  Host Howie Mandel is bringing the show 'Deal or No Deal' to Canada. |
Last June at their upfront in Toronto, CanWest Global executives invited Howie Mandel north to promote their pickup of his hit NBC game show Deal Or No Deal. Mandel went on stage at Massey Hall and played a mini version of Deal, improvising by using his hand as the dealer phone and choosing from among just four briefcase-toting models before giving a few thousand dollars away to ad industry insiders.
This January, Mandel will be coming back to his native city to host the real Deal: Five all-Canadian editions of the Endemol game show. Global made the announcement yesterday and plan to air the episodes next spring.
"I'm more excited than you can imagine," Mandel told the Sun yesterday. The comedian said he's been dreaming of an opportunity like this "ever since 1978, when I had to leave my home town to go make a living in the States. To be able to return by doing the job I love doing the most to date is truly exciting."
And rewarding: Global had to negotiate a separate fee for Mandel's participation. "I'd come home for nothing but to get paid for it is even better," he said.
CanWest Global programming boss Barbara Williams says she's committed to getting "every ounce of glam and spectacle" into the Canadian production. She says the idea to bring the show north was hatched before last June and cemented after Mandel's good natured visit to the upfront. A deal for the studio is still in play but Williams confirmed it will be Toronto. Twenty-six Canadian models will be hired to tote briefcases here, just like on the U.S. original. Insight Productions, the same folks who produce Canadian Idol for CTV, will handle the studio work.
Last Monday's Deal Or No Deal drew 17.27 million viewers in the U.S., easily winning its timeslot. It also airs Thursdays and some Fridays. It is split in Canada on CH (Mondays at 8 p.m.) and Global (Thursdays at 9 p.m.). Last week, it was Global's third-highest rated show in Canada, drawing 1.276 million viewers.
Hopefully the Deal Or No Deal bubble won't burst before Global gets the all-Canadian version of the show on the air. Five years ago, CTV announced similar plans to produce a Canadian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire after shooting two Canadian specials, hosted by Pamela Wallin, in New York. Work began on a set in Toronto but was halted when ratings for Millionaire took a steep nosedive in the States.
That was because ABC played Millionaire to death, airing the Regis Philbin gamer as often as four times a night.
NBC, which announced plans last week to revamp their schedule as part of a corporate restructuring, seem poised to overdo Deal. As part of a strategy to save $750 million, NBC/Universal chairman Jeff Zucker hinted the network may be getting out of the scripted drama business from 8-9 p.m., meaning shows like Deal Or No Deal and the just introduced 1 vs. 100 will air every night. The reason: Each Deal costs $1.1 million to produce; scripted dramas like Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip cost over $3 million. Deal pulls twice the viewers as Studio 60. NBC has done the math, hence more Deal, less scripted fare.
Entertainment president Kevin Reilly backpeddled a bit from that announcement, saying scripted comedies The Office and My Name Is Earl are staying put Thursdays at 8 -- for now. Other network insiders suggested that phasing out scripted fare at 8 p.m. was short-sighted at best. After all, rival 8 p.m. dramas such as Ugly Betty and Jericho are thriving this season; NBC just doesn't have the right dramas.
If NBC does go all Howie all the time, Deal could burn out by spring, which would hurt any Canadian spinoff. Williams said NBC was mindful of burnout when they shelved Deal all summer and she expects them to be just as protective now. Mandel says he's been answering burnout questions ever since the show launched. "It's a nice problem to have," said Mandel. "'Do you think there could be too much of your show on the air?' We should all have those problems."
