Not if they are contestants like today's

If the final offer had been a monetary one, I doubt it'd have been much above £10k if the 5-box offer was anything to go by. As much as I don't like non-monetary final offers, I think in this case she'd have no dealt a poor offer at 2-box and swapped anyway. Some of the banker's offers recently have been so poor that they may as well have been swaps.

I think it's really harsh if a player gets a swap and no money in an era of good offers, such as Stuart (1) and Swappy Craig (although both of those asked for it with what they said about no dealing, and Craig did have a good get-out offer later on but didn't take any notice of it).

I hope swap-only offers don't become a regular feature. It's going to be a bit crap if players who aren't scared to take on the banker get poor offers or swaps through "punishment", as no-one will dare say what they think of the offers (and they tend to say all offers are good anyway at the moment, when some of them have been dreadful). Julie's attitude was rather aggressive, but she was no worse than some other players the show has had, so I don't see why she deserved not to get money at the end.

Yep. As well as that though, a big appeal of the game for me is witnessing the thought processes a player goes through when they're given a tough financial decision. You get to see how they view money, what's important to them and how they allow other people to influence them, all of which is fascinating from a psychological perspective. We got a glimpse of that today at eight-box when Julie was offered a very dealable £12,500 on an increasingly unstable board, but it would have been interesting to have seen how she'd have reacted to a £15-20k final offer. Simply being offered a swap at the end takes away all of that interesting psychological stuff and turns the whole event into a complete lottery.

Having said that, I'm really pleased for Julie that it turned out well for her. (I suspect that if it hadn't, we'd have definitely seen another consolation prize being awarded today...)

Totally agree with MisterAl there - the game is about decisions, and this was a game that should have had one really interesting decision between an offer in the teens of thousands or taking on a £5/£75,000 coinflip.

Instead, Endemol played to base instincts almost. This game isn't about decisions anymore, it's about gambling. Aaron Brock says he's interested in the show again, I'm now more disinterested than ever. I wonder how the 'general public' feel...

Wow! What a win!
I'm with the rest of you though, I wonder what she would have done if she'd been made a half decent offer instead of the swap????
Thought she was incredibly brave and I'm really pleased for her, she seemed a nice bubbly person.

The climax of today's game wasn't even about gambling, as far as I can see. It was solely about luck.

I'm not fussed with these final swap offers. Since this show was adapted from two shows (A Prendre ou a Laisser & Affari Tuoi) which uses final swap offers nearly every show. Also don't forget back in September 2005 the one version they showed to the auditionees featured this.

Deal or No Deal isn't all about gambling, it's also about strategy to when to stop or to see what happens next if you carry on. This also leads to the game using unpredictable outcomes, which is why The Banker uses his next offer strategy and today, luring her into the trap to swap the box.

I looked back the episode on when Noel revealed the swap only offer. There weren't much reaction from the pilgrims, Julie or the other contestants. It looked like that she wasn't fussed about the swap offer.

I suspect that if they applied the swap offers in November 2005 then more people will be used to them now. Also those on here who refuse this if it was them, no doubt that those who appear on the show have to sign a binding contract explaining the terms and conditions to the game, probably one term relating to The Banker's offers could be anything.

Although, we don't know what hit the cutting room floor. I can't imagine that the actual events played out quite as quickly as were shown.


Well, I personally wasn't saying that The Banker isn't allowed to do it! Just that it makes the game far less interesting if he does.

Wow. Trust me to go to Bother's Bar before watching DOND the one day that I really shouldn't have.

I'm a Yorkshire guy myself so I didn't find Julie irritating today - just plain no-nonsense Yorkshire grit.

It seems being called Julie is a lucky omen on DOND. A 1p box being sold for £33k and now 2 £75k wins from opening your box.

I'd have dealt every one of Craig's actualy monetary offers - I think he was chasing in his head what the earlier offers metaphorically would have been!

As for VENTRESS, it didn't bother me in the slightest. Having seen what he does for a living, he was never going to deal 3k or 4k when there was still 35k up for grabs was he? God knows what he was thinking of picking Box 1 when he said it had the 35k in but it was sort of funny!

The other thing is I don't think people are going to be able to play one offer against a later offer - simply the box values that are left. Today i was thinking at 5-box - 40% chance of 15k or so, 60% chance of disaster. It was actually 20% of 75k and 80% of disaster!!

I also found it odd that the banker didn't do one of those "Keep the 75k in play at 2-box and the next offer wil be £x,000" - now it all becomes clear why!!

I fear if anything it will raise more caution and more deals like Meena's, or god forbid Michael's!!

I don't think she'd have been given a half decent offer. The lady who played last Friday (I don't remember her name) was only offered £12,500 in proveout, Julie would probably have been offered something similar. I liked Julie, I thought she seemed like a nice, bubbly lady and I enjoyed her game. I could see the swap offer coming a mile off, but I didn't really mind it. It brings a bit of variety to DOND. It just proves that there's more than one way to skin a cat. Or in this case, a banker.

What lesson? Don't be confident? Given Julie would never play DOND again what would the Banker be able to teach her?

A money offer would have caused her to throw in the towel. A swap just forced the huge win.

seems i might have been the only one to have been thoroughly entertained by that game....its been too long a time coming, indeed i miss several shows a week now because its largely been utter rubbish for a good part of the year. and when my digital recorder packs in as usual, i dont lament missing a game or two. glad i caught this one, i thought it was fantastic, 75k win and people here are STILL complaining???!

brilliant game

Well i thought that was an amazing game, I did find Julie a little brash at times but i don't think she came across as a bad person.

Genuinely didn't see that final offer coming and right up till the moment Noel pulled the seal i was expecting the Banker to call back and offer her a financial opt-out. As a twist though it worked for me because it just adds to the unpredictable nature of the show.

I'm happy it worked out for her and i'm hoping it lifts the spirits of those on the wings to have such a positive result.
Don;t see the Banker pulling that trick again in the near future, not after getting his fingers burned, but i suppose it could occur again.

I would say though that i thought the circumstances were very different to PJs game, PJ really bought that final swap on himself, IIRC he swapped at the first offer then was too frightened to open his rejected box, for my money the first box you should open after a swap is the one you gave away, otherwise the Banker has a psychological advantage (of course if you gave away £250,000 then he has trhe advantage anyway) Certainly you should never keep it till the end or it makes the swap redundant.

YES!! That was absolutely brilliant. Easily the best game of season four without a doubt. And one of my all-time favourites.

I loved Julie, I always thought she would be great during her time on the wings and I wasn't proved wrong. The big win that was needed, and for once it wasn't spoilt for me!

This game had everything, tension, entertainment. Just a classic game.

More like this please!!

I meant to comment on this game early, but never seem to got round to it.

Anyway I thought this was a great game. I liked Julie and it was an entertaining and tense games. I had a feeling something interesting was going to happen given the speed of how the game seemed to be moving. The £2,500 offer was rubbish and Julie was right in saying she had no choice to go on, but that seemed to backfire on her when the Banker really gave her no choice at the end - apart from the swap.

The no cash offer at the end did surprise me as I didn't expect it. I actually thought for a moment the Banker was planning on sticking at £2,500 from the way he was talking (which may as well have been just a swap had he did). I don't think it's fair that Julie wasn't at least given an offer to at least consider and to be forced on to either all or nothing, but regardless of that it still provided an exciting end. So when Noel revealed the £75,000 I was so pleased it had worked out for her and it provided one of the biggest wins of the year and one of the most exciting end games in a long time.

sorry mate, I agree with Daniel & James, big wins alone don't make for good games, and this was a prime example of that. I also agree with whoever siad it seems the nicer players win next to nothing mostly.

First game I have even bothered to catch up with now I have college. It is interesting. Can you not see why they used the swap offer! Without it she would have most likely dealt on that finish. It goes to show that it requires pretty much no offer at the final two for anyone to give it a shot. Hey, that is down to Endemols contestant selection!

Just seen it, brilliant briliant brilliant