I think if my memory is right going all those years ago, the very end of Simon's game was the first time I'd ever seen any of the programme, and everyone seemed upset at him winning £250, to which I thought "What's wrong with £250? I would love that right now"!! (Not realising what it was in the context of of course)

I thought Vikki winning the jackpot on the last show (to date anyway!!) was a fix at the time as I thought to happen on the last show was too much of a coincidence - but only in the years since I found out the On Tour shows weren't transmitted in the same order they were filmed (the last one filmed was a 1p win, the only blue win of the lot, so naturally they "hid it away" in the middle of the first week of shows).

Here we are at 17 years and a day since Nick became the first player ever to win 1p...and exactly seventeen years since I found this forum, searching for video clips of that historic moment. I may be wrong, but I'm sure he later put the cheque on eBay and sold it for £20 or something like that, so at least there was a bit of a silver lining if that's correct!

5 months of waiting to get registered is a bit harsh!

Ha, I lurked for 5 months, then took the plunge!

A few anniversaries today:

2006 - Chris played on what was also a Monday, and had a horrendously unlucky game throughout, but after being offered only £800 on 7 blues/£1k/£5k/£100k, he was then offered ABOVE THE AVERAGE of £1,500 on 6 blues/£1k/£10k, which, unsurprisingly, he dealt. Thankfully only had £5 in the box. This game is also memorable for the £1 card falling off in Sam's box.

2007 - Tony played and ended up taking out the £35k on the 20th box, and joining the 1p club.

2009 - Melissa played in the penultimate game of Love Week, bringing along her partner Alfonso who played earlier that week, and ended up with a £21k OPW.

2011 - Ade played the game before Love Week, and sensibly dealt an extra offer of £4k on 1p/£5/£20k, but had £20k all along.

2012 - Alex played the first game of 80s Love Mix, and dealt £21k, before turning out to have £100k in his box.

2013 - Emotional Sully played during Hollywood Heartthrobs, and, after using his special box after declining £17k at 8 box, he dealt £19k. He was left with £100/£75k and a proveout offer of £26k, but only had the £100, making it a nice TPW.

2014 - Sarah played the day after Roop's Jackpot Win, and went to the end to win £3k out of her box. She didn't go for 23 which would've given her Money Back.

Damn, I forgot February 11th 2015 (the second-ever Double Trouble game) - thank to Dr Hindsight I found this the funniest game thread ever (the deal sounds like come back £22.5k Richard or even £20k Wilf, all is forgiven!!)

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=26740

Just shows how robotic things got

A few more anniversaries for Valentine's Day:

2006 - Helen didn't have much luck, but, like Chris the day before, dealt a very generous 8 box offer, £4,800 on 5 blues/£3k/£5k/£50k.

2007 - Georgina played a brilliant game, dealing £56k on £50/£15k/£35k/£100k/£250k, and had the £50 all along.

2010 - Yaser played the last of the Love Week specials, and got a £31k OPW from dealing on a £250/£100k finish.

2011 - Phoenix played the first of the Love Week specials, and had a pretty unlucky game throughout, but dealt £11k on £5/£50/£1k/£15k/£75k. He missed out on £22k on a £50/£75k but thankfully didn't have the big money all along, resulting in a TD.

2012 - Jackie played in the 2nd game of the 80s Love Mix specials, and dealt £14k. Unfortunately she went on to blow what was a pretty stingy £51k on £1/£250k, and had the jackpot all along.

2013 - Lynn played the 4th game of Hollywood Heartthrobs, using her Special Box early on at 10 box, dealt £22k at 9 box. She did go on to blow £26k, £31k, and then £81k on a £100/£250k finish but thankfully, unlike Jackie, didn't have the big money, and was given a holiday to Paris as well.

2014 - Victoria played the penultimate game of Love HQ, and unfortunately DOUBLE in Box 23 was insignificant on this occasion, only doubling £50 to £100. But thankfully also got a holiday to Las Vegas.

A few today:

2006 - Fin declined £44k at 8 box and ended up with just £10k in the end.

2007 - Paul had an incredible offer of £40k at 11-box, which he dealt, and only had £1 all along.

2008 - Jill sensibly dealt £8,500 on 10p/£20k, but unfortunately had the big money all along.

2009 - Forumite Dan Judge played, he did deal at the 3rd round, but, like Paul, at a very generous offer (£16,500 on 6 blues/£1k/£20k/£35k/£75k/£100k).

2011 - Darrel played in the last of the Love Week specials, and, after turning down £9k on the first 3 offers, lost the jackpot, and from then on his offers were appalling, (£2k on 5 blues/£5k/£50k/£75k and £950 on 4 blues/£50k), he was offered £5k at 3-box after using the Special Box on £1/£10/£50k, and after declining it, lost the £50k. The Banker made him a special offer that if he had the £1 as predicted, he'd win the Holiday that none of the players that week managed, but would win nothing if he had £10, and alas, he had the latter.

2012 - Mike played the first game after 80s Love Mix, and after nicely swapping away £1 for £1k, proposed to his partner, which she accepted, also winning themselves a holiday.

2013 - Theo played, and was faced with a 5-box of a blue/£5k/£20k/£75k/£100k, and dealt £22,500. He went on to blow £100,000.

2014 - Dave became the first ever winner of HALF PENNY, after his gamble on 1p/£20k didn't pay off, and he ended up being halved.

2015 was Monty, but unfortunately I don't really remember anything about that game other than him winning £7k.

This has recently been uploaded and I'm watching it for the first time since the OG broadcast when i was 12 years old.

And it's worse than I remember. She's specifically states that she didn't want to cheat the audience out of the spectacle of 'playing the game'. I've just paused the video right after the no deal to the 2nd offer (12k) and, hmm, do I want to watch the rest? I remember it being very miserable. And Morris was instructed not to rhyme and just get on with the proceedings. Or so I recall. Was he?

Yeah, it's bad. Even a fellow contestant (Daniel's fave Sarah) commented on the silliness of playing just for *us*.Right before she opened the £250k. Dot looks heartbroken.

Nope, I completely misremembered Morris not being granted a poem. He gives one. What game was that then? It definitely happened.

May 9th can be remembered for a couple of controversial deals.

2006 - Terri took some brave gambles throughout, such as turning down 134% of the FD, £20,000, at 8-box with 5 blues/£15k/Top 2, and 113% of the FD at £10,000 on a 3 blues/£15k/£100k 5 box, before then taking a measly £3,800, 68% of the FD, on a £750/£15k finish and having £15k in her box, resulting in an OPL.

2011 - Wilf played the first of the Cowboys & Indians specials for the Banker's Birthday, and dealt 74% of the FD, £20,000, on a 1p/10p/£100/£1k/TOP 7 11 box. He missed out on offers of £35k at 8 box and £26k at 5 box.

Not as bad as today's anniversary Michael That one still confuses me 12 years later!!

In contrast, it's also 17 years since fruit and veg courier Gary turned down £21,000 at 8-box and immediately followed it with a spectacular crash in the 5th round. The final straw was when he swapped away £3,000 at the end and went away with a solitary quid

Interesting that £1 Gary always gained a reputation for being one of the most reckless gamblers in the history of the show (declining £21k at 8-box with the top 2 and basically nothing else), but it suffered from being viewed in isolation and was tame compared to say, the Spring 2007 gamblers a year later.....just a few months later, £50 Sarah declined £20k on virtually the exact same board and crashed to a blue win, and that didn't cause any uproar

Nearing the 10 year anniversary of the game that marked the beginning of the end for UK Deal. Gonna set a calendar reminder to make sure it gets its due recognition when said anniversary rolls around.

I remember the quote from The Banker at 5 box that summed it up "After the high wire came a clown"

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the beginning of the end of Deal or No Deal.

Iris played 10 years ago today, and got an £11,500 2nd offer on a decent board, which she quickly wanted to take. The Banker caught on to this, though, and made an unprecedented move of reducing the offer to £4,000. Iris no dealt, proceeded to have a great round, and then quickly dealt her £10,000 3rd offer, £1,500 LESS than her original 2nd offer despite having a great round afterward and a great board!

She then destroyed the game afterwards against all odds, having an all round after her deal and then finding the 250k before 2 box, technically "spanking" the Banker as she got out at the highest offer officially available in the game.

That game started an unprecedented run of terrible offers from the Banker and early uber-cautious deals from the players that lasted throughout the rest of 2013, sending the show in a downward spiral which they felt could only be fixed by introducing Box 23. That somewhat worked short term but over time the decline continued and the once great entertainment drama Deal was eventually was cancelled.

I'd be sceptical as to how much influence one game, or even a trend of cautious players in an era when absolutely everybody had to be cautious financially-speaking, had on the eventual fate of Deal or No Deal. I think it was a natural progression, personally, which was delayed for as long as humanely possible through this innovation and that, but that progression arguably had begun long before 2013.

The new show I feel will either have a far shorter life than the original, because it's not a new concept, or it'll become our equivalent of Jeopardy! and take on an entirely new meaning as a national institution. The former is more likely...

IMO, DoND had several peaks and valleys during the first half of run (particularly during the 2008-2010 period), but I really think that the beginning of the hour-long shows era (i.e. the start of 2011) was where the decline truly began and never truly recovered.

I don't think it was any coincidence that the shows becoming an hour long also saw a sudden balloon in cautious deals, which, just a year earlier, people would think were impossible!!