The episode of Deal or No Deal that aired last night was the one my pal Len Wein and I saw taped, as described here. Needless to say, it looked a lot smoother on NBC than it did in the studio. It also ran sixty minutes as opposed to the five-plus hours it took to actually tape the thing.
The tightening made for a bit more suspense but there was only so much the editors could do to enhance what were basically uninteresting games. Sometimes, the big amounts go unpicked for a long time so throughout the game, there's a mounting chance that the contestant could walk out with a check with a lot of digits on it. And sometimes, the million simolians gets knocked out early on, and the six figure amounts also disappear…so the excitement just isn't there. When we were there, it just wasn't there.
Not much more to report. Above, I've posted a frame grab that shows where we were sitting. As you can see, I've lost a lot of weight and Len has his customary silly expression on his face. I can never take him anywhere.