As someone once wrote...

Davedorn has no opinion either way, Cherry, on the basis that he's interracting only with your online persona. For all I know, you could be a thirty stone biker with a knitting habit, or, alternatively, a six stone grandma that loves Metallica!

I do, however, have this sense of wonderment about the word "deserves" when it comes to DOND. As far as I can see, there's no one contestant that "deserves" any amount at all.

Did her conduct or demeanour merit her being awarded £250k? Had she in any way proved her worthiness to walk away with £250k? Given that it was in her box, and she chose to deal at £21k, it would seem not.

Deservingness, or meritoriousness, is a measure of worthiness, in many ways, and people prove their own merit. In that regard, Ned may be considered to be more worthy of a higher winning than he actually got - but in other respects, he played his game and won what he won, for better or worse.

That Donna dealt too early - in fact should not have dealt at all, and should not have swapped, either - is paramount. She, herself, at the point of dealing, was ecstatic with the amount. She felt, that she "deserved" that amount. And, indeed, that's the case - she did, and does, because that's as far as she was prepared to go, having weighed everything up.

Had she no-dealed at £21k, and again at the inflated £59k, and yet again at the inflated £170k, and then rejected the swap, then yes, she'd have "deserved" to win £250k - she'd have played the game to that point, and done everything necessary to put herself in the position to be the biggest ever winner.

If she'd got to two box and swapped, she'd have won £100k - which she'd have deserved to have won.

But she didn't, ergo, she won exactly what she deserved to win.

You see, the whole thing is a gamble, and each player must balance risk and reward, knowing that the greater the risk, the greater the potential reward, but also the greater the possible "loss" (not that anyone actually loses anything).

That someone who has actually gambled nothing of their own, and is therefore taking no real risk, misses out on a massive sum of money and then breaks down into floods of pre-pubescent tears is something I find quite offensive. I quite understand someone who has slogged their guts out on a business or at their work being totally shattered when it all comes to naught, and they've invested blood, sweat and money, but on a game show? Sorry - it's just greed.

Donna's game was very interesting, and has triggered one of the biggest ever post-episode debates I have ever seen on this site.

I think she was wise dealing when she did, and surely the fact that she dealt when she did showed that she did believe that £21k was an amount of money worth having, so this did slightly contradict her reactions to the fact that she could have got more. This contradiction makes me think that her fiancee did indeed influence her decision heavily, but she should not be blaming him, and he should not be blaming her. I also think that Noel should not be critical if the friend / relative in the audience offers advice to the player - after all, Noel is the one who often encourages them to get involved with the game.

Judging by what Kingsley wrote, it'd appear that Noel was angry at how her fiancee influenced her game - well if he genuinely was angry, then he needs to get together with the Endemol bosses and discuss how much involvement friends / family members have in the game.

To be honest, and this has been discussed in another thread elsewhere, I think it will be a good thing when the £250k does eventually get won (which hopefully, it will do soon). Whilst Noel and the banker will no doubt be encouraging gambling still, I feel that in a situation like Donna's, Noel will not feel the need so much to rub it in when they deal too early.

It is nice to see the player's emotions coming through, albeit a bit painful to watch in Donna's case, but it has to be remembered that Endemol are making a television programme here - they want shows like this with tension and emotions showing through.

However, what I don't understand is how, when a player deals too early, sometimes Noel would appear to be being kind and even the banker being compassionate; yet, at other times, Noel and the banker rub it in if a player deals too early.

I will be very interested to see what the viewing figures for the C4 showing and the More4 showing of this episode are.

It was abysmal and why all those tears when you have won £21K. I can't be doing with it it. Make up your mind - go and be thankful but don't behave like a 4 year old when you find there were more sweeties in the bag.

I suspect that they're watched quite carefully in the hotel, and their characters are pretty well understood by the time it's their time in the crazy chair. You can almost guarantee that Noel will be well briefed on which buttons to push to get good telly, and that the Banker team have already decided on their strategy to manoeuvre the player where they think they'll get best value.

The proveout offers in Donna's game were massively inflated in comparison to similar proveouts, precisely to twist the knife, and perhaps goad other players into a more risky strategy when it comes to their turn - quite possibly because there seems to be an atmosphere of settling at the 20-30k mark.

COmpoare and contrast with Sarah's game today...

Donna's game was a tragedy in more than one way. I think that if there is a lesson to be learnt from this, contestants - don't take anyone with you. You live and die by your own decisions in this game. That way you don't risk damaging relationships. If I were Donna, I would have given her other half the big heave-ho afterwards. If she hadn't have taken him along in the first place, they wouldn't have had an on-screen domestic and she wouldn't have been able to blame anyone else. Harsh lesson in life, make your own decisions.

Let's keep a sense of perspective here.

DoND is only a TV game - a game which is entirely based on random positioning of boxes and the decisions of players making random guesses. Some win big, most don't. And 21K would be considered to be a healthy sum of money by many contestants - possibly Donna included, when all's said and done.

These two young people are engaged to be married, a weighty commitment we must assume with some charity that they have not entered into lightly. One of the foundations of a successful marriage is that important decisions should be made jointly, and the consequences also enjoyed or endured jointly. To assume that any young couple's burgeoning lifetime relationship should be terminated purely on the basis of one unfortunate financial decision made on a TV game show ignores the deeper aspects of what a loving relationship is all about.

It certainly should not be just about the acquisition of money, or the loss thereof.

Crazy coincidence: Donna is the second young female player to sell the £250,000 box for the equivalent of £1,000 for each year of her life. The first was actually flagged up as much, and was the £22,000 taken by Natalie, the first player ever to have it, way back on the second Thursday of the first series.

Kingsley has made some excellent points.

One thing worth noting: in the US version, relatives and sometimes other friends are very openly placed on a 'supporters' bench' close to the US equivalent of our Pound Table; there's usually three or more on that bench, and often their advice will be split. I love some of the clips I've seen where there's one person on the bench screaming Deal and someone else screaming No Deal... I really enjoy seeing that split in opinion play out, and watching how the player is influenced by the differing voices...

But don't these financial decisions carry over into the marriage? What if this ends up being a central basis of their arguments?

Of course, if it's this weighty of a commitment, hopefully they discussed financial issues beforehand.

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bretzysdude
http://bretzysdude.livejournal.com

Go Karen!

I've only got round to watching this show after downloading it from somewhere

Donna wasn't the sharpest tool in the toolbox but when offered £21K her boyfriend reminded her of a figure they agreed they would be happy with. A figure that would obviously pay for a wedding and honeymoon. However, it wasn't taken in context as the largest two boxes were still present.

Her boyfriend appeared to become embarressed about it all. Had he not been there I felt Donna would of continued and balied out when I would of done so, at £170K.

That isn't the point though. The beauty of this game is that most people deal at points when they reach a sum of money they are happy with. For some people £8K is an awful lot of money, whereas others the min figure is £25K+

Nonetheless, this will go down as a classic.

The More4 repeat of this game actually topped the More4 weekly ratings chart. The last new episode to do that on it's own merit was Shirley way back on the 22nd June.

(Janelle did, but her game went up against England v Portugal so it wasn't really on it's own merit, and Eddie and Tina did, but those were classic repeats from December 2005 in October/November 2006, so not new episodes).

I think if you deal thats forget about it. What i hate is people dealing then starting to cry when it goes wrong. If you deal forget it the game is over. Her deal was the worst in the shows history given the board she had. She was stupid to say the least and her reactions at the end were to say the least pathetic.

Must go down as the best game ever. It goes from bad to worse to worse great car crash tv.

I personally along with my family were absolutly delighted when she blew all that money and we were all praying the 250k was in the box.
Her attitude was horrible and we all know what these glamour models are like lol but her boyfriends face was hillarious he knew he had really screwed it up.
Crying over 21k PLEASE theres famined people in the world who cannot make £21 and shes there waaaaaaa it was sickening she got poetic justice in the end with the 250k been in her box and missing out on all that money.

Just my opinion don't flame me lol