DEAL OR NO A DEAL – GAME SHOW IN THE SUN TV CHANNEL

(BY N.THYAGARAJAN)

The Sun TV Channel has started producing its mega-budget game show Deal or No Deal. The show is the replica of the Irish Endemol’s game show, and is being produced in four different languages by the Sun TV channel to make it a big success.

Irish Endemol was the first person to produce the game show for his country and at that time many different countries began to produce the same game show with different versions of their own twists on their general format. Endemol’s show’s format was carried out in the countries like Albania, Argentina, the USA and the UK. The persons from different walks of life, including some comedians and other artistes of the films, hosted the shows.

The Sun TV Channel’s Deal-a or No Deal-a (in Tamil) is being simultaneously produced in other vernaculars like Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam too; to suit the participants belonging to other states. The weekly show scheduled to be telecast on Saturdays and Sundays will be aired through the Sun TV Tamil channel on October 31. However it will be November 7th for its other vernacular channels, according to the channels official.

The contestant in the game can win up to Rs.50 lakhs, provided he is able to answer to all the questions that are asked in the game and choose the right-box containing a huge sum. There will be 26 sealed identical boxes placed before the contestants and the ‘banker’ in the game alone knows the amount contained in each box. Once the contestant points out the number of six boxes, the banker may allow the contestant’s to use his discretionary either to continue in the game or not. The banker would ask the contestants as “ Deal-a or No Deal-a in Tamil. The game will have ten rounds, it is learnt.

If the contestant wills to quit the game, he would be allowed to take certain amount of money as per the games rules and regulations.

In Amitabh’s Kaun Banega Crorepati and Sarath Kumar’s Tamil Kotteswaran one might have seen, a handful of persons might have won in the game, because if their answers go wrong then they would lose the entire money they had earned by answering for earlier questions. But this game show is different, says the officials. “ There are ample of opportunity for each and every participant to win in the show, depending upon their Luck and one need not be too intelligent to participate in the game” says the official.

“ Anyone can participate in the game and there are no restrictions. The contestants have a mixture of old, young, male, female, loud and quiet contestants,” said one of the officials of the game.

When the Deal or No Deal was introduced, it has attracted the attention from mathematicians, statisticians and economists as a natural decision-making experiment. A team of economists has analyzed the decisions of people appearing in European and US episodes of Deal or No Deal and found, among other things , that contestants are less risk-averse or even risk-seeking when they have seen their expected winning tumble. In their follow-up article they find that contestants behave similarly in ten different versions of the show, despite large differences in the amount at stake; amounts to be evaluated in relative terms, for example in proportion to the initial average and not in terms of their absolute monetary value. The research project received a great deal of media attention of the USA and the UK.

There were more than a lakh of applicants, when the channel invited participants through its channel network and Suriyan FM. Only a few thousands were selected to participate in the show, says the official.

Shankar who was one-time assistant to the cinematographer Jeeva is directing the show. Earlier he had the experiences of organizing various game shows. He did his Visual Communication from the Loyola College. There has been a plan to organize the game show on all the important festivals and birthdays of various leading film personalities, politicians and other great leaders.

Another interesting thing about the game show is that 26 models from Delhi and Mumbai are brought to the show to guard the 26 cash boxes, and it seems the channel had spent a huge amount as salaries for them.

Rishi, another Visual Communication student is the anchor of the Tamil game show for the Sun TV Channel. He has acted in a K.Balachander’s tv serial.
He has also done anti-hero role in Ananda Thandavam film. Film Star Mukesh hosts the Malayalam game show while actor Sai Kumar anchors the show for Kannada and Telugu game shows.

Only the time has to tell whether the show is viable or not, despite being lakhs and lakhs of money given to the prizewinners.