Anyone here been watching Deal or No Deal? I gave it up for a time — too much forced melodrama, too much padding, too many games where the big amounts were gone before the midpoint — but I'm back. Admittedly, I TiVo the thing, watch the first few minutes and then zip ahead to when it gets interesting, if it gets interesting. That it occasionally does lately is because of a stunt they're doing called The Million Dollar Mission.
After all this time on the air, no one has won the mil, which I'm guessing troubles the producers. They apparently figure that if they never award that amount, America will soon give up on the show. With so much of NBC's ratings riding on the program and a weekday version starting shortly, they probably need to give away a million smackers and soon. So what they do during the Million Dollar Mission is that every time a contestant doesn't win that amount, they add another million dollar amount into the briefcases. Instead of one, there's two, three, four, etc. The other day, a lady played a game where nine of the 26 cases contained one million bucks. She still didn't win the big prize so as they're advertising like crazy, Monday's episode features a game where there will be ten (10) one million dollar prizes in the cases.
The commercials make it sound like you'd better make sure you tune in because this looks like the night someone finally wins the big award. And I'm here to tell you it's not so. The contestant doesn't win the million.
How do I know this? Because the listing on my TiVo for the following week's show (February 11) says, and I quote…
"Eleven $1 million cases" (2008) The Million Dollar Mission continues with an unprecedented eleven cases on the board, holding $1 million each.
So no point in watching Monday when there are only ten $1 million cases. And you don't even have to have a TiVo to get this information. If you go to Yahoo TV right now and search for that week's episode, you'll see…
I'll bet the secret is also blown on most of the online services that provide TV listings. But actually, you could probably have deduced that the contestant on Monday's show doesn't win the million…because the promos, which they're airing every three minutes on NBC, don't come right out and say it. They say it's the biggest night ever, the most exciting and spectacular must-see episode…and they lead you to believe it's going to happen…but they don't say "Tune in and watch someone finally win the million dollars!"
That will happen shortly…and I have the oddest hunch that it will happen before the end of the February "sweeps" rating period. In fact, since they tape way ahead, I have the hunch it's already happened and that they've been scheduling episodes and inserting repeats in order to make sure it happens on a February show, preferably a late February show. What's more, when they get to that week, they're going to make sure everyone knows it, which means they won't be able to just say it's the biggest night ever, the most exciting and spectacular must-see episode, etc. That's what they say when the contestant doesn't win.
Instead, they'll say something more explicit…and then to make certain everyone knows, they'll leak it to the press or get it up on the Internet somehow…or something. What they won't do is let it be an actual surprise. TV doesn't do that anymore.