Deal or No Deal *YAWN*

[kostby]

Is anyone else already bored-beyond-all-reason by NBC's lame attempt to make Howie Mandel into the next Regis Philbin? I can't believe that this show is (allegedly) a TV sensation in 35 countries. Apparently they are: Afghanistan, Iraq, and 33 other third-world countries without working television sets, radios, MP3 players, video-games, or alternate forms of entertainment.The new hour-long quasi-mini-series/quasi-game-show on quasi-NBC is called Deal or No Deal It should be called 'Wake Me When It's Over!' It's that bad. Even the often-plodding 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' moves much faster and is much more interesting (you can at least fill your brain with useless trivia watching 'Millionaire'!) Here the only lesson you learn is that 'gambling' is a not a good pastime for people who are bad at calculating odds!The first show (Monday 12-19-05) wasted 52 minutes (about 24 of them commercials, it seemed) to teach a hapless victim (married lady and her cheering family) that it's better to take "The Banker's" best offer, instead of risking it all ("No Deal") in hopes of a winning a big cash prize.Howie Mandel is understimulated (or over-medicated--ADHD perhaps?) by the assigned duties. (Howie is genuinely funny and much more lively on the talk shows.)Dozens of attractive young women dressed in matching outfits bring briefcases out of 'The Vault'. Howie apparently knows all their FIRST names. (Hmmm!) They are an obvious shameless ploy to attract pre-teen male viewers. The women are young and attractive, but each one is truly on-screen only for the 10 seconds it takes to reveal the amount of money in their briefcase. A true waste of beauty, and possibly brains. Most of these 'Stepford models' don't even get to speak a syllable!The briefcases are (allegedly) full of money in amounts ranging from $.01 to $1 million dollars. The hapless contestant picks one briefcase, which he/she hopes will have a huge amount of money inside. The contestant begins to eliminate the remaining briefcases by choosing numbers, first six. The process is then stopped as set lighting turns red, and Howie receives a call from 'The Banker', a shadowy figure behind a computer concealed behind dark glass in an upstairs 'control room' setting., then five, then four, and so on. Have you dozed off yet? Yes, it is just about as boring as it sounds!The process (apparently) continues until the contestant accepts The Banker's offer ("Deal") by pressing the large blinking red button 'protected' by a clear plexiglas cover, or they finally reveal all the briefcase amounts, including their own. Just to see if maybe it was the first contestant that failed to make the show exciting, I watched the first 28 minutes of the Tuesday episode. It's not the contestants, (although the first two were not the least bit lively or interesting) it's the FORMAT. YAWN...

[northvibe]

arg, this show is so lame, i watched it tonight and that spaz lady pissed me off so i left

[ToolGuy]

I keep giving the show a try but I think I am fading fast!Pick up on Howie's Fear Of Germs? He bumps knuckles with the guests instead of shaking hands! And the mysterious Banker! LOL!!! Banker Bob!!!

[Mavrik]

Howie's best show was Bobby's World

[Stang2Vibe]

I loved Bobby's World! Miss that show.