Gameplay Each episode of ''Let's Make a Deal'' consists of several "deals" between the host and one or more members of the studio audience, referred to as "traders". Audience members are picked at the host's whim as the show moves along, and married couples are often selected to play together as traders. The deals are mini-games within the show that take several formats. In the simplest format, a trader is given a prize or cash amount of medium value (on the order of a few hundred dollars), and the host offers them the opportunity to trade for an unknown prize. This latter item may be concealed on the stage behind one of three curtains, within a large "box" onstage (large panels painted to look like a box), inside a smaller box carried on a tray, or occasionally in other formats. On occasion, the initial prize may itself be hidden behind a curtain, or in a box or some other container. Technically, traders are supposed to bring something to trade in, but this rule has seldom been enforced. On several occasions, a trader is actually asked to trade in an item such as their shoes or purse, only to receive the item back at the end of the deal as a "prize". On at least one occasion, the purse was taken backstage and a high-valued prize such as the ignition key to a new car was placed inside of it. Prizes generally consist of either cash or merchandise with genuine value, such as a trip, electronics, furniture, appliances, or a car. At times, a small prize (typewriter, pocket tape recorder, etc.) may contain a cash bonus or a written/recorded message awarding cash or a larger prize to a trader who has chosen it.
Zonks Traders who choose boxes or curtains are at risk of receiving
booby prizes called "zonks", which can be outlandish items (live animals, junked cars, giant articles of clothing, etc.) or legitimate prizes with relatively very little value (wheelbarrows, giant teddy bears, piles of food, etc.). On rare occasions, a trader receives a zonk that proves to be a cover-up for a valuable prize, such as a fur coat hidden inside a garbage can. Though usually considered joke prizes, traders legally win the zonks. However, after the taping of the show, any trader who had been zonked is offered a consolation prize (currently $100) instead of having to take home the actual zonk. This is partly because some of the zonks are impractical or physically impossible to receive or deliver to the traders (such as live animals or a stagehand wearing an animal costume), or the props are owned by the studio. A disclaimer at the end of the credits of later 1970s episodes read: "Some traders accept reasonable duplicates of zonk prizes." Starting in the 2012–13 season, CBS invited viewers to provide zonk ideas to producers. Whenever a viewer-submitted zonk appeared on the show, the announcer credited its originator. At the end of the season, the viewer whose zonk was judged the most creative won $2,500. The contest has been continued throughout the past several seasons after its 2012 introduction. In some deals, it is possible to win both an actual prize or cash as well as a zonk.
Quickie Deals As the end credits of the show roll, it is typical for the host to ask random members of the studio audience to participate in fast deals. In the current CBS version, these are often referred to as "quickie deals", and are conducted by the hosts. Marcus/Glass will post information on the show's
Twitter address (@LetsMakeADeal) days before taping to encourage audience members to carry certain items in their pockets to win an additional $100–$500 when any of the hosts asks to see such items. The deals are usually in the form of the following: • Offering cash to a person for possessing a certain item. • Offering cash to a person for answering a question about what happened earlier in the show. • Paying a small cash amount for each instance of a certain item (coins, paperclips, etc.) that a person can produce. • Offering cash for each instance of a particular digit in the serial number on a dollar bill, driver's license, etc. • Offering to pay the last check in the person's checkbook, if they had one, up to a certain limit (usually $500 or $1,000). • Offering cash to one person if they can correctly state the exact value of the Big Deal of the Day, or the name of the trader who played for it. • Offering $500 to one person if they brought a specified item listed on the show's Twitter account. • Offering cash to one person if they can correctly choose which one of two photos appeared on the show's
Instagram account. • Offering cash to one person if they can correctly answer a question relating to their costume. • Offering cash to one person if they can correctly guess how much money ($100, $200, or $300) was in the announcer's hand. During Season 13 and 14 (2021–23), as the show modified its format due to the COVID pandemic, traders at home play the Quickie Deals round the same way as the in-studio traders.
Other deal formats Deals are often more complicated than the basic format described above. Additionally, some deals take the form of games of chance, and others are played as pricing games.
Trading deals Types of trading deals employed on the show include: • Choosing one of several envelopes/wallets/purses that contain various amounts of money. At least one of them conceals a pre-announced value (usually $1 or $5), which awards a car or trip; the others contain larger amounts as consolation prizes. Each trader must decide whether to keep or trade the one he/she chose. • Making decisions for another person, such as a spouse or a series of unrelated traders, or every member of a team receiving the same item based on majority vote. Sometimes after several offers, a team is broken up and each individual trader can make one final deal on his/her own. • Two or more traders guessing the weight of a studio audience member chosen by the host, with cash awarded to the trader whose guess is closer. • Being told the weight or number of items in a prize behind a box or curtain, and then choosing to keep it or sell it back to the host for a certain price per pound/item. • Being offered a quantity of some foreign currency, and then choosing to receive its equivalent in United States dollars or trade it for a box/curtain. • Being presented with an item having an unknown cash value, such as a claim check or gift certificate, and deciding whether to keep or trade it. Variations have included a cash box, to which the host adds packets of money at intervals; a shopping bag, to which he adds grocery items containing money; or a package of some grocery item such as candy or gum that may or may not contain money. Over the course of the episode, the trader holding the item is given several opportunities to exchange it for a box, curtain, or chance to win a large prize; in each case, the option he/she declines is given to another trader. Typically, but not always, the last trader holding the item is given the first chance to return it and play for the Big Deal. The total cash value of the item (if any) is revealed only after the trader has made his/her decision or, on occasion, during the closing credits.
Games of chance A wide variety of chance-based games have been used on the show. Examples: • Collecting a certain amount of money hidden inside wallets, envelopes, etc., or by pressing unlabeled buttons on a cash register, in order to reach a pre-stated "selling price" for a larger prize, such as a car, trip or larger amount of cash. Typically, there may also be one or more zonk items hidden which end the game immediately and forfeit all winnings if found. The trader may choose to stop at any time and keep all the money found. The cash register game used 15 buttons, two of which would ring up "No Sale" as the zonk. If a trader found one of these, he/she was offered a chance to press one more button and receive the amount rung up (sometimes doubled by the host), or win either a larger amount or the grand prize for finding the other "No Sale". In the current CBS version, the game is played using a board with 13 cash amounts and two zonks. • Choosing one of several items in the hope that it will lead to cash or a prize (e.g., a key that unlocks a safe, or an egg that is raw instead of hard-boiled). Before the host tests the chosen item to see if it is a winner, the trader is offered a chance to exchange it for a box/curtain. This game is often played with multiple traders, and more than one of the offered items may win the prize. • Games involving a deck of cards in which a trader must find matching cards, draw cards that reach a cumulative total within a certain number of draws, draw a certain number of cards from a certain suit to win a designated prize (with one suit always designated as going toward a "zonk", which ends the game with nothing won), etc. to win a prize or additional money. • Receiving clues about an unknown prize (such as a partial spelling of the prize or clues in the form or
rap, rhyme, etc.) and deciding whether to take the unknown prize or a cash prize. • Choosing face-down number cards from a board in the hope of winning prizes by out-scoring a rival trader or the host. • Receiving money in the form of a long strip of bills dispensed one at a time from a machine. The trader can end the game at any time and keep the accumulated money, but he/she forfeits it if a blank sheet or a card marked "curtains" appears. Updated versions of the game involve an
ATM; the trader inserts a card and begins to withdraw cash, but an "overdrawn" message on the screen at any time ends the game and forfeits the money. • Choosing between a known cash prize and a chance to spin a carnival wheel, which can award a car, larger/smaller cash amounts, or a zonk. • Rolling dice to receive cash based upon the roll or achieving a cumulative score within a certain number of rolls to win a larger prize. • Choosing numbers from a board after a brief look at what is behind them (cash, prizes, zonks). The trader keeps all cash/prizes matched and may stop after any turn, but loses everything upon finding two zonks. Depending on the game, the trader is given the opportunity to stop playing at various points, keeping any cash/prizes already won or accepting an offer of a guaranteed prize, or continue to play and risk losing.
Pricing games Other deals related to pricing merchandise are featured to win a larger prize or cash amount. Sometimes traders are required to price individual items (either grocery products or smaller prizes generally valued less than $100) within a certain range to win successively larger prizes or a car. Other times traders must choose an item that has a pre-announced price, order grocery items or small prizes from least to most expensive, or two items with prices that total a certain amount to win a larger prize. The pre-announced price and two-items-to-a-given-amount games were often played multi-player style. A two-player variant often had traders competing for cash, with the trader who guessed closer to the correct price of a grocery item or small prize getting progressively larger amounts of cash; whomever has a pre-announced amount after (typically) four such questions winning a larger prize. A similar variant had player compete for cash, with double the amount available for exact guesses, and afterward the chance to spend the cash on a curtain or box. These games are not used on the CBS version because of their similarities to
The Price Is Right.
Quiz games On the CBS version, due to the similarities of the pricing game concept with
The Price Is Right, quiz games are used instead. These deals involve products in the form of when they were introduced to the market, general knowledge quizzes, currency exchange rates (at the time of taping), or knowledge of geography of trips to certain locales used as prizes.
Big Deal The Big Deal serves as the final segment of the show and offers a chance at a significantly larger prize for a lucky trader. Before the round, the value of the day's Big Deal is announced to the audience. The process for choosing traders (two up to 2003, one since 2009) has remained the same. Starting with the highest winner, the host asks traders if they are willing to trade in everything they have won to that point for a chance to choose one of three numbered doors on the stage. The process continues until a trader agrees to play leading to a commercial break. Up to 2003, a second trader was chosen in this fashion and the higher winner of the two received first pick of the doors. In case of a tie between two or more traders, the host starts with the trader that was selected first. Each of the doors conceals either a prize package of some sort, or a cash award hidden inside a prop such as a bank vault, piggy bank, or blank check. On occasion, a door containing an all-cash prize is opened before the traders make their choices, but the amount of the prize is not revealed. Before 2003, a non-Big Deal door chosen by one of the traders would be opened first, and the Big Deal door would be opened last whether it had been chosen or not. This procedure is followed in the majority of episodes since 2009, although occasionally the Big Deal door is instead opened second when a trader has chosen it. The Big Deal prize is usually the most extravagant on each episode, and is often a car, a vacation with first-class accommodations, or a collection of high-value furniture/appliances. On occasion, the Big Deal consists of one of the all-cash prizes mentioned above; at other times, a cash bonus is added to the prizes in the Big Deal to bring the total up to the announced value. On other occasions, the prize consists of "Everything in the Big Deal", which awards the cash/merchandise behind all three doors to the trader who chooses it. Traders who have won zonks become eligible for the Big Deal only if not enough winners of actual cash/prizes volunteer to play. The Big Deal is the only time during the show in which participants are guaranteed to receive a genuine prize, although it may be of lower value than the one(s) they trade away. (On the pilot episode only, a zonk was placed behind one of the doors; however, it was not chosen.)
Super Deal During the 1975–76 syndicated season, winners of the Big Deal were offered a chance to win the "Super Deal". At this point, Big Deals were limited to a range of $8,000 to $10,000. The trader could risk their Big Deal winnings on a shot at adding a $20,000 cash prize, which was hidden behind one of three mini-doors onstage. The other two doors contained cash amounts of $1,000 or $2,000; however, the $1,000 value was later replaced with a "mystery" amount between $1,000 and $9,000. A trader who decided to play risked their Big Deal winnings and selected one of the mini-doors. If the $20,000 prize was behind the door, the trader kept the Big Deal and added the $20,000 prize, for a potential maximum total of $30,000. However, a trader who selected one of the other two doors forfeited the Big Deal prizes but kept the cash amount behind the door. The Super Deal was discontinued when the show permanently moved to
Las Vegas for the final season (1976–77), and Big Deal values returned to the previous range of $10,000 to $15,000. From 2012 to 2016 of the Brady version, the Super Deal was offered as a limited event (usually for a week of shows promoted as "Super Deal Week"). In this version, the top cash prize was $50,000 while the other two cash prizes were $1,000 and $2,000. In addition, instead of using mini-doors, the cash amounts were hidden in three large colored envelopes of red, green, and blue, respectively referred by Brady as ruby, emerald, and sapphire.
Trip-Tastic A "Trip-Tastic" game was played during the first week of the 2019–20 season on the Brady version. At three different points during each episode, the assistant would hand a golden ticket to a trader, enabling them to play the game. The traders were shown a world map with three envelopes attached, and they each chose one in the same order that they received their tickets. Cash prizes of $500 and $1,000 were hidden in two of the envelopes, while the third one awarded three trips.
Mega-Deal week During the first week of the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons on the Brady version, any trader who won a Big Deal had a chance to win the day's "Mega-Deal", which consisted of every non-cash, non-zonk prize offered during the episode. The Big Deal trader would choose both one of the three doors and one of seven cards (reduced by one for every day in which the Mega-Deal went unclaimed during the week). Only if the trader won the Big Deal would the chosen card be revealed; if it was the Mega-Deal card, they won all the prizes, including whatever they had traded away to play the Big Deal. Regardless of the outcome, the trader received the prize(s) in the Big Deal.
Mash-Up Week The week of May 9, 2016, was designated
Mash-Up Week. During each of the five broadcast days,
Deal and sister show
The Price Is Right each featured one game from the other's lineup. The games were slightly modified to reflect the nature of the shows on which they were played; those on
The Price Is Right were modified to add a pricing element, while those on
Deal used random draws and the offer of cash/prize deals to stop a game early.
Mash-Up Week returned to both shows the week of March 23, 2020.
Themed days Beginning in season 13, the show began to feature themed days in which at least one deal features a major, high-valued prize within a specific category (such as a cash prize, trip, or vehicle): •
Mega Money Mondays episodes feature a large cash prize (usually ranging from $10,000 to $50,000) that is awarded at some point during the show, usually as either the main prize of a deal, or as part of a larger prize package. On occasion, this prize has also been hidden within a Zonk, or awarded as part of a Quickie Deal when it was left unclaimed during the show proper. •
Worldwide Wednesdays episodes utilize a similar format to
Mega Money Mondays, except with the signature prize being a high-valued trip worth at least $20,000. •
Fabulous Car Fridays episodes feature one game played for a high-priced luxury car; in these episodes, the second "car game" is usually played for cash rather than a car. It was first held as a feature in season 13; in season 14, the feature was limited to two special weeks of episodes, both billed as
Fabulous Car Week. After a hiatus for season 15, the feature returned for season 16. The primetime episode on November 17, 2023, featured all three of these deals throughout the show, as well as a "Taco Tuesday" deal (themed around Tiffany driving a
taco truck), and "Throwback Thursday" (which featured clips of Monty Hall and Carol Merrill from the original run and Hall's guest appearances on the Brady version). ==Reception==