Dont these week long specials devalue the whole idea of a special?

Good - I like the way in which the twist can be seen to have several different permutations and outcomes, whereas with a one-off we'd never really know!

Indifferent, it's good, but I don't see the point after the actual event it builds up to.

Yes that does seem a little odd. But unless the actual day itself fell on the Friday, then we'd only end up with a couple of special shows before it. I suppose they could do a week's worth of shows before the day itself, but that'd be a bit messy.

Anyway I think they're quite good as long as they're not too trashy and don't mess about with the format too much. I think I'd rather a week like this where we have a few little gimmicks, rather than one special show that's a total gimmick fest. It also makes it fairer that six contestants get to take advantage of the Trick & Treat / Scrooge & Santa / Heart necklace twists etc. rather than just one.

I agree the twists add an extra eliment to game play. To be honest im falling out of love with DOND due to other commitents I only get to see it about once or twice a week.

Right, im this kind of boy so i respect people dont like this and it wont probably happen,

I was a bit disappointed with this week, because i like the OTT decorations and gimmicks, like for christmas week, i was hoping for a huge light up santa in the middle of the studio to have a more christmas feel to it.

Dont get me wrong, i like what they do in the weeks, i was just hoping they have it a bit OTT decorations, but i know if they did that then alot of people will not like it, so fair enough!

I enjoyed the Scrooge vs Santa week, but I think that was more to do with the people who played that week than the special elements. I think the Valentine's specials should be limited to the day itself and maybe the day or so before, same with Halloween week. I enjoyed the Halloween ones up until the day itself. The ones that were shown after the day seemed a bit pointless.

Things like Halloween and Valentines should just be the day only IMO.

Yeah sort of agree the twists are interesting but I'd like to see 'conventional spark' back in the show.

I don't care about the twists of the show I care about the charisma the bravery of the contestants. On Santa VS Scrooge week Patricia was really brave and won 70,250 pounds whereas Orry went on and won a quid. Sometimes Bravery can be rewarded but sometimes it cannot.

Orry would have been rewarded had he not done the evil swap.

It was his dead brothers birthday if he believed it was in front of him the first place he would have the Maria touch

Maria and John G are the only two power 5 swaps that have actually worked, all the others have failed and resulted in handing the money away.

''''l

Erm, duh! That's, you know, why it's a risk...

Anyway, the gameplay twists are excellent and I like seeing them used in multiple ways as James1978 noted. I couldn't care less about the presentational elements as I only follow the show through here.

Yeah I do like them, although they seem to feel pointless after the event they are celebrating has occurred.....i.e today (which ironically was the most depressing game ever) also occurs ironically 365 days before the next Valentines Day.

But its like, over the years, they seem to have gone more and more so over the top...last year celebrating Valentines Day just on the day, this year doing the whole week, with the whole place going over the top with the loveheart and stuff. Sooner or later, normal Deal or No Deal will be something to look fordward to....

Up next.....Lent Week

I voted 'good'.

OK, so Love Week just didnt work out, but it was only because of the way the gameplay went, the contestants had hardly any luck all week. The loveheart twist may well have been fascinating with a good set of boxes at say, 5 boxes left.

Gary you still have another day tommorow

Love Week is for five shows, not six.

The idea to have special weeks isn't original. The American's have been inventing special weeks for their daytime/syndicated game shows for decades. However, they aim to air them within their "sweeps months" (February, May and November). For example, this month the US version of Millionaire are airing "Million Dollar Movie Week", where all the questions are based on movies and "Pay to Play for Your Wedding Week" which features couples who are set to tie the knot.

Obvivously, we don't have sweeps here so DoND tend to use the special events as weeks. Also the show continues to be unique as other daytime game shows don't do special weeks. Weakest Link used to have occasional specials in daytime but they no longer produce them, while Countdown had the one-off matches to cover for the England cricket on the 4th and 5th days on a test match.

We may see Golden Balls joining the club soon. As series three goes into production next month we could see "big stealers week" or "smallest winners week" by inviting contestants back. Even this week has been classed a "big money week" with some massive money going into Split/Steal.

I like the week long specials and the little twists they add to the games. It keeps the show feeling fresh by introducing some new elements. Plus as it's only for a week even if they introduce something that doesn't work well or they go too OTT with something then at least it's only for a few shows before it returns to normal.