Watching Matt's game today reminded me that back then they just got on a played the game.

Recently for me Deal or No Deal has become infuriating and tiresome, with lame jokes, contestants showing off and the constant "positive" rubbish.
DOND should just go back to basics, play the game, and scrap the twaddle in between. Matt's and all the other games back then were much more enjoyable than the clown fest we are getting atm.

Rant over

Discuss.

Well we don't want to go back to the snooze-fest we had in the summer when we had a phase of nobody in the wings saying anything apart from "Good luck" either... There were still some good shows and characters in the chair, but that took a lot away from it.

That's cos it was on it's summer break.

It's just my opinion that it's got really annoying latly.

There is definately a huge difference to the way games are played now, especially the way that Noel introduces the player, today we end up in some cases getting their life stories. I do still enjoy the extra stuff however, as it is very interesting to learn about the contestants and even the banker. I think that by now, if it had been the same every day since Matt's game, the show would be very dry and boring. Having said that, March 2006 did still have alot of 'twaddle'. Have you seen the Banker's video?

It would be interesting to see what people who've only recently started watching thought of Matt's show today, and Gaz's last week. I fully agree that the shows from a year ago were a hell of a lot better, but I do wonder if that's just because that's around the time I (and, it seems, the majority of people on this forum) started watching, so it all felt a lot fresher, rather than the newer shows actually being any worse.

Exactly, and my point was that there was a time when everyone was complaining about there being no characters and no banter between Noel and the other contestants. Whether that was down to editing or just a quieter group of players remains a mystery, but I suspect the producers listened to these comments and things picked up again from around October time.

A large part of DOND's success is that it's about more than just the game, as if it was just about the game they could have it over in 15 minutes.

Well Matt's was just about the game and it lasted 45 mins.

The Aussie version is done and dusted in 21 minutes of show (there's nine minutes of ads to fill up the half-hour timeslot), despite having (until this year) a trivia qualifier that lasted at least a couple of minutes and (more critically) the Dutch 26-case format with nine offers in the game. It's frenetic, and the purest example of 'the game' in the world.

With its shorter format and no-questions-except-one, it's not unreasonable to assume the UK show could fit into 15 minutes of airtime. A typical real UK episode lasts 37 minutes. That leaves 22 (ha-ha) minutes to fill, and there are a number of ways. You can flesh out the character of the hotseat player, you can flesh out the characters of the ensemble cast on the wings, you can drag it out to maximise tension, you can emphasise the psychological element of the game and by implication the importance of each decision... the UK does all four, but the ratios are shifting all the time.

I never saw the classic episode today, but was Matt the guy who took out blues in his first 8 boxes and swapped £50,000 for £5,000 at the end?

No, that was Matt 2. Matt 1's game report is
here.

The older games seemed much more formal. But now Noel gets in a strop if someone deals early, If someone deals too early and just shouts in general. I found games like Lynns (show 1) more interesting than they are now... I just hope they drop all of this fake comedy. Like Rob (1's) game was funny. But Noel tries to make a game funny now, but itis ruining it.

it was much better in early 2006. presently contestants are given offers that are much higher than necessary which annoys me, and Noel has started to get on my nerves a bit

It does seem the show can do nothing right sometimes - it's either too silly or it's dull with no characters, the Banker's offers are too mean or too generous, the contestants are too cautious or gamble too much! Don't think it could ever please everyone - well perhaps if they brought back all the contestants from a year ago it might...

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the tension building.

Dunno which game it was, but we were waiting for a box to be opened, and Debbie and the player started waffling for what felt like ages, and by the time they opened it I didn't give a hoot what it was. Totally killed the tension.

I think that's spot on. Nostalgia is always a dangerous animal as almost everything seems more fun, fresh and exciting when you experience it for the first time. Take Marcus's show for example - very original at the time and hugely enjoyable because it was a natural extension of his character. If he tried that sort of show now, he'd probably just get labelled a celebrity wannabe...(unfairly, in my opinion)

There was also none of this "fantastic offer" or "thankyou so much mr banker" sucking up before every no deal regardless of whether its a good offer or not which seems to pop up every single game nowdays.

Exactly! The question is deal or no deal not do you want to crawl to the banker and be thankful or not. In all honesty, I don't think this respectful
gratitude to the banker makes one iota of difference to his offers anyway.

Totally agree.

im also getting annoyed with contestants saying i have had 3 blues in a row or whatever. it makes no difference. also Noel saying it would be extraordinary if £750 was here again. that is also random

Totally agree with original comments. Its almost getting to the point where "watching" the show on here is a better experience than actually tuning in.
Zombie like blue-blue chants happening far too often, the arm linking, wing members getting grief when they open a box with a high red, contestants showing off and/or being aggresive, banker offers being inflated all the time these days, duff advice to No Deal from other contestants, Noel sulking if someone does actually take an early inflated offer, and possibly worst of all, the increasing preponderance of wing members to make an Oscar acceptance speech before opening the box!