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Although Deal or No Deal gives members of the public the chance to change their lives, sometimes more familiar faces turn up on the show.
In the US, businessman and star of The Apprentice Donald Trump has appeared twice. He first turned up in 2006 to give contestants financial advice. And a year later he appeared as a surprise Banker. The US show as also hosted a special NFL edition, with football stars such as Marcus Allen and Terrell Davis taking part. In the Philippines, the show is often littered with celebs, from movie, pop, TV and sports stars such as Zsa Zsa Padilla and boxing champ Manny Pacquiao, to politicians, such as former president’s sunny Jinggoy Estrade. Basketball pro and former senator Robert Jaworski was the shows fourth ever millionaire, the highest celebrity winner.
More sporting favourites turned up on Argentine screens, when local version Trato Hecho hosted an Olympic special, featuring stars from 2004’s Olympics. While in Australia’s Dancing With The Deals teams up celebs from Dancing With The Stars with DOND. Celebs have included tennis player Todd Woodbridge and Home and Away actor Chris Hemsworth. But celebrities are unlikely to show up on British screens, where host Noel Edmonds says he would quit on the spot if the show ever does anything with celebrities. That’s told ‘em.
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.
