Deal or No Deal (USA)/Episode 402

Episode 402
Season 4, Episode 2
Airdate	September 1, 2008
← 4x2 Episode 401	4x3 → Episode 403
Deal or No Deal (USA) — Season Three

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Episode 402 is the second episode of the third season of Deal or No Deal, and the one hundred seventy-eighth episode overall.

Cast:

Gameplay

After 178 shows, Jessica Robinson, contestant number 243, became the first grand-prize winner in the United States version of "Deal or No Deal." Her $1 million win came as part of a five-case million-dollar mission.

She selected case 4 because she was five months pregnant with the fourth member of her family (she has a husband and daughter). As a surprise to Jessica's family, hidden inside one of the cases (soon revealed to be case 13, the second case opened in the game) was the sex (male) of the baby, which was known to only Jessica and who revealed it to the producers, who gave this to the case loaders. When Leyla opened that case, "It's a boy!" was posted underneath the $5 amount inside, and the case had a blue felt border rather than the usual red.

Jessica eliminated four of her $1 million cases early, and the banker held his offers back. With eight cases remaining, the banker offered, along with $56,000, "Texas soil" (complete with manure) for Jessica to have her baby on, as that was her dream to move back to Texas to have her son. Luck favored Jessica after this, and the game went from there down to the final five of $25, $750, $100,000, $200,000 and the last $1 million, then to the latter three cases, guaranteeing Jessica and others $100,000.

Knowing this, she refused the rather lowball offers of $271,000 and $561,000. With just the $200,000 and $1 million left, Robinson declined the opportunity to switch cases, and this led to the U.S. DonD historic moment...and the worst defeat the Banker has had to endure.

Notes

• Case 4 was the very last case to contain $1,000,000, first seen there during Zanny Hensler's season 2 game (the 85th game played). Strangely enough, it was won in season 4, episode 2.

• From the beginning, Jessica had known where the top three amounts were, and thus kept them in play down to the end of the game. She is the fifth contestant to have input on where specific amounts were, and every one of them have been correct.

• This game is similar to that of Terry Lim Cua from the Philippines, who became the first grand prize winner in their version of the game by taking it down to the final three, then final two, and then winning, after a rather raucous start.

• Jessica kept the $1,000,000 panel from her case, sans the second comma. It was intact when the case was opened, but the comma was likely lost in the celebration.

• Technically, the final-two board of this game is approximately equal to a board of a million versus a small amount, and an offer of $467,500 - plus half of the smaller amount.

Trivia

• The post-show teaser promised another "Deal or No Deal" millionaire during the course of the fourth season in plugging the September 8 broadcast.