The reboot of gameshow Deal or No Deal has confused viewers by offering a significantly lower jackpot than the previous iteration.
The new series sees Catchphrase and In For a Penny’s Stephen Mulhern presenting as a host of new contestants aim to secure the £100,000 jackpot, which has been controversially reduced from the original £250,000.
That's a drop of 60 per cent on the prize money which everyone tried to bag when the programme launched on Channel 4 in 2005 with Noel Edmonds as host.
A TV insider told the Sun in July: "It's a strange sign of the times, but times are tough for ITV just as it is for all other companies across the country, and £100,000 is still a lot of money these days.
Reviving a show back without the original host and decreasing the prize money by £150,000. #dealornodeal pic.twitter.com/pJQgZXdDP0
— MK200034 (@MN456782) November 20, 2023
"Plus, Deal or no Deal was never about the winnings, it was always about the game and the camaraderie between the contestants, with some happy to walks away with nothing....or just 1p in some cases."
ITV famously paid Nigel Farage £1.5million (or 15 maximum Deal or No Deal wins) to appear on the latest series of I'm a Celebrity.
The cult programme ran for 11 years on C4 and the show was duplicated around the world.
Why is the prize money less? Cost of living crisis hitting Tory @Itv or something? 😂 #DealorNoDeal
— Jade ♦️ #CeasefireNOW 🇵🇸 (@JadeThinksALot) November 20, 2023
The 74-year-old Edmonds helmed the hit show for 3,000 episodes, from its launch in 2005 until it was cancelled in 2016.
Ratings for the show had declined, with audiences of only 300,000 compared to more than four million at its peak.
Deal or No Deal recently returned to our TV screens as ITV has rebooted the much-loved game show.
ITV host Stephen Mulhern spilled that he had become known as "Play On Pete" by the team, as every time a contestant asked for advice, he always told them to play on.
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