Ah well. But he did have £35,000 in his box yesterday. And the day before he had the £75,000 in his box.

7th time in a row that the £1,000 has made the final 3 boxes!

8th time that it has been opened on the table in 15 shows (more than 50%!)

And, after being the rarest box to come to the table, its scaling the bloody ladder now isn't it!

That must really irritate people if they've had a game like that, especially if, like Paul, they've had a longer than average run of shows! He must be cursing that he wasn't picked on one of those two games!

Enjoy your £1,000 Paul.
I don't think I'd have dealt any of those offers either.

Not sure what to make of that game... the third offer was rather weird and I can see why Paul was deliberating over it so much! It's just yet more psychological banker tactics, probably because Endemol have realised that what with the cautious players and low wins of late people might be getting bored, and so have decided to introduce a few new twists to the show!

Anyway well done Paul and enjoy the money.

Endemol have probably been waiting for months to throw in a cash + special prize offer. They do it in the US all the time. I can't say I was that shocked as a result, especially as this will have been recorded at a time when the ratings were starting to plunge and they'd have possibly expected more of the same after a sustained period of safety-first play on ugly boards. They wanted a talking point and they got it - and a much better one than the cashless final offer IMO!

Does it make a mockery of the game? Not quite. It turns it into a totally different game - and one I'm rather less prepared for. Noel explicitly asked how much something like this would cost (the US show actually does usually quote values for such prizes, interestingly), and the challenge Paul implicitly faced was how to value such a prize. It's one thing to ask whether, say, £15,000 or £20,000 is enough to leave a game in that particular state (I personally would take £20k but not £15k); it's quite another to value a dream in that way and decide whether THAT is enough. I note that Paul played on because he was hoping for an eight-box offer of the Old Trafford prize and a five-figure sum of money to open the salon; would he have acted differently if the Old Trafford prize was guaranteed only to be offered that one time and revealed as such, as the US does with such prizes?

I'd have gone to the end too, though my third offer would have been a conventional one and, well, see above.

Welldone paul! shame it couldn't be more but £1,000 is lots better than the 1p

Well done Paul, you should have gotten more, and sorry to hear about the no deal of your dream I would have Dealt

Well, that was certainly interesting, even if maybe not the biggest talking point created by Endemol on C4 this week!

We've seen non-cash elements to offers before of course, but generally in the form of joke or low value prizes. This was something designed to clearly unsettle the player and (while I've no idea of what it would actually be worth) perhaps get him out of there cheaply for the board situation. I expected that offer might come up again later in the game, and who knows if the game hadn't sadly crashed! Shame for Paul anyway, he understandably chased a more long-term dream and it didn't work out.

As for that £1,000 though, it's getting silly now! I was almost wanting to see £50 at the end for that reason, as either would be little consolation. Let's have done with it and replace it on the board with half a million or something...

Hmmm, that was an odd game. I don't know what I would have done at the third offer, I'm a big United fan too.

I hope £1,000 doesn't come to the table on Sunday, it's just getting silly now.

I really liked level-headed Paul. A great player and took brave decisions. Gutted he went away with just a grand. Well done anyway!

Well done Paul!

Well done Paul, 1k will get you some great nights out,

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" D' D' D' D' D' D

Stephen

I really like Paul and his down to earth attitude. Not too showy either.

The game fell apart for him but I'm glad he kept is pride and didn't bail out for a peanuts offer.

How do you value a dream? Playing 90 minutes at Old Trafford wouldn't be worth 50p to me but for some contestants could be as good as priceless. I would love to know how any player would feel about dealing the 'dream' offer and then having substantially higher cash offers later. I've a feeling we may find out as my guess is this will become a regular feature of the show.

Ultimately I reckon money talks.

Just when you think you've seen it all, bam, they throw another twist in!

Really interesting today, and it's one of those games where you simply cannot say what you'd have done in that situation, as the 'prize' would be based on whatever your dream would be. I was actually really surprised when he turned it down, and the disaster he had afterwards was really bad luck. I hope he does get to play on Old Trafford one day, if the chance does arise again!

The £1,000 was blimmin' there *again*, although I'd rather he won that than the £50! Well done, Paul, just a shame it wasn't more!

A Red going home with a blue.

Ironic.

Since when was £1,000 blue? (I know it's effectively a blue in terms of the game but still appears in red on the board!)

<insert jokes about 'useless reds' from Chelsea, Manchester City, etc. fans here>

I must say, pretty wretched luck after the third-offer No Deal, hitting the £250k was one thing (3/11) but to take the £35k too, and then £75k next round...

Mamy times Noel has said £1000 is an honarary blue.

Are you on some kind of false info mission?

The ratings have never "plunged". They still get a 25% - 30% share. There's just 4 million fewer people watching daytime TV than there was in January. The drop they've had is in fact way less than you would expect in fact for a 18 month old 6 day a week show.

Trust me - they won't "panic" about this show until the ratings hit about 10% . You are way off with your "it's doomed!" angle. It's Channel 4's backbone.

I liked the dream prize bit..I would have taken it.