Considering how much TV producers seem to love celebrity specials, it’s noticeable that DOND hasn’t had any (the closest it came was probably when Catherine Tate played as Nan for comic relief).

But unlike Millionaire, Weakest Link, etc, the format of Deal or No Deal doesn’t really lend itself to celebrity specials, for a couple of reasons:

• If a celebrity played, who would open the boxes? Other celebrities? (It seems unlikely they’d agree to such a small role, when not all of them would get a game.) They could get people connected to the celebrity to open the boxes, which is how they solve the problem in the Christmas Star shows, but this still leaves the lack of a group dynamic.

• Presumably celebrities would be playing for charity, but the fact that they’re already wealthy would undermine the whole “aiming to win life-changing money” element of the game – there wouldn’t be the same sense of jeopardy if they took a gamble, and if their game fell apart they’d probably feel obliged to donate some of their own money to the charity anyway.

I’m sure they could make celebrity specials work – these are just some of my thoughts.

What does everyone else think? Would you want celebrity specials? (And which celebrities would you like to see on there?)

Personally I'm not convinced it would work. There is an existing thread on this subject:

http://www.dond.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14080&hilit=celebrity+special

Noel said he'd veto any attempts to do a celebrity special. Personally I can think of worse things he's been told to do and hasn't vetoed, but I digress.

Celebrity special = bad idea. The dynamic of the game is based around financial risk/reward, which gets seriously confused with celebrities playing for charity. Millionaire barely gets away with celebrity specials when the risk/reward element is peripheral to the game, here it's the entire game.

I don't think it would work, 21 of the 22 celebs would get very little time on screen and would win no money for their charity. Also the 22 celeb appearance fees would cost a fortune.

The idea sounds fun, but it's just not practical.

Noel said himself he would quit if they ever did, anyway.

It could be interesting, but, as i've stated before i'd still rather not see celebrity specials. Just imagine the likes of The Cheeky Girls, Linda Barker, David Van Day, Christopher Biggins etc...lining the wings. i.e the usual z-list celebs TV shows like get on board (all of the above recently seen in ITV1's primetime schedule with Ant & Dec).

There are too many shows now that rely on the celebrity format. Like Family Fortunes for example, i'd much rather see "normal" families on the show again and not varying celebrities and their family. So i'm glad that DOND hasn't, and hopefully, won't go down that route.

The only celebrity I would like to see play is Noel Edmonds, and Harry Hill could be a laugh too (especially if the 1p box was replaced with the shark ).

IMO the Christmas Star Specials fit there better than Celebrity Specials would.

The answer for me is "no", unless Boris Johnson is the celebrity playing.

The celebrity culture is a nonsense of society that has spiralled out of control. As a result, you'd only ever see the usual 'celebrity' suspects and like most 'celebrity' programming it wouldn't be worth watching. Deal or No Deal is about giving everyday folk the opportunity to be put in a situation that they perhaps wouldn't normally be in. The idea of taking risks to possibly change their lives. The game wouldn't be the same if that risk aspect is taken away and replaced with a group of half-wits with more money than sense; (obviously there are several exceptions to that rule, and h2005 has pointed one of them out!).

I think that's a resounding no from my corner but I have no doubt endemol will use it at the last hour.