As much as I want this to happen so badly, I don't think Mulhern is the right choice. Noel was such a perfect presenter for Deal you couldn't categorise it.

I mean, they struck a deal with Banijay for Big Brother, so what's stopping Deal from moving to ITV? Budget? I mean it'd be another blow for C4.

Don’t get me wrong I’d kill for DOND to make a comeback but for me, I agree with opit. No-one can replace Noel as host. I do love Stephen Mulhern on Catchphrase but I don’t think he’d be the right host for a DOND revival. If Noel couldn’t come back, I’d rather have someone like Vernon Kay or Phillip Schofield.

Will remind you again about Sun links. Not a paper we should recognise. Justice for the 97.

And no it is very much inextricably linked with Noel Edmonds. It worked *only* because of him being who he was. It was a ridiculously over dramatised show where the merits of fate and destiny were given prominent placing. And Noel is the only person to front a show like this, Mr Erratic Cosmos Positivity Lunatic. Essential to the cabin fever atmosphere that this show created which set it apart as unique amongst all the other international versions. It was entertainment.

With Mulhern, a f*cking boring pair of professional hands, it would just become a bland game show.

If it does return then I imagine it'll be in a weekly format - probably an hour every Saturday night with around eight episodes in each series - and would resemble something like the 'On Tour' shows with friends and family of each contestant on the wings.

I can't imagine it'll ever return as a daily show with contestants waiting weeks on the wings before playing. In a way that's a shame as that's what made the original DoND special, but it's probably not a bad thing to break away from the original format if it's going to have a new host as well.

Talking of the host, the article makes reference to Edmonds returning but there's no way he would - he's had a new life in New Zealand since 2020 and, if recent reports are correct, seems to be dappling in some sort of property investment. Stephen Mulhern would be an unimaginative choice but he seems to be the default these days.

Yeesh, I sure missed a lot during my cruise.

I echo H in that it's probably going to be a weekly format, though with ITV's budget it not totally out of the realms of possibility for it to still be a daily format even with the top prize remaining at £250,000, probably as a 20 to 40 episode series to start somewhere in their 3 PM to 5 PM game show block.

Also, I'm probably in the minority along with KP in thinking Noel was way too OTT and hypocritically on Team Banker at times, so I welcome a new host.

Coming out of self-imposed exile / retirement to share some opinions about this.

No, no, no. A thousand times no.

Sometimes, it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie. Too often do TV shows and movies get rebooted because the well of original ideas has run completely dry. Reviving this show will be a mistake.

They captured lightning in a bottle during the original run, and that worked until they started screwing around with the format too much. I doubt they’ll be able to recapture the essence of the original.

Mulhern is terrific on Catch Phrase and Rolling In It, but I think he’s miscast here. Noel was equal parts amazing and maddening, but he hosted the hell out of this show. You can’t deny that.

Once again, reviving Deal would be a huge mistake. Times have changed. Audiences have changed. The television landscape has changed. I can’t see this working at all, but I’m prepared to eat crow if it does work. I spent longer than I should have on this forum doing so, to the point where a plate was left for me daily.

And now, back to my self-imposed exile / retirement.

One thing to remember, is that when DoND was originally on, fans of the show saw it as a welcome distraction from all the problems with the real world. Around the time that DoND finished was when the social climate was beginning to radically shift (or destabilize?), and become this pseudo-draconian society where things that we say are pretty ruled with an iron fist by social media warriors and sensationalism-peddling mainstream media

I'm not solely blaming "Donkey vs. Elephant" culuture for the apparent demise of escapism, because the downward spiral of escape culture has also accelerated in the last 3 years or so thanks to things that have directly effected us all as individually, such as the pandemic, and more recently, things like inflation and the fear of nuclear annihilation at the hands of uncle Vlad and his cronies.

I just don't know if DoND could work the same as did, given the dramatic shift in the social and economic climate since it ended it's original run 6 years ago

I don't really think the "outside world" factors will pose too such of a problem with the wing dynamic, as we still see the same kind of comradery among players on the European versions still on today (Greek and French Deal) and even in UK very recently on MoneyBags (to the point that players often give their MoneyBags to the person with the most money even when they still had an outside chance of winning ).

Curious to know why you think this is the case? It veers awfully close to the cliff edge marked ''you can't say nothing these days''. I seem to remember you calling women ''Sheilas'' in the Discord chat a while ago, so... just a tad curious is all. There *is* a reason for that ''iron fist'' mate.

Woah, welcome back Dr.!

Great to see you again on here Mark, even if it is fleeting!

My opinion on this is I don't think the concept would work now. The cost of living crisis I think would make everyone really cautious, plus I couldn't see people taking unpaid leave from their jobs to be waiting wingers for the same reason (I even remember some people gave up their job or uni courses to go on which seems ludicrous thinking about it now). There is the option of just having players only appear for their games and having the boxes opened by friends & family but for me part of the appeal was getting to know players on the wings before their games.

My thought James is that is one of the reasons why increasing the jackpot seems like a good idea. I'm thinking probably around £500k (but removing Box 23, I don't want that being on the new version, same with the button!). But then again, there would probably need to be a limited amount of episodes per series for that to be the case. To be honest, I really can't see a daytime version being easy to run again sadly

To be fair, bar early 2007 the general contestant pool has always been quite cautious, and with the pound being worth considerably less than before I don't think the current economic situation will have any worse of an effect on the general levels of caution than the recession of 2008 onwards did.

Increasing the jackpot is an interesting prospect should the show be revived in primetime. If it ever happened on the old show, it would cause the amount of early deals to skyrocket, as we saw Wrighty and Danny were incredibly tempted to Deal their first and second offers respectively with it in play in the 2006 Christmas specials. With the presumed new format of people just playing their game and leaving without having to be "on the wings", though, I could see quite a lot more intrigue with it, though, as people wouldn't be as pressured to ensure they left with decent money and wouldn't be influenced to be more cautious by past games.

If it does go to daytime, though, increasing the top prize is obviously out of the question, though whether it has to be decreased is debatable as well. The previous version of Deal gave away an average of £15,000 an episode, which is far more than pretty much any other daily quiz show. Even MoneyBags, which "offered" £1,000,000 a week, only paid out around £5,000 an episode. Tipping Point averages around £5k too, though Tenable/The Chase have an average payout closer to £10k an episode. Tenable has a "top" prize of £125,000, and the The Chase has an unofficial top prize of around that on the daily version as well, so £250k Deal doesn't feel too unrealistic to have in that context, though obviously if they want to have the average payouts be in line with their other daily game shows ITV would have to lower the top prize to £100k.

Overall, though, I'd rather the show return as a daily format even if it requires lowering the top prize to £100k or even £50k. For there to be all this hype for the return of UK Deal only for it to be for a 6 to 10 episode run would be quite disappointing.

Would be great to see it back in any format… after all, we’re getting Gladiators and Big Brother back next year, so DOND would make it a hat-trick of 90s/00s classics!

In terms of host, Noel’s well into his 70s now and I expect he would want to leave it to a new presenter. After all, Countdown’s on its 7th main host and still going strong! Hope they keep it as a daytime/teatime-type show focused on the waiting contestants as opposed to the US format.

For anybody local who may be interested, there's a pilot taping on Thursday 1 December at 2pm at dock10, they're doing 2 episodes back to back apparently. You can apply for tickets here.

Expect to see a certain someone on that show soon!

I actually like the choice of Stephen Mulhern. A very safe pair of hands, probably one of the best choices ITV have to offer along with Bradley Walsh, Vernon Kay, Dermot O'Leary and Ben Shepard.

I think Phillip Schofield, would be an awful choice, not a very personable person at all imo, I get the impression from him, he plays up for the cameras. About time, he retired from TV. Phillip Schofield, isn't very popular with the general public either, giving him the chance to host DOND, might turn people away from watching it.

I do hope it's a success, do I think it will be? Probably not, as with a lot of these revivals, they always get compared to the original, and in most or all cases, the original version is far better.

My concern is what would be the point of bringing it back if it's only 6 episodes in a series? I personally, that won't work for deal or no deal, I personally hope for at least 1-2 episodes a week.

Glad to see it back, but I’m very curious to see how it will go when Mulhern steps into Edmonds’ shoes!