The New ‘Deal’

Last Updated on January 20, 2017

There’s always been a love-hate relationship between soap and game show fans.&nbsp  Technically, the two sides needed each other, because success in both genres have helped build classic daytime lineups we all grew up with.&nbsp  But for years, as game shows have quietly receded away from the daytime network landscape, soaps have, for the most part, held their own.

That scale is about to tip slightly toward game shows, though.

When CBS’s Guiding Light finally goes dark in September, a new version of Let’s Make a Deal will take its place.&nbsp  Guiding Light is the longest-running program in broadcast history, tracing its beginnings all the way to radio days.&nbsp  When it signs off for the last time on September 18th, it will have spanned 72 years combined over TV and radio, a feat, it’s safe to say, won’t be duplicated.

Let’s Make a Deal, hosted and produced by Monty Hall, debuted in the 1960s and was a hit through the late 1970s, inviting goofy contestants to come up with elaborate — and sometimes not-so-elaborate — costumes and try to deal their way to a fortune while avoiding “zonks,” or gag prizes.&nbsp  Though several remakes have been attempted over the years, most recently an NBC prime time version with Billy Bush as host, none have touched the original.

This new version will be shot in Las Vegas, where crazies get crazier, and will have Wayne Brady as host.&nbsp  It will premiere on CBS, in Guiding Light’s old slot, wherever that happens to be in your area, on October 5th.

I’ve never been a huge fan of ‘Deal,’ but it’s at least nice to see a game show given a chance.

What will be equally interesting is what CBS decides to do with that odd two-week “hole” between Guiding Light’s last episode and Let’s Make a Deal premiere.