Possibly the problem with DOND is the time structure when there are big gambles, as the final edit requires more screen time for a big gamble than an early deal with a fairly swift proveout. Look at Shaun's and Mel's games - Shaun was getting his final offer at 4:51, and Mel had only got her (proveout) fourth offer at the same time only the next day.

Would it be better if DOND had more of the time structure of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Duel or indeed the American version of DOND? Whereby if a player deals and the proveout is swift, then they bring the next contestant on, start their game and complete their game in the next show?

This might solve the problem of the timing as the editing wouldn't give away whether the player is going to gamble or whether it'll be an early deal. It would also provide a cliff-hanger to make people come back to see how the person does in their game in the following show.

The downside of it is that player's show counts would be a bit warped and if you had a run of early dealers with fast proveouts - i.e. a batch of shows with 2 contestants in each game, then the players on the wings would get less air time before they played their game.

Also would it change the contestants' attitudes if the show had a different timescale? Would it discourage early deals as they'd get less airtime by dealing early?

No - If it ain't broke dont fix it.

They should only change the time structure so that it stops spoiling the end of the game, for example when someone gets their 4th or 5th offer at about 4:50, you know they are going to deal

Definite yes from here - although a steady amount of wing banter needs to be kept in as well to avoid the problems of airtime.

It is broken though.

I definately agree that it needs changing. It's kinda obvious if someone is at 8 box at 4:50 they are going to deal, and is a spoiler in itself.

99%+ of viewers would never work that out.

My answer would be somewhere in the middle

Whilst I see where you're coming from I just don't think it would work too well.

Say the show ended in the middle of a game and resumed the next day and for some reason you missed the next show it would be kind of annoying that you missed the outcome of that particular person. At least the way it's screened now if you miss an episode your only missing the one game.

I also feel it would make the editing even worse than it is now as they might edit even more out than they do now so they can squeeze in the start of another game, resulting in a game that might feel rushed due to editing.

If the show was a weekly format like WWTBAM or Duel then I would understand the need for them to do that, but with it being a daily show it works much better in my opinion with each show & day starting afresh.

Yeah, definately, and they should have an hour timeslot, to be honest. If they moved countdown back to 3:15, then DoND could have an hourly timeslot from 4 til 5, then POG/R&J can keep their "5 on 4" slot, where DoND will be at 4 on 4.

Or a better idea would be to move it forward possibly, to a 6 o'clock timeslot for an hour then have holyoaks at 7, and a half an hour news slot, because an hour is a bit too much for the news, don't you think?

I couldn't put it any better

It wouldn't work bringing on a new player and having to stop their game half way through. I think that would stop me from watching it.

I see no need to change it.

As soon as someone has dealt they should do away with the proveout and just open their box to see what was in there. Once the deal is done the game is over. Dragging out the opening of meaningless boxes is a waste of time and irrelevent.

They should also cut out the waffle at the start and prohibit the mountains of tat that contestants bring on, none of which is the slightest bit interesting to anybody.

Then they should cut the show down to 30 minutes, increase the pace and if necessary start another show if the old one finishes. It works for other shows and should work here.

The show is getting stale and seems to drag on and on especially as the 'grab the easy money and run brigade' seems to have taken over.

Actually in a lot of cases that would be great - imagine if they'd done that with Mel - Noel would have opened her box to reveal 10p and everyone would be really happy about what a fantastic deal she'd done! And no more having to get annoyed about saying the banker would have offered 45 grand when in reality it would have been around half that! Sounds fantastic!

Well i disagree with Basicasic, i think the show should be a bit longer maybe 55-60 mins, but include a bit more banter with the contestants, because past contestants keep saying, awhh they cut out really funny things, well if the show was a bit longer then we could see alot more banter! But i wouldnt want to see one show, then half another, if the half show we watched was really tense and excitment, then it would all disappear by the next day and wouldnt be soo exciting! well thats my opinion!

I don't think the format of the game should be changed. If a contestant deals early, then I think they should speed up proveout, and as someone else said, call another contestant if there's time to spare. I think it would be a mistake if it was changed to the American format, where models open the boxes. I like having future contestants in the wings, as I always have favourites whose games I want to see.

I heavily disagree. Largely, the amount of bad deals done on the show are down to the fact they could have had a much higher offer. Only a few occasions would see the box infront have a higher sum. It makes the game inconclusive if 10p is revealed in a box straight after someone has dealt on a fantastic board for a poor offer. Everyone thinks it's a fantastic deal but it obviously isn't. It looks like a good deal but imagine the higher offers that the person would have had.

Quite frankly I'm beyond caring these days. Its much easier to assume every deal is a cop out and just open the box. Then get on with the next game.

I also agree. I think the only element they could possibly "steal" from the American version is the straddling of people's games across two shows.

It has already changed.

Until about Spring 2006, you had Noel cleverly spreading his interview-esque questions throughout the first half of the game - nowadays it's all done before the game starts.

I'd love the former to start happening again.

Basicasic,i think it,s nice to know a little about the contestants when they are in the chair everyone leads different lives and have different backgrounds or would you rather see pair,s of hands and a pile of red boxes on the screen ,what a bore .i get the impression by the comments you make that you don,t really like people.