Deal or No Deal (USA)/Episode 201A/201B

Episode 201A/201B
Season 2, Episode 1
Airdate	September 18, 2006
← 1x39 Episode 139	2x02 → Episode 202
Deal or No Deal (USA) — Season Two

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Episode 201A/201B is the first episode of the second season of Deal or No Deal, and the fortieth episode overall.

Guest Stars:

Gameplay

• To start out the second season, a fairly ordinary $1,000,000 game was played; Robin Mullins took a $102,000 deal and would have soon removed the top amount left ($750,000). Her case, interestingly enough, contained the penny.

• William Ming's game got more interesting with $1 million and $2 million replacing the top two prizes, and especially when everything opened in the first two rounds was less than $75,000. Of course, some of the big ones eventually had to drop out, but the worst happened first: Katie Cleary's case 11 turned up the $2 million prize. After rejecting a $132,000 offer, the next two rounds saw the removal of the top three large amounts - $400,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000, in that order. After only one more case, William dealt for $56,000, but the playout established his last two as $75,000 and $200,000. Even worse, his case contained $200,000.

• Matthew Solina, a fervent fan of the show, finally began to put pressure on the banker with three excellent rounds. With the elevated $3,000,000 board ($200,000 and above being replaced with $250,000, $400,000, $500,000, $750,000, $1 million, and $3 million), the banker shelled out $249,000, but soon had to take it back when Matty closed the box. Even though the next round removed the $750,000 third prize, the two millions were in play, and in response to Matty's refusal to take anything other than cool cash, the "banker babes" offered him $400,000....in cash. Matty was unfazed and continued playing, ekeing two more small amounts out of the gallery. The following offer of $650,000 was the first in a series of incredible offers that would be seen in this week of five shows with six games with increasing top prizes; since, however, the $3 million and $1 million were also backed up by $250,000 and $500,000, Matty set a record..........by shutting the box.

The offers were so big that even the $500,000 and $250,000 could drop out with no detrimental effect (provided the two millions remained around), and it proved invaluable, as the $500,000 case dropped out. The banker inched upwards to $675,000, and despite the fact that Matty stated the $3M was in his case, he slammed the deal button. The playout showed the safety net rending after the $1,000,000 case dropped out. The offer would have been $610,000, which Matty probably would have taken because of his friend's suggestion to pick "one more, we go home", but he would then have been one case away from the next offer: a heart-shattering $1.1 million. By this time, going on would have been borderline insane (the $1 and $750 shared space with the $3 million), but it would have earned another $500,000 out of the dark room. One of the biggest missed opportunities in game show history was the one on this day: Matty's case (23), was worth $3,000,000!