This sounds interesting...

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/comm ... 9.article#

Worth a read!

Looks like the US rules and probably graphics, and oh crumbs they're desperate for risk-taking players even in a recession!!

All National Lottery game shows in Ireland offer contestants to appear on their show by buying scratchcards. It has been the case for well over 25 years. At least they select contestants by anybody buying scratchcards rather than using the audition route.

Richard Hague will be working on the show so it will be in safe hands.

I'm surprised nobody has made a joke about the host Keith Barry being a hypnotist as he could put the contestants into a trance before recording for them to no deal at every offer.

"Look into the eyes, not around the eyes, etc.... Your name is Wakey."

"No Deal!"

"Click... you're back in the room!"

"Now, let's see if our brave contestant who just turned down €125,000 has won 1 cent or a quarter of a million..."

Post of the week!

I wonder if there is a tendency for more risk-taking players on Irish Lottery game shows as a result...

Richard Hague working on the show is certainly a sign it will be well-produced and run well in the studio, and probably also a hint at a broadly UK-influenced presentation - I'd be quite happy with UK presentation and the US/Dutch ruleset, in honesty.

Bet KB can't fit that mother into his signature!

But yes, this should be interesting...

Well, following the Daily Mail's report about UK DoND possibly struggling financially, the Irish version is set to get off to a flying start with a large budget - http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/tv-r ... 33238.html

Here's the Daily Mail report for anyone interested: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... -cuts.html

There's also a separate thread about it here... viewtopic.php?f=4&t=18818

First episode of Irish Deal or No Deal with Keith Barry went out this evening on TV3. A good few differences from the UK version. 26 boxes, only one contestant on each show - box openers are contestants family and members of the green box club (i.e. members of the public who apply just to open boxes, but are not contestants themselves). The contestant gets to choose their own box at the start of the show, so no box is forced upon them via random ping pong ball selection. Boxes are green in colour. The amounts vary from 1c to 250,000 euro, mostly the same numerically as the UK except a few extra ones to make up the 26 boxes. At six box, offers come after each box, which is hugely adventageous for the player. Offers were generous compared to the UK show, but this show is backed by the National Lottery in Ireland (i.e. the Irish equivalent of Camelot).

Just watched the show. It's a bit weird seeing the UK amounts combined with the US pacing, and the set is very large and green, though not distractingly so. Keith Barry did a reasonable job for his first time, and appeared not to overly influence the player, though he has picked up a few tips from Noel.

The players and box openers seem a bit naive to risk, which is to be expected as it's the first time they've seen the show. It's a shame that the only reason the UK version isn't shown there is because of the pound-euro difference, as nowadays there isn't much between the two.

(Side note: Endemol would probably love to have our version in euros at present. A 10% drop in prize pool with a 10% increase in audience with Ireland watching would do wonders.)

I did like the way friends and family were introduced with members of the public, who have an interest in the player doing well. And for a 26-box format, the board is well structured. The graphics and sound effects are reasonable; Better to be understated than overstated!

The pacing was a bit off on the Irish version. After the first 10 minutes, I started to lose interest. The same thing happened showing it to two others. Also, it felt as though there were too many offers, which I can understand because the Banker doesn't get to find out about the contestant in-depth beforehand, and keeping track of them was more complicated, though this might be unfamiliarity with the format. And what they did at the half-way point, well, I won't spoil it, but do they do that for all lottery shows there?

Watching it made me think that Endemol could be trying this format in Ireland to port to primetime here, but I don't think that it would work. More noticeably, I found there was a lack of spontaneity; Everything happened in a set order, with not much else for the player to do but play and occasionally talk. This would work fine on a live edition over there, but I don't know if Keith Barry is up for that.

I'm going to reserve judging the show just yet, as it wouldn't be fair, considering the first episode of our version had a slow start. Well worth watching though to see the differences, and it does have potential. Looking forward to the next episode, could watch it as a Saturday show to fill the week. (PM for link to the show.)

Watch it, I'd like to think I'm fair with signatures, but you can push it too far!

Just watching this now - seems like the on-screen graphics are exactly that from Divided, the boxes are green, and it's the UK board with 5c, €25, €2000 and €150k. Six minutes in and we're half way through the first round, this seems pretty decent really!

Hi crazyeddie, All Uk channels BBC1-4, ITV1-4, Channel4, More 4, E4 are all available to the whole of Ireland on the Sky Digital platform, also on cable TV platforms too, so everyone in Ireland is fully familiar with the UK show, but I agree with you that it didn't seem like that sometimes! All four irish channels RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4 are also all on the Sky digital platform and transmitted all over the UK and Ireland but Sky will only decrypt them on Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland sky digital subscription cards :-(

God, those offers were, um, very European-low!!

Such as...

Hey chartzy, thanks for the info, didn't know that! I saw on the TV3 website several shows on ITV, and guessed that they were there because ITV wasn't available. Didn't think about ITV and co being there in a different slot. Must be great for Ireland to have the extra channels, but a bit weird as it's a different culture, like watching not just imported US shows, but US channels themselves.

Aaron, that's because the show has a budget of €2m. They have to buy the box for as little money as possible, as it's possible to later have a series of high wins and consume the budget completely!

Well, that's certainly got potential, not bad for a first show - thanks for the link, Crazyeddie! Do we know how many episodes they've commissioned? I'll probably do a spreadsheet for this version also!

By the sounds of it, it actually does have UK presentation with the 6-5-4-3-2-1-1-1-1 rules as I hoped/expected... I'm quite happy with that.

From crazyeddie's review, Keith is probably unintentionally influencing the players if he does at all - he doesn't mean to influence the players but as he's been bought up on Noel's hosting, and has most of the same production staff, it figures he's going to be not particularly dissimilar. Combine that with the fact the contestants all got here by taking an EV- gamble, and you'd expect rampant Wakeyism... but put it into the context of Ireland in 2009, you'd expect the exact opposite. Also, the players are going to need time to get any idea of the 'going rate' for the board at any point, because even if they are familiar with the UK version this is a new Banker and a new box-opening structure!

I'm actually extremely glad the format only came to Ireland in 2009 actually - I dread to think what it'd have been like in 2005/6!!

This is well put, I think. You only have to see the clones of the US version appearing close together, only for most to be sunk in the space of a few years because the format wasn't right for their country. Ireland's version has a unique touch that gives it promise, will have to see how it does.

Just found the show's been uploaded to Youtube. You can watch it here.

Not only that but the thought of a game show where all the contestants played the lottery, in the context of Ireland in the middle of its economic bubble... nobody would ever Deal!!