Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal

Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal is the Philippine franchise of "Deal or No Deal", presently hosted by Luis Manzano and previously by Kris Aquino, which premiered on June 5, 2006 on ABS-CBN.
The smallest prize has always been ₱1, but the grand prize has always varied; at present, the top prize is ₱1,000,000. The game show's tagline is ""Ang Kapalaran mo, Desisyon Mo" which in turn translates in English as "Your Fate, [is] Your Decision"." At the time of its premiere, this was the first weekday primetime game show in the Philippines since the so-called primetime game show craze died down in late 2002, with "Pilipinas, Game KNB?", the last remaining show among the weekday primetime game shows, reformatted into a daytime one after a relatively brief hiatus (although it had a primetime spinoff called "Pasko Na, Game KNB?" for three weeks in December 2005 to January 2006).
The first season of the show was supposed to be a three-month stint, to give way to another Endemol-produced program "Pinoy Dream Academy", but its immense popularity caused the show to be extended to a nine-month-long season. The second season premiered in June 2007, and was supposed to end in October of the same year. Once again, the show's success amongst viewers resulted in an extended season, a new time slot, and lead programming for the evening news; the season concluded in January 2008. After a six-month hiatus, the third season of the show premiered in July 2008, and became the first to also be broadcast on TFC's North American feed. The original series of the program ended on March 27, 2009.
After a nearly two-year hiatus, the show returned On February 25, 2012 with Luis Manzano as host. Original presenter Kris Aquino further elaborated that she could not host the show as she was having upcoming commitments for her upcoming drama series, "Kailangan Ko'y Ikaw", with Anne Curtis. Considered as a continuation of the original series, this fourth season lasted until September 28, 2013, and had noticeable changes in game play, and in scheduling, airing only on Saturdays, as opposed to weekdays like the previous three seasons. The fifth season of the show premiered on February 9, 2015 after numerous teasers hinting of the show's return, with further changes to game play (to be mentioned below). On January 25, 2016, Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal become Barangay edition. The fifth season ended on March 4, 2016.
Gameplay.
The Philippine version is very similar to the U.S. version of Deal or No Deal (including the logo), except for the sounds and musical scoring which were adapted from the Dutch version.
Before the game proper begins, a third party randomly places the possible amount of prize in the briefcases, which are distributed to 26 identically dressed models called the 26K who reveal the contents during the game. No one, including the host, knows what amounts are in the cases. Each contestant receives a new, randomly assigned set of cases. The prizes range in amounts from PHP1 to PHP2,000,000. See listing below.
After picking a case, the contestant then selects six of the remaining 25 cases, revealed one at a time. This is followed by a "phone call" by "The Banker", a mysterious figure whose face is not shown (at times a silhouette can be seen). He purportedly sits in a skybox (situated between the two audience sections) and makes an offer, via telephone to the host (his voice is never heard) to buy the contestant's case based on the mean of the cash amounts still in play, and also based on the player's psychology. This amount is usually lower than the mean. In more recent episodes, the banker "punishes" a player of opening a large amount by offering a "very" small amount, despite the number of larger amounts still left in play. The player is then asked by Kris the title question: "Deal or No Deal?"
Should the contestant refuse the offer (by stating "No Deal!"), they must choose five of the remaining cases to eliminate from consideration. The Banker makes another offer, and the game continues as before. The Banker's offer may be higher or lower than the previous offer (if a top prize is eliminated, generally the offer decreases; conversely, if lower amounts are eliminated the offer increases significantly).
The contestant is shown a button to press in case the contestant takes the banker's offer. The player can just push the button to take the offer, even without saying "Deal." On the other hand, the contestant can simply close the button's cover to imply "No Deal" without actually saying the phrase.
Subsequent rounds have the contestant withdrawing five, four, three, then two cases from play, with Banker's offer appearing in between rounds; should the contestant continue to decline The Banker's offer after the two cases were picked, he/she then eliminates one case at a time (with an intervening offer from The Banker) until two cases are left. If the player rejects the final offer, they receive whatever cash amount is contained inside the case that they originally chose.
Each contestant has several supporters (usually three or four), who sit in a special section just off stage during his/her game. As the field of briefcases dwindles, one or more of the supporters are asked to consult with the contestant and help him/her make a decision. These exchanges have become emotional, particularly when very high and very small amounts remained and The Banker offers a large cash buyout. The contestant's supporters are typically revealed after the second Bank deal and before the third round; although if a contestant is doing well, the host will let the game run its course for some time, often consulting the supporters when the tide begins to turn.
If in case the contestant decides to accept the offer of the Banker at the end of any round, the host will let him go on ("No Deal" instead of "Deal" assumed at that point) until the end (at the end of every subsequent round, the amount offered by the Banker is revealed to him and "No Deal" is assumed) to determine if he made the correct decision.
In the fourth season (2012), due to the reduced number of briefcases from 26 to 24, the number of briefcases opened in each round is also modified, starting from five in the first round, three in each of the next three rounds, two in each the next three rounds, and one in each the final two rounds. Gameplay otherwise remains the same, with the exception of a routine option to swap briefcases in the end. The offer to swap briefcases was only given one time during Aquino's tenure.
In the fifth season (2015), once again due to the reduced number of briefcases from 24 to 20, for the very first time in this season and for this franchise, celebrities were the ones to hold the briefcases and a roulette is used to determine who among the 20 Lucky Stars would be the player of the day. Everyone would have a chance to play, since their tenureship as briefcase holders last for a month, and they would be replaced by a new batch of celebrities every month. The number of briefcases opened in each round is brought back to the usual format used in Season 1 to 4, but instead of six cases to open first, five were first opened, then four, three, two until one case is opened in succeeding rounds. However, the special section for the player's supporters has been removed, since the celebrity player of the day is also part of the 20 Lucky Stars, so after each star's situated briefcase is opened, they would sit in the audience space provided with a special platform row and would help the player in case if he/she has a difficult time during case selection at gameplay. Generally, the celebrity's designated briefcase as a Lucky Star would be their briefcase for play once chosen. However, the celebrity contestant has the option of swapping for a different briefcase, in which case the original holder of the new briefcase in play would then hold the swapped briefcase for the duration of play, then regain their designated briefcase afterwards.
Contestants, who joined through text messaging, are selected and screened with a series of interviews and tests, including a psychological one, before they appear on the show.
Case values.
The currency of the amounts on the money board, on the briefcases, and offered by the Banker to the contestants is in Philippine pesos. Throughout the show, the peso sign is never used in all of the amounts on the money board, on the briefcases, and offers by the Banker to the contestants. It is because of the limited font and/or character support for the actual peso sign (₱).
On January 1, 2007, the ₱2,500 and ₱5,000 case values were replaced by the ₱75,000 and the ₱4,000,000 case values (the latter being the highest amount). On its second season, ₱2,500 and ₱5,000 came back in the board and new amounts like ₱250 and ₱250,000 appeared replacing the amounts, ₱750, ₱200,000, ₱300,000 and ₱400,000 of the first season together with the top amount of the season which is the ₱3,000,000.
The briefcase amounts reverted to the original ones for the third season. But later in the third season, the five highest values were replaced with ₱1,000,000 each, similar to the Million Dollar Missions of the American version.
On January 5, 2009, the case values for the ₱4M Edition were brought back into play at par with the new year.
For the fourth season, the ₱150 and ₱2,500 case values were removed. In replacement, this season introduced a special prize hidden in one of the briefcases. If a contestant opens this briefcase during the game, he/she will win this guaranteed special prize in favor of normally opening its case value afterwards. The Christmas Edition returned on December 1, 2012 with the ₱400 and ₱750 cases replaced with two more ₱300,000 into play. From February 23, 2013 to March 23, 2013, the ₱750 case was replaced with one more ₱1,000,000 for celebrating the first anniversary of the season.
For the fifth season, the ₱75, ₱750, ₱25,000, and the ₱2,000,000 were removed. Only the ₱1,000,000 was maintained, since this has been a common win for those who have been millionaires of the show. This board is also significant since this is the one with least total amount, over the past four seasons.
NBC Around The World.
The sums of the briefcase values are:
Changes.
Second season changes.
Aside from the revamp of the money board in the second season, set designs were changed.
Third season changes.
While the money board reverted to the first-season values, there were also many changes applied for the third season:
Models.
"Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal" features a wide variety of models over the course of its five seasons. The first three seasons featured the "26K" girls which, unlike the U.S. counterpart, can handle any case per episode instead of being placed in a permanent position. Its most notable models include Charmel de Asis, who was notorious for holding the high or jackpot amounts and was the "Banker's Ace", and Chloe McCulley who went on to compete at the inaugural Miss World Philippines 2011 pageant and placed third to eventual Miss World 2011 1st Runner-up Gwendoline Ruais.
In the fourth season, the show featured a new set of models known as the "24K" alluding to the number of cases played per game. The fifth season was the first to feature celebrities as the case models, known as the "20 Lucky Stars", which were done in four batches and are the players of the episode once chosen by the "Gulong ng Tala".
Text promos.
"Kapamilya, Katext".
On July 10, 2006, a text-messaging game was introduced as a new segment of the show for the viewers to participate and win cash prizes. In "Katext, Deal or No Deal", there are 10 special briefcases with amounts starting from PHP5,000 to P50,000, one of which is randomly selected for play. After a briefcase is chosen, 2 briefcases are randomly opened, after which the Banker makes an offer to buy the suitcase in play. Viewers can text whether they want to "Deal", signifying that they accept the banker's offer, or "No Deal", meaning they will accept whatever amount is in the suitcase. In the next episode, the suitcase is opened to reveal the amount it contains. If the amount in the suitcase is lower than the offer, one winner will be selected from those who texted "Deal", with the Banker's offer as the prize. If the amount in the suitcase is higher than the offer, one winner will be selected from those who texted "No Deal" to take home the amount in the suitcase. The winner is chosen each day from those who texted via electronic raffle. The amounts are:
On November 13, 2006, a segment was made that was named: "Kapamilya, Katext, Deal or No Deal". The range of the amounts inside the case still increased by PHP5,000 starting from PHP10,000, but the highest amount inside the case is PHP100,000. Same procedures still apply, but have been modified. On Monday, one briefcase and another has been chosen. The next day after the chosen briefcase has been opened, another briefcase is chosen, and the banker's offer is based on the briefcases already opened the previous day. This new process continues throughout the week. The amounts are:
"Ka-Text, Deal or No Deal".
Along with the show's return, a new promo was launched, named after the first text promo "Ka-text, Deal or No Deal", wherein home viewers can win half of either what the contestant has won or the contents of the chosen briefcase (i.e. ranging from 50¢ to PHP1,500,000). Viewers can text the contestant's possible final response of "Deal" or "No Deal." Texting stops after the contestant has made his/her final decision. The next day, a winner is chosen from those who texted; if the contestant's final decision is "No Deal," only those who text the same response would win. On the other hand, when the contestant says "Deal," all who texted will be considered, regardless of response; what the winner would receive depends on the response.
In the show's third season, the rules were modified. Viewer could text "Deal" if the accepted offer was larger than the contents of the chosen briefcase or "No Deal" if the briefcase contents is larger than the accepted offer or the Banker's final offer if the contestant decides to say "No Deal" all the way. The correct response would depend on the outcome of the game; only those who text the correct response are eligible for prizes: P20,000 for the daily winners or P200,000 for the monthly winner. The promo was relaunched later with the same daily prizes, but this time, a Nissan Navara was up for grabs as the grand prize.
Unnamed text promo.
In a third promotion, this time using the show's title, viewers were invited to guess which briefcase contained P3,000,000. Those who correctly guessed the said briefcase would win PHP25,000 plus a "nochebuena" package.
"Tulong sa Barangay".
Prior to the start of the 4 Million Edition, a commercial of the show was released where barangay captains were invited to join and play as studio contestants. The aim of "Tulong sa Barangay" is to provide help for the needs and developments of different barangays in the Philippines by allowing the barangay captains to play as studio contestants and whatever the barangay captain will get, it will be donated to the barangay funds. A different set of text messaging instructions are given for interested barangay captains. The first episode involving barangay captains began on February 6, 2007.
"Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal sa Cebu".
On November 30 to December 1, 2007, the show finally made its first out-studio episodes at the parking lot of SM City Cebu. The stage made for the show was noticeably larger, having a larger stage and two large staircases where the models stood. The Banker would stand at the screen behind the staircases obscured by a red clouded background. He only appeared in front of his "helicopter" whenever he made his offer.
The episodes were shown from December 3 to 7 of the same year. One of the contestants happened to be the mayor of Toledo City, Cebu, who played as a regular contestant.
Winners of at least PHP1,000,000.
So far, only Terry Lim Cua, Allen Paul Aguada, Jerhan Mama-O, and the team of Gerald Anderson and Jake Cuenca won the largest amount, which is PHP2,000,000.
"World Tour" U.S. episode.
In April 2008, the U.S. version of "Deal or No Deal" filmed an episode from the studio of the Filipino version, as part of a series of "World Tour" episodes showcasting international entries in the franchise. The episode was conducted in a similar manner to the U.S. version of the format, featuring an American contestant and prizes in U.S. dollars. Kris Aquino joined U.S. host Howie Mandel as co-host. The episode premiered on NBC in the U.S. on May 5, 2008, and aired on ABS-CBN on June 22; although it was actually the last of the "World Tour" episodes to actually be filmed (the first was filmed from the Estonian version "Võta või jäta"), ABS-CBN business unit head Alou Almaden stated that Endemol USA "loved the episode so much" that it was aired first instead.
ABS-CBN's PR campaign for that event also earned the show a Philippine Quill Award of Merit in the same year.
Reception.
"Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal" has been consistently topping on its timeslot. Season 4 posted its highest rating to date. On October 6, 2012, the show garnered 32.7% rating nationwide. Vice Ganda played in that top rating episode beating the September 13, 2012's 30.9%.