The United States version of '', hosted by actor-comedian Howie Mandel , premiered on December 19 , 2005 on NBC and ran during the following four consecutive nights. The grand prize was $1 million. The show was then brought back for another week in February 2006 with a special escalating jackpot before beginning a multi-weekly permanent run in March 2006. The show currently tapes at Sunset-Gower Studios in Los Angeles , and airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with reruns on CNBC on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
The show was originally picked up by ABC in early 2004 for launch that spring. A pilot was produced with Briton Patrick Kielty as host and a $2.5 million top prize. The network decided against airing the program before its premiere, and eventually lost its rights to the show.
Unlike many international versions of the show, the briefcases in the U.S. gallery are not distributed to audience members to give them a chance to win a cash prize, although in the U.S., people watching the show at home can use a cellphone or the Internet to "play along" in the show's Lucky Case home game. See the Lucky Case section for more information. There are also no trivia questions, and no crazy stunts as Mandel stated in the beginning of some episodes (usually the episodes where he appears in the vault).
Before the real game begins, a third party randomly places the possible winnings in the cases, which are distributed to 26 models (identically dressed) who reveal the contents during the game. No one, including the host, knows what amount in the cases. Each contestant receives a new, randomly assigned set of cases. The winnings range in amounts from $0.01 to the top prize (see listing below).
After picking his/her case, the contestant then selects 6 of the remaining 25 cases, revealed one at a time. This is followed by a "phone call" by "The Banker", a mysterious figure whose face is not shown (at times a silhouette can be seen). He purportedly sits in a Skybox (situated between the two audience sections) and makes an offer, via telephone to Mandel (his voice is never heard) to buy the contestant's case based on the cash amounts still in play and the player's psychology (supposedly insulting comments have been relayed to the contestant; in one episode a rabbit-owning contestant was informed that The Banker, after making his offer, "was going rabbit hunting"; in another with a boxer, he made a comment seeing if she could "take a punch". ). The player is then asked by Mandel the title question: "Deal or No Deal?".
If the contestant accepts the buyout (by stating "Deal!"), they must lift a cover and press a button to confirm the decision. The game then ends, and the contents of the case that s/he chose at the beginning of the game are then revealed along with the whereabouts of the top remaining prizes. Often times, Howie lifts the cover for the contestant, especially during more dramatic decisions.
Should the contestant refuse the offer (by stating "No deal!"), they must choose five of the remaining cases to eliminate from consideration. The Banker makes another offer, and play continues as before. The Banker's offer may be higher or lower than the previous offer (if a top prize is eliminated, generally the offer decreases; conversely, if lower amounts are eliminated the offer increases significantly). (The contestant can simply close the cover to imply "No Deal" without actually saying the phrase.)
Subsequent rounds have the contestant withdrawing four, three, then two cases from play; should the contestant continue to decline The Banker's offer after this point, they then eliminate one case each time (with an intervening offer from The Banker) until two cases are left. If the player rejects the final offer, Mandel will offer the contestant the chance to switch their case with the one remaining in the gallery. After the decision is made, The Banker must buy the case for the amount within, and the contestant 'wins' the cash amount contained inside the case they originally chose.
Each contestant has several supporters (usually, three or four), who sit in a special section just off stage during his/her game. As the field of briefcases dwindles, one or more of the supporters are asked to consult with the contestant and help him/her make a decision. These exchanges have become emotional, particularly when very high and very small amounts remained and The Banker offers a large cash buyout; on at least one occasion, the contestant's daughters called, pleading (successfully) with her to take The Banker's deal. The contestant's supporters are typically revealed on the second Bank deal.
During its first week on the air, there was a $10,000 home viewer giveaway, wherein home viewers were invited to send a text message stating what they thought was the "Lucky Case." Entries to the contest were also accepted via the NBC website. A correct answer placed that viewer in that night's drawing for the $10,000 prize.
The Lucky Case game was altered for the 2nd week-long special, and the format carried over to the regular series. Instead of using the preexisting cases from the contestant's game, it uses a separate set of six gold-plated cases. Also, statistics are displayed before some commercial breaks showing the distribution of votes for each case. Interestingly, the chart usually resembles a bell curve, with cases 3 and 4 receiving the majority of the votes, and cases 1 and 6 receiving the least. The lengths of the bars also seem to be greatly exaggerated.
There are three different winners of the Lucky Case game each night -- one for the Eastern/Central time zone broadcast, and one each in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Each time zone has its own separate winning case number as well, so as to prevent a scenario where viewers on the East Coast could inform the West Coast of the winning case. Viewers in Alaska , Hawaii , and Guam are not allowed to play the Lucky Case game. In Arizona during Daylight Saving Time months (when most of the state does not turn the clocks ahead with the rest of the nation), viewers have to call one hour before the show airs.
On a two-hour episode that aired on April 3, 2006, the Lucky Case game was worth $20,000.
When a contestant is presented with the original 26 cases, he or she has a 3.85% (1 in 26) chance of selecting a case containing any of the available dollar amounts. (Compare this to the standard American Roulette wheel, where selecting any of the available 38 numbers offers Casino players just 2.63% (1 in 38) of selecting a winning number.)
If the contestant was allowed to open this case immediately, theoretically it would contain $750 or less half the time (13 of 26 cases) and $1,000 or more half the time (13 of 26 cases); the Median ("typical") case value is $875. However, because of the very large top prizes, the Mean ("average") value of that case is $131,477.54. If every contestant refused every deal (eventually being able to open their initial choice), the gameshow would expect to have to pay out this amount (~$130,000) per episode on average. However, most of the gameshow's payouts would be concentrated in a few big winners -- and most contestants would leave with very disappointing earnings.
- Once the contestant has revealed six cases, he or she has a 5% (1 in 20) chance of the case containing any of the remaining available amounts. The mean and median expected contents of the initial case change accordingly.
- After the contestant has revealed five more cases, s/he has a 6.67% (1 in 15) chance of the case containing any of the remaining available amounts.
- After the contestant has revealed four more cases, he or she has a 9.1% (1 in 11) chance of the case containing any of the remaining available amounts.
- After the contestant has revealed three more cases, he or she has a 12.5% (1 in 8) chance of the case containing any of the remaining available amounts.
- After the contestant has revealed two more cases, he or she has a 16.7% (1 in 6) chance of the case containing any of the remaining available amounts.
- The contestant's odds of his or her selected case containing a specific value will continue to increase (20% – 1 in 5; 25% – 1 in 4; 33% – 1 in 3) until just two cases (the first selected case and the last case held by a model) remain. At this point, the odds of winning either amount is 50% (1 in 2), regardless of whether the player switches the cases or not.
For the second week of shows, from February 27, 2006, to March 3, 2006, the top values (i.e., those above $100,000) increased from night to night as shown below; also, as something of a joke, the lowest value was increased on March 3, 2006, to $.03. As a result of the increased potential payouts, the offers from the Banker increased while those higher values remained in play.
Note: Amounts did not increase for carryover contestants; the new values took effect for the first new contestant in each game.
- Highest ''potential'' bank offer (Specials): $1,000,000 ( March 1 2006 , after accepting $407,000, top case was $2 million)
- Highest ''potential'' bank offer: $660,000 ( April 10 2006 , after accepting $211,000)
- Highest bank offer : $464,000 ( April 24 2006 ) (Accepted)
- Lowest bank offer: $2 ( February 28 2006 ) (Declined)
- Most money won (Deal): $464,000 ( April 24 2006 )
- Most money won (No Deal): $75,000 ( December 23 2005 )
- Least money won (Deal): $8 ( March 24 2006 )
- Least money won (No Deal): $5 ( February 28 2006 )
- Average winning: over TBD games.
- Best deal: 1,900,000 times case amount ($0.01 for $19,000, March 10 2006 )
- Best deal by dollars: $406,925 more than the case amount ($407,000 for $75, March 1 2006 )
- Worst deal by the percentages: Just over 1/5 (21.5%) of the case amount ($215,000 for $1,000,000, April 26 2006 )
- Worst deal by dollars: $785,000 less than the case amount ($215,000 for $1,000,000, April 26 2006 )
- Offers with the same amount twice in a row: 2
- ---$17,000 (Second offer had a Hummer H3 ) ( March 30 2006 )
- ---$9,000 (no prizes attached to either one) ( May 1 2006 )
- Deals with a prize attached: 4
- --- and $19,000 listed above (Rejected)
- --- for the contestant's daughter and $44,000 (Accepted, value of pony indeterminate)
- --- and $134,000 (Rejected)
- --- fan was offered a Cowboys Dream Package which included tickets, food and travel accomodations worth a total of $40,000 (Rejected, no cash was offered)
- Highest amount in a contestant's case: $1,000,000, April 26 , 2006
- Smallest amount in a contestant's case: $.01, March 10 , 2006
The potential bank offer records were split, since it is impossible for bank offers to exceed $1,000,000 on the regular series.
- The first person to select the million dollar case was Lakissa Bright on April 26, 2006. (She did not win the case, however, because she sold it for $215,000.)
Early ratings for the show were extremely encouraging. In all five of its initial outings in December 2005 , ''Deal or No Deal'' won its time slot in overall ratings and the 18-49 demographic, which advertisers deem a core demographic for television shows' success or failure. Ratings have remained consistently high in 2006 despite difficult competition, particularly '' American Idol ''.
The show appeared again on NBC each night episode of the show, a two-hour special, outrated the NCAA Basketball Tournament Final in head-to-head competition.
NBC's sister business network, CNBC , aired episodes of the premiere week of "Deal or No Deal" starting on December 26 , 2005 , scoring above-average ratings for the network. The show was blacked out in Canada on that station due to programming rights issues in that country, and Canadian viewers were shown CNBC World programming instead. The show reran again on CNBC during the week of February 6. CNBC also programmed the second week-long series of the show but the sequence started two shows behind the airings on NBC (i.e., while the March 1 edition of the show on NBC aired with the top prize augmented to $2 million, the first airing on CNBC started with the first show at its baseline $1 million). On March 9 , 2006 , the blackout in Canada was mysteriously lifted on this network for that night only. Repeats of the show continue to air on CNBC on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 8:00PM and 11:00PM EST.
Deal or No Deal's success is a factor that has given NBC the chance to air another Endemol game show. "1 vs. 100" will be launched on NBC, possibly as early as this summer.
The following is a list of the current models who carry the briefcases on the US version of ''Deal or No Deal'', in alphabetical order as seen on the show's end credits. Despite the assumption of many, the models do not hold the same numbered case each week, yet some models hold the same case.
- A commercial for the second week-long special illustrated a first-person simulation of what it's like to be a contestant on Deal or No Deal. Scenes included glancing at the scoreboard, the flashing red button (only to press if you make the deal), the models, the mysterious banker, the family members in the audience, and finally at Howie Mandel. However, the commercial contained some continuity errors. One was that the scoreboard showed that a number of boxes had been opened already (and the current bank offer), but all 26 models were still on stage, including Donna Feldman , who the speakable contestant thought she had a penny in her case. Also, the bank offer shown was too large for the amounts of money left in play. It ends with Mandel asking the question: "Deal... or No Deal?"
- During the first week, once a contestant accepts the deal and the game is played through to determine potential future bank offers, the offers are still phoned in like they normally are. Starting on the second week, the potential offers are displayed immediately, without any significant interaction from the Banker, making the post-deal play-through much quicker. Also, the potential offers are generally not displayed if they would be significantly less than the offer that was accepted, and the rest of the play-through is not shown. Whether or not it actually occurs and is edited is unknown.
- During play in the second week-long special, a contestant accidently knocked the phone onto the floor, breaking off the battery cover. Mandel joked about it and went to commercial break; when the show resumed, the phone was fixed with a rather unnecessary amount of black tape (On the March 31, 2006 episode, a contestant broke the box that covers the deal button, bringing the black tape back to the show).
- Howie Mandel created his own bit of terminology: a landmine, which refers to a single high value of money amidst several low values. Contestants who wind up in that situation are told that opening the high value case is "hitting a landmine."
- Whenever the contestant was in a situation where they only had to open one case, but two similar high amounts remained ($200,000 and $300,000 for example), Howie would often say they have a "safety net" should they continue on and knock out one of the high amounts.
- Whenever the offer was $100,000 or higher, it was displayed along with some drumming in the background to add drama. The drumming would often be more dramatic if the offer is over $200,000, however, recent episodes have often played the wrong sound effect for the offer. The $100,000+ drumming is a 'thumping' sound, while the $200,000+ drumming is more of a "gonging" sound. In addition, the music changed when it came decision time for the contestant to add even more suspense.
- In the show's end credits for the first 13 episodes, Peter Abbay played the role of the mysterious banker. Presumably, he still does, but the show cut him off from the credits after the first 13 episodes.
- The show's announcer is Joe Cipriano . He also is the regular voice-over at NBC's rival, the Fox Network, and other TV networks.
- Often, when there are two cases left, the deal offered will not be exactly in the middle of the two values remaining. It depends on whether the banker wants them to stop (usually) or take the risk. For example, on the March 31st episode, the offer was actually higher than the average of the two remaining cases. ($750,000 and $50,000, with the (potential) offer being $440,000)
- The total amount of money in all of the briefcases is $3,418,416.01.
- Originally, Mandel opted not to host ''Deal Or No Deal'', but his wife Terry talked him into hosting the show.
- Leyla Milani, the model behind case #13, is a personal friend of Howie Mandel 's. They both grew up in the same North York , Ontario neighborhood and went to the same high school (albeit a quarter-century apart).
- Host Howie Mandel has made obvious on the April 17 episode that there will be a "Deal or no Deal" electronic game released in June. This game was revealed on the April 24 episode, where the contestant and each member of the audience received a copy. A DVD game is also planned.
- A syndicated version is currently being planned, which may debut in the Fall of 2007 or 2008.
- Endemol USA is in talks with NBC's sister spanish-language network, Telemundo , to produce a Spanish-language version of ''Deal or No Deal'' to air sometime in the Fall of 2006.
- This may be the only international version where games "carry over" between episodes.
- On April 4 , 2006 , the syndicated TV newsmagazine '' Inside Edition '' did a behind-the-scenes report on ''Deal'''s models. The report, done by the show's reporter Jim Moret , showed how the models were all becoming glamourous at the same time, using hair and make-up, and putting on the emerald green dresses they had trouble squeezing in.
talks to Mandel and gives advice for the contestant.]]
- The February 27, 2006, March 3, 2006, and April 17, 2006 episodes of the show were crossovers that connected in some fashion to the shows that aired on that night after ''Deal or No Deal'' (''The Apprentice'', ''Las Vegas'', and ''Celebrity Cooking Showdown'' respectively):
- --- On the February 27 episode, after the Banker had offered the contestant the deal, Mandel asked if the contestant wanted help in making up his mind from an expert. At that moment, the phone rang again and Mandel answered. When Mandel said "Oh, my God...Oh, my God!", the theme to '' The Apprentice '' played and Donald Trump came to give the contestant advice. The contestant didn't take the deal at the time but later accepted a $359,000 deal on Trump's advising.
- --- At the end of the March 3 episode, as the final contestant of the week-long series was celebrating onstage with his family, Molly Sims from '' Las Vegas '' appeared in a scene with Mandel as her character on the show, Delinda Deline. It immediately crossed into that night's episode of the show, which featured Mandel playing himself performing at the Montecito hotel. In one scene of the show, Mandel approached a blackjack table and jokingly said "Deal or no deal?"
- ---At the end of the April 17 episode, Alan Thicke , the host of '' Celebrity Cooking Showdown '', stood by the set of ''Deal'' to talk to Mandel about Thicke's new show that premieres next after ''Deal'' while the show's credits rolled. Thicke then went into the next door set of ''Showdown'' while the previous show's credits ended. Also, NBC forgot to go to Endemol USA's production card in the end. Ironically, Celebrity Cooking Showdown was pulled early and a rerun of ''Deal'' was shown in its place on April 21.
- March 3, 2006: The lowest value was increased to $.03 on the game board, but the briefcase still read $.01. When that case was revealed, Mandel pulled out two cents from his pocket.
- March 6, 2006: WWE wrestler Nunzio appeared as one of the family supporters for his brother, Patrick "Monty" Maritato.
- March 10, 2006: Howie Mandel got a bank offer so low while calling, he went to the banker box to go "talk" with the banker.
- March 13, 2006: Bryan Thompson (the mayor of the town of Brunswick, Georgia ) needed support from his town so the show went live via satellite to Brunswick, GA for additional support, besides his campaign supporters who were there with him in the studio. Later, with four cases remaining, including the one he chose, Thompson and Mandel went to the gallery to see the three cases, but Mandel told Thompson to can't touch them. Thompson later said when he touched Aubrie's case 23, "May I get to buy some of them?", then Mandel jokingly said, "You can't touch the cases, I meant the girls." The mayor later took a $202,000 deal, passing up a potential $300,000 deal. His case had $50,000.
- March 17, 2006: Howie Mandel forgot to offer the contestant the opportunity to switch the final two cases. Fortunately, she won the higher amount of the two cases ($0.01 vs. $5,000). ''(There's some speculation among fans that the swap was offered and refused, but was edited out in post-production.)''
- March 20, 2006: Howie Mandel brought his daughter, Riley, on " Take Your Daughter To Work Day ". She modeled case number 4 for most of the show, replacing Lindsay Schoenweis , who was only seen in the beginning of the episode when the models walk into the stage. (There was $25,000 in that case.)
- March 22, 2006: Howie Mandel didn't offer to switch the cases again. Luckily, the contestant, US Navy Lieutenant and former Pro Bowl Cheerleader Jany Collaco won the higher amount. ($500 vs. $750) Also noteworthy is that this particular game ended rather anticlimatically and humorously after eliminating every case over $1,000 early in the game -- the last moments in the game were played much faster and more lighthearted than normal -- so fast that the previous offers were not displayed during each phone call. In addition, the two contestants after her (appearing on the March 24, 2006 episode) suffered similar fates, walking away with $8 and $50 respectively, although in a more traditional, dramatic matter. Many fans considered the antics of the $8 winner to be particularly annoying, and were happy to see him "win" such a small amount.
- March 31, 2006: Michael Wallace received an offer of $17,000, which at the time seemed odd because the previously eliminated cases contained small amounts and the previous offer was $17,000, so the offer should have gone up. The banker revealed that in addition, he would give him a 2006 Hummer H3 in the Deal or No Deal vault. Including the MSRP of a base H3, the offer was worth at least $46,000. Though he and his wife had wanted a Hummer, Wallace turned down the deal, but wound up taking a $252,000 deal later.
- Later in the aforementioned episode, Wallace "broke" the button's case cover. After the commercial, the button had some black tape shown to have fixed it. The next offer had ten dollars jokingly deducted from the total as a penalty for breaking the case.
- April 3, 2006: A special two hour episode aired with behind the scenes clips scattered throughout the show. The Lucky Case Game was also worth $20,000 that night in an attempt to lure viewers away from the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game that was airing at the same time.
- April 5, 2006: The banker made another "extra" deal. This time however, the offer was $44,000 and a pony for the contestant's daughter. He accepted the deal, only to find out later that his case contained $200,000.
- There was no episode on Friday, April 7th. An NBC special featuring country music superstar Tim McGraw aired instead of that night. Originially the special was supposed to air that Wednesday but NBC decided to switch the two shows' days the previous weekend.
- April 10, 2006: Contestant Mary Coyal's family took the place of the seven remaining models on the stage. The models - Donna, Jill, Kim, Marisa, Sonia, Tameka, and Claudia - sat in the audience. With six cases remaining, Mandel allowed Coyal to answer the banker's phone; both jokingly remarked that The Banker had a mean voice (before offering a $119,000 deal). Coyal took the deal at just the right time; playing the game out, Mandel went to the gallery to open the next case she would have eliminated, and it was the $1 million case. In her case: $200,000. Kasie, who brought case 13 to Mary, returned to open up the other cases.
- April 14, 2006: ''Deal'' showed the first rerun of a previous episode. It was the third episode from the first week-long special from December 21, 2005. There were originally supposed to be two episodes that week, one on Monday and the Miss USA special episode on Friday, with '' Law & Order '' reruns replacing the Wednesday show, but the Miss USA special was moved to Wednesday, April 12 and a Deal or No Deal episode was still shown that Friday.
- April 17, 2006: Special Olympics fund raiser Erin Birch rebounded from a shaky start to take a $167,000 deal (with five cases, including her own, remaining). Birch – joined onstage by one of her Special Olympians – pulled out at the right time; on her next pick, she would have eliminated $100,000, and then $750,000, making her potentially the first contestant to be left with 1 cent and $1 (the other case was $1,000). In her case: $1.
- Due to the postponment of the final episodes of '' Celebrity Cooking Showdown '', the Miss USA episode from April 12 was re-aired on April 21. It aired before the Miss USA pageant, just a week after both shows were originally scheduled to be aired on April 14th. The April 21 repeat had some minor taped segments added or replaced, mentioning that the pageant follows immediately after ''Deal or No Deal''.
- April 24, 2006: Thorpe Schoenle, in addition to taking a $464,000 deal (the highest deal thus far), was also the first person to receive the ''Deal or No Deal'' electronic home game, which is due in stores in June. Claudia Jordan passed the first copy of the game to Thorpe. In addition, everyone in the studio audience received a copy of the game, passed out by some of the models. Howie later quipped, "Models are sold separately." Later, Mandel took the next case Thorpe chose. It was Nancy Stelmaszczyk 's #24. Howie brought the case down to Thorpe's family and revealed $100,000 in the case. Mandel later passed it to Thorpe's daughter in the audience as her lucky case. BTW — Thorpe quit at the right time; with $5,000 and three huge amounts left in play ($400,000, $500,000 and $1 million), playing the game out, he would have next eliminated $500,000 (decreasing the next deal to $430,000), then the $1 million. In his case: $400,000.
- April 26, 2006: Returning contestant LaKissa Bright became the first person to initially choose the case (number 17 in this game) containing $1 million. She eventually accepted a deal of $215,000 with three cases remaining ($400, $1,000 and the grand prize). This decision came after she had knocked out the $500,000 case and the banker's offer had dropped significantly. Her young son, who appeared on both episodes, told some of the models to open the cases in the same way Mandel does. One of the offers she rejected was $134,000 and a hair transplant for her husband, valued at $15,000 from a Beverly Hills surgeon.
- April 28, 2006: Returning contestant Allyson Thadeus, who received a double lung transplant due to her battle with Cystic Fibrosis , chose many of her cases by drawing miniature bingo balls out of a custom-made bag, which had worked well for her until she returned on the 28th eliminating many of the largest amounts early in the episode. She abandoned the bag in favor of using "her gut", although she then eliminated the $750,000 case. She also jokingly answered the Banker's phone before she said what the Bank's offer was. It was $81,000, and she didn't take that deal. She also remarked that the Banker's voice was somewhat pleasant. She did well in the end, having taken a $124,000 deal at the advice of a professional wealth manager; it was then revealed that her case had $300,000.
- May 1, 2006: Returning contestant Josie Butkovic kicked off the episode by immediately eliminating the $750,000 case among several others. Her next offer was $42,000, and the remainder of the game was relatively mediocre, save for her grandfather's "womanizing" of the models. She eventually settled for a $25,000 deal, with only the $100,000 case being higher than the offer, and it turned out to be in her case. In the previous episode, before Butkovic rejected a $60,000 offer, her boyfriend came from the audience and he hugged her. The next contestant Randy Smith is a prolific Dallas Cowboys fan who "speaks" to a magic hat for advice. After the first two bank offers he rejected, which were both $9,000, a video message with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders was shown. The cheerleaders told Smith to go all the way. At one point, the Banker offered him no cash, but instead, model Tameka Jacobs came down from upstairs of the audience as she passed an envelope to Mandel and revealed inside an all-expense-paid Dallas Cowboys dream package for ten home games, valued at $40,000. After some deliberation, he rejected the offer.
- The June 5 episode is slated to be a two-hour season finale with bigger payouts, which would lead into the season finale of '' The Apprentice ''. After this episode, the series will be off the air during the summer, scheduled to return for the fall season in September. The audience burnout incurred by massive airings of '' Who Wants To Be A Millionaire '' in its heyday was the reason cited for Deal's hiatus. According to Regis Philbin from the '' Broadcasting & Cable '' article: ''“It's a big hit right now, but it's making me nervous... It's getting a big number for them and they could use the numbers. But I hope they don't run it into the ground.”'' {Link without Title} Rumors suggest that the top prize will be $2,500,000.
A special edition featuring twenty-five Miss USA 2006 delegates and Miss USA 2005 Chelsea Cooley aired on April 12th on NBC at 8PM/7PM Central. It was originally scheduled for April 14th with no episode on the 12th. The delegates replaced the 26 current models for the entire episode.
The delegates involved are:
: Haleigh Stidham (AL), Kimberly Forsyth (AR), Tamiko Nash (CA), Ashlee Greenwell (DE), Cristin Duren (FL), Catherine Warren (IL), Bridget Bobel (IN), Tara Conner (KY), Christina Cuenca (LA), Katee Stearns (ME), Tiffany Kelly (MA), Danelle Gay (MI), Kristi Capel (MO), Lauren Scyphers (NV), Jessica Boyington (NJ), Onawa Lacy (NM), Samantha Holvey (NC), Kimberly Krueger (ND), Allison Machado (OR), Tanya Lehman (PA), Leeann Tingley (RI), Lacie Lybrand (SC), Soben Huon (UT), Amber Copley (VA), Jessica Wedge (WV).
The contestant, a professional clown, proposed to his girlfriend on the air before mutually agreeing to reject a $160,000 deal. Howie posed the question to his girlfriend (while also getting down on one knee) as "Deal or No Deal?", and when she accepted, the screen humorously read "DEAL: ENGAGED". He eliminated $300,000 for an offer of $148,000, rejected that, then eliminated $200 and ultimately accepted the $301,000 offer. His next selection would have been $1,000,000, and there was $25 in his case, with $50 and $400,000 remaining in the gallery. In addition, the banker was so intimidated near the end of play, that he put on a clown's nose in respect of the contestant.
''Deal'''s production company, Endemol USA , had also featured Miss USA delegates each year on their previous NBC show, '' Fear Factor ''.
A video of this clip can be seen on NBC's site. Link
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