As we've mentioned here, NBC did something a bit odd (to me) with last night's Deal or No Deal. Coverage of the speech by George W. Bush took up a bit less than 25 minutes of the show's time on the East Coast so the producers and/or network edited two separate versions of the show. The full, two-hour version which aired in other time zones included the last part of one game (a waitress from New York), a complete and very long game (a woman whose husband is stationed in Iraq and who participated via a live satellite feed) and the first part of a third game (a Blackjack dealer from Hawaii). There were also a few "behind the scenes" segments showing cash being awarded to past winners.
For the East Coast version, they edited out the "behind the scenes" stuff and cut out the gent from Hawaii. Presumably, the next episode will begin with the end of his game and the folks in the East will go, "Hey, where'd he come from?" For them, last night's show ended with the lady whose hubby is in Iraq. (Someone did some quick-and-dirty edits there. As the show concluded out here, Howie Mandel thanked everyone who'd arranged the live feed from Iraq…and the Blackjack dealer was in some of those shots. For the East Coast version, they substituted some tape of the military wife and her family, and laid Howie's lines over those visuals. The end credits on the East also had to be laid over different footage since the Blackjack dealer was in them, too.)
An interesting way of handling a problem. I guess I like it more than delaying all the shows' start times…and it sure beats just joining a show in progress and missing the opening. Still, I think it's kind of an admission that on Deal or No Deal, the first half of every game is pretty missable.