Deal Or No Deal is still getting good audience figures, consistently over 3 million, though not the peak of March to May when the 5 million mark was almost reached. Should it keep its format, or make changes, and if so what changes would you introduce in order to boost viewing figures?

50/50

the studio and the boxes should stay the same, and every sunday they should make it so the Viewers competition is £5k £10k and £25k which is the only improvement they could do

I know this probably sounds a bit weird, but Noel could have some kind of illicit affair with one of the contestants. Then all the papers can report on it just before that player joins the show, and everyone will tune in to see how Noel interacts with her....they can give her a Lucy-style run to keep people watching until its her game.

Of course, the problem with that is that they might not be able to find a contestant willing to have an affair with Noel. But it's a thought.

DOND doesn't have to do anything. I can promise you that the viewing figures will rocket again when £250,000 gets won!

Has Countdown ever changed its format?

Change DOND, and it may gain fresh viewers, but it could be at the cost of existing ones.

Leave well alone would be my advice

The games has a built in change factor

The contestants

That is why we are all hooked

They're starting the chants of blue blue blue again, which can get irriating a while... that won't attract viewers in my opinion!I think the only way they can guarantee continuing success is to leave it as it is!

I agree with your chanting comment. Irritates me too. I can see why it happens, but it seldom has the desired effect, as they usually seem to follow "blue blue blue" by "ooh ooh ooh"!

Do anyone think that we will be seeing a rise of "gambling" players, and the £250,000 on the table more?

Each game is individual though, it's so hard to say what each contestant will do.

I think they need more Hall of Fame clips, just something to make the programme seem different. But not a radical change - although I do think a lot of people have got bored of the format - well my dad has anyway

There's no-one these days who plays with an interesting-system.

Good point - I can't remember the last time I saw a system being used...can anyone say when? (if you say yesterday, I didn't see yesterday's show due to the S4C delay thing!)

A lot of the decline in ratings can be put down to seasonal factors, and ratings have actually improved week by week since the end of the summer break.

The most recent week quoted saw every episode above 3m apart from the Saturday one which was up against strong competition on other channels - apparently that was the best week since early June.

Lol, so true!

I think the producers must recognise that winning the jackpot will undoubtedly help, and think that already that is reflected in Noel's counsel of the contestants to have more courage. Remember Noel used to warn contestants more in the earlier days, though to be fair he still does that
from time to time.

Actually, on this subject... Presumably, when someone does get the £250k, it'll be leaked months before and will be really hyped? I know that the contestants are likely to keep quiet, but assume that audience members would spread it (even if the prod staff don't).

But he is making the contestants feel bad for dealing these days.

Exactly!

The fact that we get new contestants all the time is what keeps the show fresh. They don't need to do anything with the format, it is fine as it is. It's the range of personalities that keep the show alive.

one improvement, stop with the jinx line he did it in rhona's game

To be honest, I think they edit it so that Noel's lines correspond with what happens - e.g. for every 10 times he says "Reveal the 1p now", he probably gets it right only once, and they only show it the time that he gets it right.

Oh, and I've got an improvement... Mr. Blobby and a gunge tank for when the player loses, and extra gunge for the 1p winners!

For those who haven't read through all the "classic" threads discussed recently, this seems like a good opportunity to re-post this work of genius from Kestral:

BRILLIANT!-ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!