"DEAL OR NO DEAL" GAME SHOW TAKES CONCEPT OF ROOTING AGAINST FELLOW MAN TO EXCITING NEW LEVELS

I have only seen it a few times, but NBC's "Deal or No Deal" -- with megastar host Howie Mandel -- is sure to be a highly addictive phenomenon. I won't go into the rules here, but the concept of the game is simple enough, and I'm sure that with a good spreadsheet the mathematics behind whether to take The Banker's deal or not are fairly straightforward. The show itself is nothing spectacular.

What strikes me about the show is how instantly and how strongly I hate the contestants. They are without exception overexcitable idiots, and by even being selected to play they seem to be guaranteed $10,000-20,000. But they go through the motions of the first few rounds and, in high drama, pretend to consider and ultimately decline The Banker's initial deals. Usually, this involves absurd histrionics, quasi-epileptic spasms, or a shrieking or otherwise piercing declaration of "No Deal." More often a combination of all three.

A woman last night seemed to have no fundamental understanding of what was going on. As high number after high number disappeared from the board -- exponentially reducing her likely "winnings" -- she just declared over and over, "That's good...That's good." Um, no...actually it's very bad for you. Good would be your removing yourself from the gene pool. [P.S.: The next night she declined an offer of something like $150K+ and ultimately walked away with $5.]

If there's a group that's more deserving of white-hot, seething hatred than the contestants themselves, then it's the contestants' friends and families who are trotted out in the later rounds. Inevitably, their in-depth analyses that "That's a lot of money" or "Hmm...I don't know, Mike" are brushed aside as the greedy contestant goes against all reason in the hopes of getting even more free money, unfortunately with some success most of the time.

Regardless of what good the contestant's family could do with the money, I can't help salivating over the way his or her life might crumble after pushing things too far and walking away with $400 when they could have had $100,000 or more. The bitter recrimination of a wife whose advice to take the deal was ignored. The shattered friendship with someone who convinced the contestant to go just a little further. The possibility that the contestant could find himself in financial straits more dire than Howie Mandel's.

It boggles and excites the mind.