Love, I don't know where you're getting 5 million viewers from, it hardly scrapes 700,000 these days.

At least you have made a positive contribution today. Thanks for that.

I don't check the views for the show, how do I know? I am not love either. Also it was just nerves in the end. You can't expect a good show every day.

Perhaps I'm pointing out that now, I can see why the show has been in a steady decline for years. The early shows were packed full of comedy and tension throughout, without the use of gimmicks. Box 23 and the Offer Button haven't pulled back any viewers. I'm usually a very positive person on this forum and have stuck of for many contestants in the past, but today's game lacked any sort of exciting television.

In North America, if a TV show pulls those kind of numbers, it might be liable to get cancelled.

I can understand the show has declined in recent years. I think the offer button is the most pointless thing on the show. I found the 2005 shows were boring. I want the 45 min shows back for the tension and unpredictably. I found today show not amazing, but it was good and watchable, which is the main thing for me. I like us having debates like these.

How many views does a good show get over there? 3 mill?

Sometimes more, sometimes less. It's not uncommon to have popular shows with several million viewers.

A Brit I met at a conference in Las Vegas recently laughed when I asked him if he'd heard of Deal or No Deal

"Oh, that's low-brow television, really. It's mostly watched by stay-at-home mums."

Pretty cautious deal, but he made it work in the end, so good for him.

+1, ludicrous statement to suggest 5m. Not sure the show has ever pulled that much even on specials.

I think David was probably caught in the heat of the moment there; happens to the greatest of us...

Even at 400,000 or so, I can imagine the prospect of playing to such an audience is quite daunting. From personal experience, even playing to a crowd of 400 was enough to prevent me from sleeping for a week beforehand, and 40 is nerve-wracking enough. I was at my egotistical peak at that time, too - so what of a player who isn't familiar with the limelight? Nerves jangle, panic might set in, judgment is inevitably affected, inevitably. Pressure comes to the fore. Perhaps he who copes better with pressure might have more chance of succeeding in his game of Deal or No Deal than he who tends to falter and fumble.

Perhaps, after luck, this is what separates many of our 'heroes' from our 'villains' - not their attitude, or their judgments, but how those judgments were affected by their ability to tackle the challenging circumstances with which they were faced.

All that in mind, I think David actually has a very valid point indeed - if we choose to look past the irrelevant stuff, and deeper into what he really meant.