28Jan2007
Canadian and Australian “Deal or No Deal” Alterations
Taping was recently completed for the English Canadian version of “Deal or No Deal”, and good friend of Buzzer, Chris, has given us the low-down on changes for their edition:
*More lights on stage. We’re hearing it’s psedu-”1 VS 100″ lighting.
*The main stage is in the shape of a maple leaf. That’s rather amusing if you ask me.
* The backdrop is obviously Canadian instead of US, complete with a “view” of the CN Tower. English Canadian “Deal or No Deal” debuts next Sunday right after the Super Bowl on Global.
Also, Australia has a minor change this season. The question portion is gone. The producers will pick someone from a randomly selected block like previous times. 25 members will still be on the player’s bench.
As a DOND fan and avid YouTuber, this I gotta see! I hope you or others put up some clips and moments from these shows. Let’s face it, Canada could really use a big money show. They seem to be the only country that has never had enough high stakes game shows, for obvious reasons, I know. But they still deserve better IMO, hopefully this will become a hit and give our northern neighbors a true big money game show to look forward to on a regular basis.
Now for a bit of history…In keeping with theme of Canadian cheapness on game shows, did you know that highest money winner in that country’s history won…only $64,000 (Short lived Canadian WWTBAM). Needless to say, not only is it likely that “record” will fall, but Canada will crown it’s first six-figure winners in it’s history. I just hope the audience doesn’t get out of line and start throwing hats and squid and such onto the stage when it happens. (HA!)
Also, aren’t Canadian game show winnings tax-free? If so, this version could just about conceivably break the record for the biggest net win on an English-language DoND (the record is currently the UK’s £250,000 jackpot win; Michelle Falco’s $750,000 win comes to less than that after tax. The target for Canada is $580,000 – highly unlikely, but it COULD happen. (The Canadian version is using the US prize tree yes?)
And Japan easily tops any other developed country for lack of big-money game shows, because they still have quaint top prize restrictions of Y2m per contestant – that’s less than $20,000! (To bump the money up to halfway-decent levels, they have teams of five playing their big-money games, and they have the most stable DoND prize tree I’ve ever seen – even topping NBC’s.)
KP: Yes, Canadian game show winnings are tax-free – so even taking exchange rate into account, a contestant winning $100,000 on the Canadian version will take home more than a contestant who wins $100,000 on the American version.
As for the money tree, I’ve heard that there will be $1 and $2 cases (in reference to the loonie and the toonie coins in Canada). Other than that I don’t believe there is any difference, but I’ll keep an eye out on the premiere.
Also of note: Canada is not known for its big game show wins. I believe the biggest Canadian win is a $64,000 winner on a two-episode Canadian special of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire taped in NYC with a Canadian audience in 2000. On a Quebec version of Twenty-One, a champion recently came close to that record with winnings of $49,700.
So if the money tree has not changed, Deal or no Deal stands to potentially take the record for largest game show payout in Canada.
This is what I get for not reading too many other posts in detail; apologies to Intelligentfan777 for being redundant on the “biggest Canadian win” remark. :P
Perhaps next year Canada will get their own “1 vs. 100″ hosted by Rick Moranis.
And what about the filipino show, Pilipinas Game KNB?, will have a canadian version with Tino Monte as host?
I missed the beginning of the show, since I was watching our local feed for the Super Bowl (because Canadian feed will trump most of the commercials with comemrcials of their ow or local advertising).
Regardless, the money tree was almost identical. There indeed was a Loonie ($1) and Toonie ($2). The value of $750 spilled over to the top right side of the board and there was not a value of $400,000.
The banker was located behind a frosted type of window, with red lighting. There were many camera shots from behind, showing his area, but no face shots. When he would make an offer, quite often you would see his hand come up and grasp the top of the barrier as he leaned on it.
Other than that, the only other difference was the inside appearance of the cases, as they were predominantly red.
Needless to say, there is now a new top winner in Canadian game shows.