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Skill, intuition, risk-taking – it’s all part of Deal or No Deal. But really, it’s a game of pure chance. So what is it that makes contestants employ their own carefully devised systems to break The Banker? Every contestant is different – some employ superstitions, routines and even faith to help them pick the numbers. Some statisticians study form and past shows, like horse-racing. While others simply pick all odd numbers or significant dates like birthdays. One contestant used the numbers of her favourite Chinese takeaway dishes. Maybe she liked things from the starter menu? Luckiest of all though was Australia’s second-ever jackpot winner, Anh Do. After knocking out all but two top numbers, and getting a massive deal, he stuck with his initial chosen case – which concealed the top prize. “I had a dream,” he confessed. “It told me to pick number 23.” Stranger things have happened – but not much.
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.
