have shows with large prizes, even when we can't. Though if they had a game played like the Irish version did, even they would be stunned!

Firstly, I think it's the Postcode Lottery providing most of the funding. I've noticed an increase in product placement on the show as well (the early-round prizes are new for this year).

The offers are fairly well structured, which is a reason I loved the show at first. Still a small reason.