American Greed in Action: Deal or No Deal on NBC

One of my favorite television shows is called Deal or No Deal and it airs on NBC on Wednesday nights. I enjoy watching this game show for all of the right reasons and some of the wrong reasons. I'll explain in a minute.

Deal or No Deal is a game show in which 32 gorgeous models stand on a stage each carrying one identical briefcase that contains a written number inside. That number is any number from $1 to $1,000,000. The briefcases are placed in a random order and contestants pick briefcase numbers at each interval. When a number is picked, the model opens up the briefcase and reveals the number inside. That monetary amount is taken off of a screen that contains a series of increasing numbers from $1 to $1,000,000.

That great part about this show is that everyone wins money, even a dumb shmuck. All you have to do is pick numbers. In fact I would dare say that more than half of the contestants on the show don't even have a brain at all. Otherwise they wouldn't be making the dumb decisions that they make on television.

The host of the show is a tall bald guy and I enjoy watching him a lot as he is funny and interesting and has something intelligent to say. The way the show works is that each time a number is eliminated on the big board, at each interval the host of the show gets a call from a "banker" which is an imaginary person who gives the contestant a monetary number. At most intervals that number goes up. However, if very high monetary amounts are eliminated from the big board, especially the $1,000,000 amount and $900,000 $800,000 and so on, then the monetary amount will decrease.

At each interval, contestants will have the choice of walking away from the show with the money awarded by the banker, or risk it all and go for a higher amount still left on the Big Board.

I understand that the show chooses people who are risk takers. However they don't excuse the contestants from being ridiculously dumb. I have seen mothers or fathers with young children or who have families with children going to college or who live in a small shack and badly need money to pay for expenses. I have seen mothers with huge families who need all the money they can get. Yet because of American greed, they ignore the money that the banker offers them and risk it all despite the overwhelming odds that in the long haul, they will win less money than was originally offered for them to take home.

For example, in one episode I saw a mother who had 4 children, each of which was no older than 16 years of age. Yet on the board were 3 suitcases left containing the amounts of $1,000,000, $1 and $2,000. The offer from the banker was around $200,000. Any reasonable person with half a brain who badly needs the money, especially a giant sum of $200,000 would not risk that amount for a gamble. The laws of probability state that the odds of the person eliminating the $1,000,000 were 1 out of 3. That is pretty good odds and enough of a deterrent to take the $200,000 and walk away.

What did she do, her greed got to her and she continued playing. As she picked the next suitcase, she must have thanked her lucky stars or something because she picked the suitcase with $1 in it. Had she picked the suitcase containing $1,000,000, she would have been left going home with a paltry $1,000 instead of $200,000. Any reasonably person would not have risked such overwhelming odds.

The same woman was going to try for a final time to get the $1,000,000 but her family begged her not to so she took the amount that the banker offered which was close to $500,000.
It is just simply amazing how greedy people are even when they desperately need the money.
Now I hope that you understand why Deal or No Deal is one of my favorite shows on television.