Deal or No Deal? No Deal!
By Joanna Miller in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 26, 2006 6:03PM
Chicagoist is a big fan of the DVR, maybe too much of a fan. It’s pretty much changed our life. We watch a lot more TV than we used to, but we also get out a little more now that we can catch up with our favorite shows whenever it’s convenient.
But, as we’re sure most DVR devotees will agree, this love comes with some unexpected side effects. For instance, we’ve somehow developed the subconscious belief that we can control the entire world with our handy remote. Once, we actually blurted out, “Rewind that,” when we overheard someone say something that perked our interest. Yeah, that was embarrassing.
Another phenomenon is the science of DVR timing. Say, hypothetically, we want to watch an episode of “24” on a Monday, and, obviously, we do. We’re not going to start watching at 8 p.m. when it comes on. That would be ridiculous. Because the last thing Jack Bauer needs when he’s saving us from terrorists is a bunch of stupid commercials.
No, we have to give it at least a 15-minute head start so we can fast forward all the commercials. Duh. To pass the time, we may watch something less enticing, something that just happens to be on. Something like “Deal or No Deal.”
Look, we’ll be blunt: we really hate that show. It’s mind-numbingly irritating. Mostly, when we do catch a few minutes of it, we spend the entire time screaming things like, “Take the hundred grand, you greedy bastard!” It gets really ugly. Especially when the contestants analyze their choices, as if it’s more than dumb luck. News flash: It’s not. 
But it seems a local firefighter was really lucky when he appeared as a contestant on “Deal or No Deal” Monday. After turning down $349,000 from “the banker” (don’t get us started on “the banker”), he walked away with $464,000 – the show’s biggest prize yet. Which is awesome. Really awesome. We’re so happy for him and his family and wish them lots of luck. And we’re also happy we didn’t catch the show this week, cause we would have called him names, and now we’d feel a little bad about it.
Photos via spudart.org