In 2004, ABC commissioned a six episode run of Deal or No Deal to be fronted by Northern Irish funnyman Patrick Kielty and having recorded all the episodes, decided they weren’t going to show them. NBC picked up the rights, it was one of the biggest shows in the US, Howie Mandel gets a huge career boost, Patrick Kielty goes on to present the original laughing-stock Love Island (which becomes successful a decade later) and becomes better known as Cat Deeley’s husband.

A real Sliding Doors moment. Anyway, Wink Martindale has put up the ABC pilot on his channel.

It’s quite a strange mish-mash of colours and styles really – a lot of the set design decisions and direction seem to have been inspired by the Mexican version (dancing models, banker’s assistant coming through a door), the orange and yellow stylings are a choice and we’re not sure about Russ Landau’s sixties-esque music. I quite like the graphics. The temptation elimination game seems original to this version but takes forever and isn’t that much fun. I have no idea what the stutter dance is all about.

It seems a bit baffling that ABC passed on this, the core is as true as megamoney DoND has ever been, and you figure there are worse shows they could be broadcasting. But for one reason or another, it’s difficult to imagine this version being quite as big as the show became – maybe it’s too light. We’ll never know.

We were sad to hear about the passing of Tom O’ Connor at the weekend. He had hosted some of the greats – Gambit, Name That Tune – but probably best remembered for his many “from me, never a cross word, alright?” years hosting Crosswits.

Unfortunately though, the show he did that had the most bangeristly theme tune was The Zodiac Game, and not much exists online on the actual show itself.

Saturday, 7:15pm (UK) 8:15 (CET),
Pro Sieben and naughty internet streaming

Yo, what are you doing this evening? Not much these days I bet! So why not join us as two celebs battle it out for €100,000 in an empty studio across fifteen mystery games, one of which will be Blamieren oder Kassieren, live on German television?

As ever we will have our Discord open for live chat and quizzing and gossip and stuff. Remember it’s a privilege not a right so behave yourselves. To avoid cutting out, we advise turning Auto-sensitivity off and setting it to -85dB or so in your settings. Or! Mute yourself and go along for the ride.

To watch it would be useful to sign up for ProSieben’s catch-up service – it’s pretty simple to work out, don’t click the box if you don’t want e-mail messages. You will need to put in a proper e-mail because it will send you a confirmation. You will need some sort of VPN service to watch live.

I’m likely not going to be there for late 40th birthday reasons, but others certainly will so join in the fun!

First of all the mesmerizing, not always for the correct reasons, You Should Be So Lucky! where Vincent Purity invites stage school brats (let’s be honest) to show off their skills and arbitrarily make their way up a snakes and ladders-esque board. There’s one point where Vincent marches the kid the wrong way up the board. One act is racially insensitive thirty-five years on. The clap-o-meter would not pass scientific testing. But there is something about how they’ve gone all-in on the idea that lends it a certain charm.

Secondly, the final of The Krypton Faktor (the German version of The Krypton Factor) is already up on Youtube, but I’m alerted to the fact that episode 1 was recently uploaded. I’ve only scanned through it so far, I don’t remember seeing the Celebrity Braincrash response round in the final episode, still love that their physical ability round is set in basically an old metal works, and I might have missed it but there doesn’t seem to be a “strategy” round here like the final has. Still though. Fans of the turn-of-the-90s Sat1 aesthetic, such as I, have a lot to love here.

It’s that time again, comic Bülent Ceylan takes on journalist Jenke von Wilmsdorff over 15 mystery games for Elton’s €100,000 briefcase. Musical support comes from Stefanie Heinzmann and Eurovision winners Maneskin.

As ever they’ll be a live watchalong on the Bother’s Bar Discord on Saturday night, although for the second time running I’m not going to be able to make it, this time because of 40th birthday stuff – sorry. I’m sure it’ll be fine though.