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Deal Or No Deal loves any excuse to celebrate. So when it celebrated its historic 500th UK show in June 2007, the programme was packed with surprises, such as a whopping £500,000 jackpot. The audience was made of past players and favourite faces, such as the only top prize winner Laura Pearce, Nick Bain, the first player to walk away with a penny and Lucy Harrington, who appeared in 50 shows and was the longest-serving contestant. It was also the first time we heard from old grumpy himself, The Banker. "I remember each and every one of the 500 verminous individuals who have dared to crawl before me,” he groaned. “I remember fondly the shattered lives and broken dreams. I love it when they weep, you know. There's nothing like a hollow sob. Such good times. Then of course…there's some I'd rather forget. And one in particular (coughs) she who shall not be named. Oh, the absolute horror of it.” In the end contestant Annie opened the jackpot as her first box, the 1p box second, and in the end walked away with £10,000. What will happen at the 1000th show?
Véronique Landry is the only model to appear on more than one version of the show, on both the French and English Canadian versions. Howie Mandel, Héctor Sandarti, and Linda de Mol each have hosted multiple versions of the show: Mandel, with the American English and English Canadian versions, Sandarti with both the American Spanish and Mexican Spanish versions, and de Mol with both the Netherlands Dutch and German (in 2004) versions of the show.
Other countries that have their own versions of the show include Albania, Armenia, Austria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Portugal (SIC network), Puerto Rico, and Vietnam, according to the UK version's website.
Variations
Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) has a variation of "Deal or No Deal" embedded within its Saturday night weekly variety show hosted by popular TV host and one time recording artist Jacky Wu. The portion involved 16 boxes wherein celebrity contestants will play for NT$1.5 million top prize in denominations starting from NT$1.00. In this game though, Jacky Wu the TV host, also acted as a banker. He would randomly come up with an amount when the choice of boxes become fewer. Contestants however should successfully win a talent portion of the show before playing this game.
