Lynn (1) had won the £250,000 on the very first show? Would DOND be completely different today, due to the effect on the

i) players
ii) audience
iii) banker?

I've never thought of that.

I think the show certainly would never have been as exciting, and most probably would have finished last summer.

I wonder if the early offer patterns - starting very low, ending very high - was designed with at least one eye on ensuring no £250k win in 2005? They certainly made it very silly for anyone not getting a Kirsty-esque board to go for it!

If it had happened it would have been a completely different show but I've no idea if it would have been worse. I suspect it would have been less popular though. Worth pointing out in this context: US game show Identity had three jackpot winners in its first eight episodes and soon collapsed.

I think any gameshow that is centred around a jackpot prize needs the audience to see it as very difficult, but certainly not impossible, to win.

The way it came about in DOND was just about right - we'd seen two contestants in Kirsty and Morris take a 50-50 shot at it, so everyone knew by then it was possible. Although the very small number of people getting to in-play final pairs with it clearly showed it was extremely difficult to win without taking the sort of gambles only the likes of basicasic would consider! And when it finally did happen, it was a long anticipated event, at a time when perhaps the show did need a bit of a boost - and those new or returning viewers drawn in by Laura's game would have been rewarded with one of the most spectacular runs of games we've seen over the following month or two.

So if it had happened in show 1? It would probably have been a case of "Oh, she got £250,000 just for opening a load of red boxes. Big deal, not exactly Millionaire is it?" There would be less anticipation of what was to come, except perhaps to see if somebody would one day win 1p... I think it would have made it rather more difficult to establish a long-term audience for the show.

I think Mally's and Trevor's offers at 5-box would ensure it wouldn't get won for ages....

The first show was luckily a fairly average one in terms of winnings but she did manage to beat the banker! If she'd won £250k or even 1p (or any other high / low amount), the show would have felt very different soon after and the anticipation of people winning high / low amounts would have vanished very quickly... I remember being quite shocked when Raj (1) won 10p... if that had happened in show 1, it'd have taken away the thought of "Can someone really win the low amounts?" thought that I had when the show first started.

If she'd won the £250k or the penny in show 1, then I very much doubt that it would have been broadcast. But as others have said, the very high final two offers, ie Jennifer's £120k offer on a £250k/£750 board made almost certain that we'd be waiting a while before someone won the £250k.