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Station Groups Ink Daytime ‘Deal’

Oct 7, 2007  •  Post A Comment

With Howie Mandel now officially on board its upcoming daytime version of game show “Deal or No Deal,” NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has sold the strip to stations owned by NBC, CBS, Scripps and Sinclair for fall 2008.
Production of the syndicated series will take place at the prime time “Deal’s” current facilities in Culver City, Calif., with the same producers and crew (as well as the famed briefcase-toting models).
In fact, the only changes from NBC’s prime-time version are that the syndicated “Deal” will run a half-hour instead of an hour and the top prize money in the briefcase, according to sources, will be $250,000.
In addition, the program will be designed to run faster than its network counterpart.
Executives at the company say contestants will be given the opportunity to win more than $1 million per week.
“When you look at the shows that have worked in syndication, they all had a little bit of a brand already established be­fore they hit the air,” said Barry Wallach, president of the distributor. “This one’s already got 12 [million] to 15 million people who watch it regularly, and stations realized the power of that as they look to turn time periods around.”
The distributor’s sales executives have sold the Endemol USA-produced show to the NBC Universal stations in the nation’s top markets, including WNBC-TV in New York, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, WCAU-TV in Philadelphia and KNTV-TV in San Francisco.
Stations owned by CBS, Allbritton, E.W. Scripps and Sinclair also have picked up the series.
NBC-owned stations have been busy acquiring programming in recent weeks, picking up a Bonnie Hunt talk show for the 2008 season as well.
Mr. Wallach said the half-hour “Deal” format plays to any number of dayparts on a schedule, including the key access time period between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Station sources already have pegged the series as a potential companion to “Access Hollywood” during that hour.
“From a scheduling point of view, this is a show that gravitates toward a 4 p.m.-to-8 p.m. block, and we are already discussing access time periods where there is a hole for us to fill,” Mr. Wallach said.
“Deal or No Deal” ranked as NBC’s most-watched program of the 2006-07 television season, averaging 15 million viewers per telecast, according to Nielsen Media Re­search. The series also was NBC.com’s biggest draw last season, pulling in nearly 20 percent of all visitors to the network’s Web site. The prime-time series debuted in 2005.
“We are thrilled to continue our already successful partnership with NBC Universal and Howie Mandel with this new version of ‘Deal or No Deal,’” said David Goldberg, president of Endemol USA.
“The half-hour version of ‘Deal’ has been an extraordinary hit around the globe,” Mr. Goldberg added, “and with Howie and our same production team at the helm, this new daily syndicated version will continue to work with American audiences for years to come.”

5 Comments

  1. Many of the NBC O&O’s schedules are already full. I guess iVillage and some of the Judge shows are gonna get the boot to make room for these.

  2. Don’t know where this show is going to end up in Chicago on WMAQ, but if I were Program Partners with “Merv Griffin’s Crosswords”, I would be very worried…

  3. I am personally very happy that we will also see the daytime version of “Deal”…Maybe, just maybe that will give some more of us an opportunity to be contestants..
    I have applied..sent the video..written probably 6 letters, stood in line 9 hours in the rain in KC for an interview (20 seconds) and sadly not yet picked…but have not given up yet…Love the show and am excited about the prospect of it being on several more times a week.
    Pat Spears….telephone: 816-356-1540

  4. Hey…I am still tryin’….you need me on your show…I will be the first million dollar winner…I refuse to give up….call me, I will keep on waiting..lets get er done! Many letters, video..standing in the rain in KC for an interview, many e-mails….Please give me a call!
    Pat Spears
    816-356-1540 or 816-898-0007

  5. I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.

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