Deal or No Deal

Well I finally finished my tax return today, so to celebrate, I watched some TV. Flipping through the channels, I came across 'Deal or No Deal'. I was surprised that it wasn't called 'Affär eller Ingen Affär' or whatever it would translate to in Swedish. The format is the same as in the Australian version, but there are some differences. For example, the Dealettes (suitcase holders) are all men in Sweden. The only attempt made to make them all look the same was their clothes - there were no matching wigs here. Additionally, they open the suitcases really slowly here. There's no fiddling with latches, but they just lower the lid over a period of about ten seconds. They really build the suspense. The 'Bank' is in fact a person, seen only in sihouette, sitting in a dark room on the second floor of the TV studio. The bank offers are not just displayed on the screen - it's all about marketing. Being Sweden, the bank guy actually phones the host each time on his Ericsson mobile. I think it's all about chewing up time. Finally, instead of saying 'Deal', the contestant is required to press a button on the table next to the Ericsson when they wish to stop. The contestant tonight did rather well, collecting 802000SEK, which is about AU$146000. He did especially well, as his suitcase contained only 1SEK.