Game Show Congress 5/Mike's Ought-6 LA Trip Log--Day 8

Wednesday July 19, 2006--The last full day in LA. :-(  Most of the day was spent at the taping of the season premiere of Deal or No Deal.  How did it go?  Horribly.  Originally, the taping was to start at 9 AM, but then it was pushed back to 9:45 AM.  The actual taping didn't begin until almost Noon, with nearly everything taped at least twice.  The taping was to end around 1 PM.  We didn't leave the studio until after 5 PM.  To add insult to injury, we were given one opportunity to get a drink or go to the restroom throughout the marathon taping.  And to make things even worse, there was no air conditioning.  Thus, everybody at the taping was sweating their collective asses off for 8 hours.  Someone (presumably part of the production staff) said they'd get us some food and a hat for enduring the taping which ran very long.  Outside of some candy, no food was passed out.  Under half the people who were at the show for the full eight hours got a Deal hat.  The four people in our party, Jason Hernandez, one of his female friends, Tim Connolly, and yours truly, each left with a hat.  One person who was in attendance for the entire taping needed food in the worst way, as she is diabetic.  I never saw that lady get one bite of food, even after multiple pleas.  Needless to say, the audience service skills of everybody involved with the production was non-existant.

Surely you're not reading this to hear me rant about the conditions and length of the taping.  Here's what happened...

• The first game of the new season was played for a top prize of $1,000,000.  The second game was for $2,000,000, with $1M replacing $750,000 on the board.  From Joe Van Ginkel, the third game was played for $3,000,000.
• $1,000,000 will be given away in the play-at-home lucky case game, including $200,000 on premiere night.
• The first game had the better game play, but the second game had the better contestant.
• There are very few set changes, from what I could see.  These changes are so miniscule that they're not worth mentioning here.
• The models do their march before every game plus they wear new outfits for each game.
• There are a few new models, no more than three.  Most of the returning models hold the same case numbers as last season, with one of the few exceptions being Alike, who has moved from case #18 to case #20.  Among the popular models, Claudia's still at #1, Ursula's at #5, Anya's at #10 (meow), Leyla's at #13, Lanisha's at #15, Aubrey's at #23, et al.  I don't recall all the names of the new models but the one who was very memorable is Haley at #25.  Haley has a very cherubic face with Beyonce/Foxxy Cleopatra hair.
• All music cues and sound effects are added in post-production outside of the banker's phone.  The models march down the steps in unison to a drum cue (BOOM tap BOOMBOOM tap BOOM tap BOOMBOOM tap etc.)
• Some of the briefcase reveals had to be taped as many as a dozen times, as the powers that be wanted the opens to be done in perfect unison.
• Howie says to expect more surprises this season.  Does this mean more Hummers, ponies, and family reunions?  We'll find out in September.

You can see the four of us in the second row of "the pit" (the area between the contestant area and the game board).  We were about 7 feet away from Howie Mandel for 8 hours, and even closer to Ursula on case #5.