Pick of the week
Post-Gazette TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week
WEDNESDAY
“Deal or No Deal,” 8 and 9 p.m., CNBC.
The former NBC prime-time game show returns with 30 new one-hour episodes 10 years after the original was last in production. Now filmed at Universal Orlando Resort, the game is the same: Contestants pick from 26 sealed briefcases containing cash that ranges from a penny to $1 million while considering an offer of cash from “the banker” instead.
Returning host Howie Mandel said “Deal” provoked a “visceral” response in viewers the first time around, and he expects that will happen again.
“And I know that when it airs and I know when it aired the first time, people used to tell me the same thing: They sit on their couch at home and they scream,” he said during a press conference at the Television Critics Association summer 2018 press tour. “They’re screaming at the television, whether they’re screaming out of excitement, whether they’re screaming out of frustration.”
But why put the show, which will regularly air at 9 p.m. Wednesday after this week, on a cable business channel? CNBC prime time executive Jim Ackerman described it as the next big swing for his network.
“In many ways, we feel like we’re the perfect destination for ‘Deal,’” he said. “There is the life-changing money at stake, high-pressure balancing act between risk and reward. And at the heart of each game, there is the story of someone looking for a shot at a better life.”