Deal Or No Deal
Posted on: October 23, 2008
- In: america | england | made-up statistics | tv
- 4 Comments
Okay, I’ll admit it. I watch this programme. Quite often. Okay, every day. Almost. I generally find myself closing down the laptop and packing up my things at around 4.30pm just so I can get home in time for the business end of it.
If I were in charge, I’d rename it (after getting Noel Edmonds some better shirts, of course), ‘How Greedy Can One Person Be?’ If I were really serious, I’d do some real research but as it is, I’m going to make up the statistics:
73% of contestants end up settling for an offer lower than one they had previously been given.
98% of contestants willingly gamble sums of more than £10,000 in hopes of winning ten times that sum.
0% of contestants understand the basic principles of probability.
0% of Noel Edmonds understands the basic principle of probability.
4.5% of contestants do have the £250,000 in their box.
4.5% of contestants do have the 1p in their box.
0% of contestants are more or less likely than any other to have either the £250,000 or the 1p in their box.
100% = probability that, in the long run, the banker wins. Especially if you define ‘the banker’ as ‘the production company.’
Also, as another entry in my occasional ‘How the US is different from the UK’ series, it should be noted that in the UK version of the programme, there are no scantily clad models holding the boxes. Instead, they have a pool of contestants, all of whom are allocated a box and then at the start of the programme one is randomly chosen to play. The others stand around in a semicircle and do the opening of the boxes.
4 Responses to "Deal Or No Deal"
October 23, 2008 at 9:15 pm
And now Ros is laughing at Angharad’s comment.
It’s fine. Just, if you have the choice, send Andrew on the show instead of you. ;)
October 29, 2008 at 6:00 am
I haven’t seen the UK version, but the US version cracks me up. I almost feel bad for the people who end up walking out with $20,000 when they were offered $213,000 earlier in the game…but they I realize two things:
1. They are idiots and should have walked out with anything over $100,000.
2. They just got $20,000 for standing on TV for 20 minutes doing nothing more than calling out numbers.
October 29, 2008 at 8:23 am
I never feel bad. It’s their own stupid fault for being too greedy. The UK version does offer smaller sums of money (Max. prize = £250,000) but the principle is the same. Yesterday someone won 50p after having turned down £15,000. Idiot.
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Stumble It!
October 23, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Ros writes, because she’s good at maths. Andrew laughs, because he’s good at maths. Angharad frowns, re-reads, frowns again, sighs and feels fifteen and hopeless-at-maths all over again.