I've been looking into how our peers around the world are doing with their versions of Deal or No Deal, and have created a map of where the show is currently running right now:


Click to see larger size

Red is currently running
Blue has ended, or very likely ended
Orange is returning in the future
Light blue is believed ended, but not enough evidence to confirm
Dark red is one version covering the Arab World by satellite
Dark blue was one version that covered Central America, since ended

From research, there's currently:
26 running
36 ended
2 returning
14* potentially ended
1 arab world
1 central america, ended
80 total

* Morocco and Tunisia included for country-specific versions, though covered by Arab World coverage

Also, 2 countries listed outside of Wikipedia's Deal or No Deal page: Bangladesh and Iceland, both unconfirmed.

While doing the research, I found a lot of strange and unusual versions of the show; many based on the US version; some similar to the 'Euro' style (colourful, frequent music playing); and even some based on the UK version, with red/blue amounts and similar gameplay.

Perhaps the oddest version was one with a unique style, including a lot of Nestlé advertising in the program, where instead of box numbers, players have to call out the names of Nestlé products associated with the boxes! I'll have to find a link for that, as it was a truly bizarre show!

I'll put some more info on the different versions in the Rest of World forum section in the near future, aiming to get a reasonably comprehensive review of the many varieties of the show.

About the map:

The image was made from an SVG file from Wikipedia, which you can download below. You can change the colours of the map with a text editor, which you can do by copy and pasting its two-letter country code to a different section.

The map is up-to-date as of March this year, with the exception of USA, which was updated in May. I've included some web addresses inside the file as to why I believe a version may or may not be running.

Download: DoND-World_Map.zip (538kb)
Licence: CC-BY 3.0

Update 29/06/10:

Checked all countries on map, up to date to best of my knowledge. Updated Arab World after finding Lebanese version is broadcasting via satellite, included additional countries from Central and South America, Azerbaijan, changed South Aftrica to ended.

Llicence is now CC-BY, believed original blank map was CC-BY-SA, in fact public domain.

Shows how lucky we are with our version which is hanging in there

I think part of the popularity comes from the fact that contestants open boxes on the wings before playing their game. In many other versions, they get models to do it, a person randomly shows up to play their game, and that's it. On the UK version you get a chance to know the contestant before they play their game. This can make the game more exciting because it's a lot easier to get enthusiastic about someone you've seen for three weeks on TV and find agreeable, than for someone who appears for 1 hour out of the blue.

If contestants didn't open the boxes themselves, I doubt the series would have lasted this long; most people would have gotten bored by now.

Fair dues, it's also why I prefer Deal to other gameshows, instead of just other versions of Deal. I like the fact that the contestants are there for weeks, and I probably wouldn't be as into the show if the players were there just the once.

I was talking about in terms of payouts, not popularity

I would say this sounds about right. The US format has been the most popular around the world, but not the most successful. Of the current versions remaining, about half are based on the US, half on having constestants stick together on the show.

On another note, here's a link to the version of the show with the Nestle advertising, from the Dominican Republic: Trato Hecho con Nestle

(Interestingly, not the only country where Nestle advertising appears in a DoND show.)

It would be good if a map was done showing where all previous contestants from the UK version of dond have originated from.
Off the top of my head Balbina originated from Italy, Neide from South America, and I'm sure theres a few Nigerians that have been on too! I'd be really interested to see that