Felt somehow scripted in my opinion. Time for xmas stars now.

Eurgh, I aint gonna watch the x-masn stars.

Howcome anonymous? dont u like the crimbo star episodes?

Why Jane didn't you just be brave and follow your son's beliefs.

I saw it xmas star today and trust me it was an epic game

Or it would have been had the Banker's Gamble not spoiled it.

i watched it i couldnt believe it i dont want to spoil it but i wish one of the contestants left that board and got that offer or more it was a great game and he seemed quite a nice guy but he looks familiar i missed the 1st 5 min of it where was he from can some1 tel me please that women with blonde hair in the audience was quite fit lol.

oh by the way merry christmas and a happy new year to all u viewers.

Yeah i agree that bankers gameble was annoying, but at least he didn't take the gamble. Otherwise if he had gone for it and won the quarter million, then it wouldn't feel the same.

The x-mas stars are crap thats why. I hated them last year so I ain't watching them this year.

ok. a dare say this will never happen but if u were 2 go on as a crimbo star wud u watch ur own game?

Lol I don't have a sob story to tell. I dont mean to sound cynical but the last year sob stories made me cringe, especially when they won a low blue after their heatbreaking stories, so I just don't want to watch it.

I wish they had gone back to what they did in season 2 at christmas. If you remember they doubled the top prize to £500,000. Wrighty played on christmas day and won 32 grand and Danny played on boxing day who won 20 grand plus 3 presents, one of them contained an additional 10 grand. Those were the days.

I know and when Patricia played last year and pulled out of Eamon and additional £250, you could get £250, £500, £750 or an additional £1,000 which is still cool. Now its gone POOOF. I mean even the 3rd B'day, they didn't triple anything. I wanted them to.

the amazing thing is one of the xmas stars was an epic win and the other two were total trainwrecks including a new member of the 1p club (that was aired on xmas day sadly), i hope that mariane and john's games were just blips and that the good fortune hasn't ran out only for us to go back into the Nikki Tucker era

You know the x-mas stars will they actually count, like in the records, say someone deals at -£200, will that be in the records, or even the 1p win you mentioned, will they be added to the actual records?

OMG YOU GUYS, IF YOU WATCH DONNA'S GAME (THE GIRL WHO DEALT AT 21K AND HAD 250K IN HER BOX) LAURA IS IN THE AUDIENCE!!

Erm we already knew that DOND. Donnas game was 2 years ago and has been on this site since then. I think most people will have spotted that by now

Lol i didnt know. I just spotted her when i was watching dond classics

With the 1p turning into a Turkey Sandwich for the rest of the 2008 shows and a New Year's Eve special lined up for 31 December, that makes a total of 15 consecutive shows which have diverted from the basic Deal or No Deal (Santa v Scrooge, Xmas Stars, 1p removed, New Year's Special). Surely 2009 can't get any worse...

Don't worry James, I'm sure 2009 will be back to normal: 22 boxes, all red, 1p-£250,000. Here's hoping there isn't any gimmicks like the banker's gamble, future offers, or forcing people to go on by offering unfair offers (eg Lauren and Ellen)...here's hoping!!

I don't think that will ever happen i'm affraid. All these things we keep talking about the banker's gamble, telling them future offers and forcing them to go on will continue as a trend. It seems that the Deal or no Deal will never go back to the way it used to be in 2006-2007(season 1-2). I wish it would cuz then it would be popular again but it's unlikely. To make matters worse i watched today's game and although it was a good game, the offers were poor. He only offered £20,000 at 5 box when the top two biggest numbers were still on the board. I remember when he use to offer £50k over.

I just watched Jeff's game who played on 25th Oct 06 and he was offered £36,000 at 8 box and yet his board was not as strong as today's game. Jeff only had £1000, £15,000, the top two biggest and 4 blues, where as today's player had the top three biggest(£75k, £100k and £250k) along with £20k, £15k as a backup and only 3 blues but only gets an offer of £25,000. At 5 box Jeff's offer was a massive £64,000 when he did an all blue round where as watever his name was today only got an offer of £20,000. I just wonder though why doesn't the banker offer high anymore? Is it because he knows most of the contestants nowadays are not prepared to go all the way.

Ever since the phone-in scams the offers have dropped big time! The banker has done this for two reasons: 1) Force people to carry on as there are WAY to many dealers and their ratings are going down and 2) Because they were fined £500,000+ I think it has affected their profits and they then need to offer lower. But it seems that players nowadays have lowr expectations and deal at his mean offers!

But it doesn't make it exiting anymore, whenever someone has a strong board the banker won't make huge offers like he use to. I take your point but it just doesn't feel as tense or nerve-racking, because you know what there going to do by their emotions and expectations. In the old days I use to think "what is he gonna offer" and "are they gonna go all the way". Nowadays even with a strong board he offers poor even after brave no deals to about £20,000 or more and most people seem to deal. Like in today's game he was brave to turn down £25,000(even though it wasn't a huge offer given what was left on the board) yet he dropped it to £20,000. I know he did an all red round and took out £75k but in all honesty it's still a powerfull board. Then he is left with 10p and £100,000 and he drops it again to £18,000. He use to offer £30-£40k. Don't the producers realize that DOND is on a decline and that offering low, forcing them to gamble and adding extra gimmicks isn't working. Someone should write to the producers and workers of this show and tell them what is putting viewers off. I fear season 4 could very well be the last ever and that there will be no more Quarter Millionaire's to join Laura and no more big wins like over £100,000.

There will be a few more big wins, all of which will occur during a 'special' week. Still to come this season are: Love Week, Easter, the fictional Banker's Birthday week and the summer specials. The Banker's gimmickry during those weeks will allow for big wins. Plus there are the one-off specials: New Year's Eve, 1000th show.

The only one i'm looking forward to the most is the 1000th show. I hope they do something really special like increase the prize money or bring back contestants from the past. Plus i'm like you James i don't really like these new special gimmickey shows, they were ok to start off with but now they've become boring. For the new year i want to see another Quarter millionaire winner, it's been nearly 2 years now since Laura won.

I don't see the problem with the 'gimmicks' to be honest. I think that the show needs some variety to prevent it from becoming stale, and I look forward to the Halloween ones especially. They're only at certain times of the year and Noel seems to enjoy them a lot more too. It was only until I came on this site and read opinions that it made me think of the old days and how much it's changed- I don't think that I noticed as much as some people in particular (James), which tells me that we watch the show in different ways and for different reasons. I love coming back after a hard day and catching the show on More4 a bit later- I choose not to let the flaws bother me and just enjoy it!

Please don't say that. I wanna go on the show when I am 18. Still got 2 years to wait :( , But I agree the low offers don't seem to work, what they need is a long break, with a wide range of characters I think. Maybe a break for a month or so and start fresh and maybe it'll go back to that of Season 1-2. Mind you I still enjoy season 4 games, but I'm sad lol.

Future warning. But Look out for the 10p Box

Well i'm already 18 and could apply to be a contestant but i'm afraid that the banker won't offer me high offers. Anyone got any ideas in how to persuade the banker into giving me high offers. My idea would be to show no emotions, don't ask people for advice and don't let anyone know what my target is. Oh and i would not want to do that 1p kiss, another thing that i hate in DOND. They never did that before.

Boy you're right about the offers being sh%^ nowadays, I mean look at daz who played in 06 (I know there were 2 daz's in that year, but i mean daz from feb), he had a 5-box of 250,000, 15,000 & 3 blues (including the 1p) and he was offered 45,000, if he had his game now he'd be lucky just to get an offer of 10,000. Mr banker you need to start reaching deep into your pockets again!!!

5 tips for winning big: 1. Whilst you're in the wings, give lots of advice, as the Banker will think you know a lot about the game and will hence make respectable offers. 2. Come with a sob story. If the game goes wrong, you'll get a bonus. 3. Time your application so that you will first appear on the show three weeks before an occasion week (such as Christmas), because then your game will take place on the occasion week and we've all seen how much money is given away then. 4. Bring a gift for the Banker. If it all goes wrong, he'll either buy the gift off you or give you money by means of thanking you for the gift. 5. If the £250k is still in play, go on regardless, because the Banker will admire your courage and make respectable offers.

See you just proved my point as to why i wouldn't apply. 1) I don't have a sob story to tell 2) I wouldn't want to give too much advice as it will infuence their game and will give away my game e.g. Whenever they do a sweep and ask what do you think i should do or what would you do the banker then knows what kind of player you are. Wether your a no dealer or just hear for a bit of cash. Finally why should i give the banker anything when all he is is a mean grumpy old man who doesn't care about our ambitions. Do you really think giving the banker a gift will make him give me high offers. Look at Matty's game yeah he got some decent offers but then as soon as £250k went it all crashed and burned.

Plus Daniel who played on Aug 28th 2007(season 3) didn't really say anything when he was in westwing and when his game came he didn't give the banker a gift and didn't say much about himself. He said he was a mental health worker where there is a nurse inside and left a full stop then. Yet his offers were huge and why? Becuause he didn't give much away, he didn't ask anyone for advice(he said that at 8 box when he was offered £44,000 that "there will be no sweeps")and was prepared to go all the way. That's the way i think you should play it, if all players now were like Daniel or Morris the bravest of them all, then their offers would be massive and we would have more big winners and maybe more Quarter Millionaire's.

But Daniel happened to have one thing on his side that can't be controlled: luck. He had the top 4 in the final 4 boxes. Daniel's game therefore can't be considered run-of-the-mill. And Morris, he was also lucky enough to keep the £250k to the end. And anyway, if you're that lucky, you don't need special treatment from the Banker. As Noel helpfully reminded us at the end of today's better-than-expected New Year's Eve special, the game is entirely random.

Well if he dug into his pockets like he did in season one, we'd never have players in active play past the 3rd round, the constestants (for some reason) lowered the expectations and even deal at the banker's low offers, so the banker needs a way to hull in those ratings, ie banker's gamble, offering the swap at a 2 box stage etc etc.... No way will we have many gusty players as we did in season 1-2 or even 3. But I guess, people cant afford to gamble just for the sake of our entertainment but it makes such good television, doesn't it. I also agree that it seems that more people have sob stories now...I mean what the heck? They act as if no-one else have anything bad happen to them, which is why I dislike x-mas stars. But yeah... no way will we get the banker's offers high again unless the jackpot lowers to 175k lol. But that would be silly.

Anyway, it's about time we went back to moaning about the lack of updates. It's been eight days since Jane's game!

haha I hadn't realised. I think the run of suckish games made me fel not like commenting. Don't get me wrong, I still am a huge fan but haven't been enjoying many of the games, except Carries and the thing going on between Alex and the banker. (So hard not to comment on Carrie's game..but dont wanna spoil it as many people may have not wacthed it eyt lol)

Sorry for spelling errors, btw I know this may seem mean but I found Mary's box opening funny on Carrie's game! But it did add to much of the climax...I was hoping it would be a good one.

For those who have seen Alex's game (1st Jan), the odds of him having that supposedly perfect opening round (which is stupid - how can an all red round be the best possible round?) were 0.0038%. In other words: it should happen once in every 26,334 shows. And the funniest thing is, I bet he would have liked those low reds once he'd got to the two-box stage..! Just shows what the Banker knows.

The reason why it was ideal was because then in the following rounds it is more likely you'll hit blues in the second and third round hencewhy it is regarded as the perfect opening round, the banker has mentioned it is "perfect" in shows from season two. It isn't perfect in the sense your erdicated the lowest 5 but is perfect in the sense you have a 11/17 chance (not sure how to simplify the fraction) of taking out blues. Alex's game was very funny and I enjoyed it!

I actually saw yesterday's game(new year special)and today's game too boy that one was a heartbreaker. I thought he was gonna leave the £250,000 at the end, but it turned out to be the nightmare round and after a strong start and good offers it all went pair shaped. But as Noel has said many times "it's not how you start it's how you finish". At least he was brave and went for it, if we had more players with his attitude there could be some serious big wins. Why do the brave ones nowadays end up with nothing another thing that has happend on DOND recently. In the old days i saw players turn down offers over £40k and get rewarded hugely.

By the way guys next Wednesday 7th Jan will be the second anniversary when Laura became our first Quarter Millionaire. Wonder if Noel and the producers remember that now.

I'm sure they will remember it; right now the producers are looking for any sort of event to base a special episode on.

Love week is a month away :|

Hi Everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates over Christmas, but it's been really busy here. I do have a little problem with the Christmas Star Specials that were aired for 3 days, as these contain over 60 temporary newbie box openers! If I include these 3 shows then these 60+ players will hang around in the "Players" section of the site and daily increase their show counts, as I do not have database access to remove them manually, as they will never actually play their games. But if I don't include the 3 shows, then there will be a gap in the shows actually aired. I am still unable to contact the site owner who is the only person able to manually update the database. I am happy to hear everyone's opinion here as to which way they would prefer the Christmas Star shows to be dealt with at the moment.

Ignore the Christmas Stars for now. Just make sure that for the 28th December game, you put episode 108 rather than 105.

Ignore x-mas stars, I don't consider them to be in the hall of fame eg the person who won 1p. I don't think so anyway! The last years ain't on, so this years shouldn't be either. Thanks anyway! =)

I'll do as James suggested, and leave the Christmas Star ones off for the time being, and they could possibly be added later when we have access to the database again. Last years Christmas Star games were included on the site, so it might be good to include the specials at a later date when possible.

Oh I didn't know that. Anyway we know it must be hard doing this on a daily basis! Gotta admit you've done a heck of a job doing this all the way from season 1!!

kestral would u ever update season 1 again dont worry if u cant im just curious.

kestral would u ever update season 1 again dont worry if u cant im just curious if u can or not because i missed of season 1.

sorry i wrote that completely wrong i ment to say this. kestral would u ever update season 1 again dont worry if u cant im just curious to see if u can or not because i missed most of season 1 thank you if u can i know it can be hard.

Couldn't you just upload the one on 24th Dec when that man won £71,000 but leave the other 2 games. I really wanna see that one again.

Joe im goin to try upload that episode on youtube and if i do ill send u a link when i upload it if thats ok with u.

Yeah ok that would be good and tell me what to type in on youtube

kestral theres like 4 5 games missing

james, comment 20: "surely 2009 can't get any worse..." a quarter of the way through this year, i think that already we can all safely say it's been summed up by alice's game :)

2009 worst year for Deal or No Deal so far.

Interesting how the likes of Trev, Alexandra, Eddie, Den, William, Kate and Sandie all like nothing like there namesakes who previously appeared on the show.

I think the first half of 2009 was pretty good, for me it wasn't until probably July b4 it started to get dull again

And i wish youd all get the f--- over alice too!.