What's the deal with Deal or No Deal?

Have you seen this show? If you haven't seen it, here's how it works: 26 hot models come out carrying briefcases. In each briefcase is a dollar value between $0.01 and $1,000,000.



The contestant picks a briefcase and that's their briefcase to keep if they want. Unfortunately for them, they don't get to see what's in the case until the end of the game. From this point on, the contestant has to pick which briefcases they want the models to open. Howie Mandel, the show's host, tells the model (quite impolitely) to open the case. These cases, and their corresponding values, become out of play. Every few cases, "The Banker" will call and offer to buy the contestant's case from them for some amount that's calculated using the values still in play.



The banker would like to pay the contestant as little as possible. Depending on the values of the cases just opened, his offer can go up or down. Howie relays the banker's offer to the contestant who then has to decide "DEAL" or "NO DEAL".

The interesting thing about the show, besides the models, is the seemingly idiotic decisions people make. I've seen a contestant knock out enough cases to make the offer go up to $200,000 and end up taking home $14,000. Instead of taking $200,000 and being happy, they declare NO DEAL and end up knocking out some high values.

To stretch out the game, Howie spends a lot of time talking to family members. He usually asks them whether they think the offer is good or not. Inevitably, a young child gets involved and is given the responsibility of deciding DEAL or NO DEAL. Everytime this happens, the kid makes the wrong decision and they either end up keeping much less than they could have gotten or they start knocking out high values and get a crappier offer. This always bothers me because you know this is going to be the climax of an argument with their parents down the road.

And what's the deal with the Banker? Why can't we hear him talk or even see him? Why do we need him at all? Can't they just put the dollar amount up on the board? I think the family members are always boring with their corny cliche remarks. I also think it's lame that they always go to commercial just before the contestant makes the DoND decision. I never watch the show live. I just fast forward to the case openings so I can check out the models and then I fast forward through the hemming and hawing to the DEAL or NO DEAL decision. It takes about 2 minutes to watch the whole show this way.

Do any of you like this show? What do you like most about it?