Ten years, millions of dollars in cash and prizes given away, thousands of cases opened, and countless offers from Monsieur Le Banquier have led us to this moment - the end of the line for Le Banquier. Julie and friends are taking us out 80s style with a salute to that decade.
But before that, our hostess delivers a message from the vault: this show is dedicated to the memory of comedian Dominique Levesque, who passed away on December 20, 2016, several months after this episode was originally taped. Dominique was one of 26 stars of 80s TVA programs that were holding the cases on this show.
With that said, the show begins, and we meet our final contestant, Patricia Huard. Born in 1981, she returned to school at age 34, as she had trouble finding a job. She plans to use her winnings to pay off her debts, replace the old appliances in her home and visit Costa Rica. Keeping with the 80s theme, Patricia will be selecting her cases using 26 numbered cassette tapes in a bowl. The first number out of the bowl is number 9, and that case is promptly brought to the Dollar Desk.
And now, for the last time, let the case opening begin.
Round 1[13] -
$5[3] -
$125,000[24] -
Vidéotron Mobile[14] -
$100[17] -
$500[26] -
$500,000Yikes. More than $625,000 eliminated in the first round means we get an opening offer of:
Patricia says
REFUSÉE.
Round 2[1] -
$150,000[11] -
$400,000[19] -
$0.01[22] -
$1[10] -
Sunwing | $10 - Patricia wins a for four to Costa Rica, of all places. As always, it's worth $8,000.
$550,000 plus taken out in this round. This isn't how you want to end the show. Here's the offer.
Patricia says
REFUSÉE.
Round 3[18] -
$300,000[8] -
$25,000[25] -
Surprise | $400 - The Surprise is $10,000 worth of new home appliances from Germain Larivière.
[7] -
$750In each of the first three rounds, the highest available amount was eliminated almost instantly. And yet, the offer still gets an increase, albeit a slight one.
Patricia says
REFUSÉE.
Fun Fact: Your humble recapper is also a child of the 80s, born on December 11, 1986. But despite that, I'm not the oldest person on this forum. That honour is shared by KP and Gizensha, both of whom predate me by a few months.
Round 4[5] -
$300[23] -
$200 - Dominique Levesque was holding this case.
[12] -
$100,000We're starting to head in the right direction now. As long as the $200,000 stays in play, the offers will increase, which is exactly what has happened to this one:
Julie hasn't asked the question once during this show. On Le Banquier, it's more of a formality than an actual rule. As for Patricia, she says
REFUSÉE.
Round 5[2] -
$5,000[20] -
$20Finally, a good round. The offer gets a healthy raise accordingly.
Patricia says
REFUSÉE.
Round 6[16] -
$50Now that's more like it. One left-side amount, $1,000, remains, but will that be in live play or proveout form?
Looks like it will indeed be in live play, because Patricia says
REFUSÉE.
Round 7[15] -
$1,000Yes
! The grand is gone, clearing the left side of the board. Patricia can't leave with less than $50,000 from this point forward. And to make matters more interesting, the oddball $112,000 amount is still up for grabs. Here's a look at the board:
$50,000
$112,000
$175,000
$200,000And the offer is:
I would actually consider taking this offer. It's generous enough to think about, but pitched in a way that reminds Patricia that there are still two amounts higher than that offer left on the board. She strongly considers pressing the flashing button, but advice from her supporters and some of the celebrity case holders give her the courage to slam down the cover and say
REFUSÉE.
Round 8[6] -
$200,000Make that one amount left that is higher than the previous offer. Most would expect the next offer to drop significantly, but I must remind you that this is Le Banquier. As a result, Patricia now faces this:
A $9,000 decrease from the seventh-round offer. I think he Banker is trying to throw our player a lifeline here, as it's a far drop from $116,000 to $50,000, even though the latter certainly isn't chicken feed. Patricia gets the message, and says
ACCEPTÉE.
Well, we're ending the series with a six-figure win, but did Patricia leave $59,000 on the table? There's one way to find out.
Proveout
Round 9[21] -
$175,000 - Nope! We've got a good deal!
Patricia would have faced a $50,000 vs. $112,000 final two. The hypo final offer is not given, so cases 4 and 9 are opened simultaneously.
[4] -
$50,000[9] -
$112,000Well, how do you like that? We could've had a one-twelvionaire, but instead, we get a TPW with an extremely narrow margin of victory. In fact, that might be one of the smallest victories this show has ever seen.
With new appliances, a dream vacation and enough money to pay off her debts secured, Patrica ends the series on a high note by winning a grand total of
$144,000 in cash and stuff.
No evidence that this was the final show was given in Julie's final sign-off, although the show's official Facebook page did make multiple references to this fact. And the real reason why we had to wait just over three months for this episode to air? La Voix, the French Canadian version of NBC's The Voice - ironically also produced by Julie Snyder - took over Le Banquier's Sunday evening timeslot.
After the Deal: Final ThoughtsAnd that does it for a decade of Le Banquier. Despite the show's many flaws - and as you're all aware, it's a very long list - Le Banquier changed a lot of lives and did quite well in the ratings. What started as a clone of the ill-fated American version eventually evolved into a wish fulfillment program where the gameplay often took a backseat. And while it's nice to help ordinary people live out their dreams, Le Banquier's decision to go that route served as a cautionary tale of sorts.
Despite being an excellent hostess who always wanted her contestants to do well, Julie's personal influence on the game or its outcome - remember, she was also the producer - often proved more meddlesome than good. Who could forget a $5 win that was negated with over $71,000 in sponsor prizes, and a $15,000 offer that was 7,800 per cent of the mean for a contestant who planned to donate a portion of his winnings to charity? It's instances like these that made the game a caricature of itself.
I'll reiterate what I said when Deal UK aired its last episode - in today's crowded television market, it's rare for a show, let alone a game show, to air for 10 years or more. Some show don't even make it to 10 episodes before they're cancelled. That said, I suppose you could argue that both Deal UK and Le Banquier managed to beat the odds.
Unlike other versions of Deal or No Deal, Le Banquier never crowned a half-millionaire or a penny winner. Plus, there were fewer than 10 "blue" winners because the French Canadians adopted a mostly conservative approach to the game. Statistics are few and far between for Le Banquier, but enough information is available to know the following:
Biggest Win: $277,000 (contestant sold the $500,000 case)
Lowest Win: $5 (negated by handouts, as mentioned above)
Strangest Win: $14.22 + 50 pairs of white socks + photo and article in 7 Jours magazine (accepted on a $5/$20 finish)
Best Deals: $255,000 for $1; $41,000 for $0.01
Worst Deal: $60,000 for $500,000
Even though this show was a chore to watch at times due to celebrity banter, musical performances and other distractions, I did have fun producing these recaps for you. They were equal parts sarcastic and informative. In fact, I'm shocked that I was never reprimanded for some of my sideline commentary. I guess the powers that be must like me or something. Who knows?
Thanks to all of you for reading and laughing along with me over the years. I hope you had as much fun reading these recaps as I did bringing them to you.
Until we meet again, I bid you good night and good deals.
FIN