It's Le Banquier time once again. Tonight, we have another special episode, with this one featuring Celine Dion. I'm sure most of you already know who she is, but here's some information about her which you might not be aware of.

Celine was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, and is the youngest of 14 children. She has one of the mist recognizable singing voices in the world, and is viewed as one of the most famous Quebecers of all time. She released a new English album on November 1 called Loved Me Back to Life. Much of this show was spent singing some of the new songs from this album.

This is Celine's second appearance on Le Banquier. Earlier in the show's run, she appeared on a special episode, where she hosted while regular host Julie Snyder played for charity. This time, Celine is going to actually play the game, and she'll do so with case 19. She is playing for her own charity, the Celine Dion Foundation.

Before the game begins, Celine explains her methodology for choosing case 19. She'd been married to Rene Angelil, who is also her manager, for 19 years. Plus, 1 + 9 = 10, which is 2 x 5. Nice math skills there, bud .

Also, the regular models are back. One element that sets Le Banquier Apart from other versions of Deal is that the cases on the top row, 21 to 26, are all held by men. This was a special request made by Julie Snyder, whose production company, Les Productions J, produces this show.

Round 1 - 6 to open
[8] - $10,000 / L'Ingot d'Or - Right off the bat, Celine nails the Capital One bonus, so she's already in the black.
[5] - $1
[20] - $150,000
[22] - $1,000
[11] - $300,000
[3] - $5

Offre du Banquier: $45,000

Celine says: REFUSÉE

Round 2 - 5 to open
[6] - $75
[1] - $50,000
[18] - $500,000 - D'oh!
[26] - $175,000
[9] - $10

Offre de Banquier: $42,000

Celine says: REFUSÉE

Round 3 - 4 to open
[2] - $50 / Surprise - The Surprise, presented by the mayor of Lac-Megantic, on behalf of TVA, is a trip to Disney World for 21 children whose lives were affected by the massive train derailment that occurred there earlier this year. Each of these children will also receive $500 cash.
[7] - $400
[13] - $750
[14] - $25,000

Offre du Banquier: $59,000

Celine says: REFUSÉE

Round 4 - 3 to open
[17] - $5,000
[10] - $500
[21] - $300

Offre du Banquier: $79,000

Celine says: REFUSÉE

Round 5 - 2 to open
[15] - $100,000
[16] - $200,000

Not quite the nightmare round, but the right side of the board is looking kinda sparse at this point. But despite that, we get this offer from the man in the skybox:

Offre du Banquier: $100,000 - Okay, I'm not a stats person, but that offer seems way too high, especially after a round where two of the Power Eight were knocked out.

Celine mulls over the offer, and wants to negotiate with monsieur le Banquier. She speaks to him on the phone, and says that she'll deal if he raises the offer to $125,000.

Monsieur le Banquier then reveals himself, and we see that Pierre-Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor Media, which owns TVA, is acting as guest banker for this episode. This brings us to our Round 5 Random Fact.

Round 5 Random Fact: Julie Snyder is the common-law wife of Pierre-Karl Péladeau.

Péladeau allows Celine to negotiate with him in a way that our resident negotiator extraordinaire, ACB, would probably disapprove of. Instead of the $125,000 offer she asked for, Péladeau offers Celine:

Nouveau offre du Banquier: $130,000 - I'm sorry, but that's ludicrous. Sure, I know that Celine is playing for charity, but that doesn't give them an excuse to turn the game on its ear.

Celine says (not surprisingly): ACCEPTÉE

Because time is running out, Julie forgoes the proveouts. Instead, she opens case 19 to reveal $125,000, which had been Celine's target amount.

Then, Nadia Comaneci, who is Celine's idol, comes out and presents her with an additional $25,000 bonus from Capital One. That brings her total winnings to $165,000.

I don't like the way that was handled, but hey, I don't produce the show. Hopefully, we'll have a normal episode next week. Until then, may all your deals be spankings.

Le Banquier Extra: What would you have offered?

At the end of the fifth round, Pierre-Karl Péladeau, who had been acting as guest banker, offered Celine Dion $100,000 with the following board:

$.01
$20
$100
$200
----------
$125,000
$400,000

My question to you is what would you have offered in that scenario? Despite not being a stats expert, the offer made was, in my opinion, way too high for the board.

Just like the 1st time Celine Dion was in the building, the show figured they should make a ludicrously generous offer when the board first starts to look fragile, figuring the fact that she was playing for charity overrides any fairness in doing that. Still, a good move on her part to negotiate the offer to be even higher so that she could get her target.

If I was the Banker, I would make an offer of $50,000.01 to remind the player that she could still leave with a penny if all goes wrong.