Based on a couple of e-mails I received, I almost feel like I need to apologize for enjoying the second episode of Deal or No Deal, too. But I won't. We all like some things that in a more critical frame of mind, might bore or offend us…and I'm not even talking about "guilty pleasures," which I've always felt was a weasely way of viewing some things you enjoy. If you like it, just like it. Don't make excuses for liking it. Deal or No Deal is a game show calculated to hook the audience and draw them into the suspense, and it's well done. It's working on me, anyway.
One reason I perhaps relate to the game is that it parallels what I so often go through in my career at those chilling moments that it's time to negotiate the money for something. They offer you 100 and you think that's okay but you also think that if you say no to the 100, that will get you an offer of 150…but you just don't know for sure. Sometimes, after you turn down one offer, something happens and there's either no next offer or it's lower. It's happened to me every possible way: I say no to a weak offer and they go hire someone else. Or I say yes and find out later they would have gone much higher. I used to also go through something of the sort when I was card-counting and playing Blackjack. In addition to keeping all those aces and "plus twos" in my head, I had to continually wrestle with a simple question: I'm ahead a little. Do I quit now or press my luck and try to get ahead a lot?
Getting back to the first aspect: I wonder if the following ever occurred to the producers of Deal or No Deal. They have this shadowy figure on the set called "The Banker" who offers the contestants fluctuating fees to bail out. (In actuality, the actor who plays the role has nothing to do with the offers. When Howie Mandel picks up the phone to get a new price from "The Banker," he's talking to the producer.) But I wonder if they thought of making The Banker a real player in the proceedings — audible, if not visible — who'd attempt to psych out the contestant, perhaps working in a little Donald Trump hardball banter.
At every network, there's a Business Affairs department and it's filled with people who play this game every day…often, for amounts of cash far greater than anything that's going to be given away on Deal or No Deal. Sometimes, they play Good Cop, hinting that they're on your side. They're giving you the best terms they can but their bosses…well, you can never tell with those guys. They already think the offer is too high and have been eyeing someone cheaper. Then there's the alternate, Bad Cop approach, putting you down, jabbing at whatever vulnerabilities they sense. Once, I had a Business Affairs guy look me over and say, of the offer he had on the table, "I gather from your clothes, you need this pretty bad." Some of these negotiators are even more adept than that at hitting sore spots, saying things to stifle your bravado. I wonder if they ever thought of incorporating that into Deal or No Deal. They sure wouldn't have to look far to find people who can do it.
Anyway, I intend to keep watching Deal or No Deal. If you'd like to try your hand at a simulation of the game (minus the cute models and the tension imposed by real money), this page on the NBC website has a reasonable facsimile. I suspect you need to have seen the show to enjoy the online version, which I've now played about a dozen times, once actually getting to the point where there were two unopened cases, one containing a penny and one containing the million dollars. I went for broke and wound up with the penny…a situation not unfamiliar from a couple of investments I made in the past. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but think that the producers of the TV show are probably always praying for a contestant to reach that moment of decision. That would be good television no matter how it turned out…but better if they went home rich.