It's been four months since South Africa's rendition of Deal or No Deal premiered on SABC1 and S3 and it isn't going anywhere soon.
There are 260 episodes in total, taking it to March 2024, and the search for new contestants continues into August, which is when production wraps.
TVSA went on the set recently to experience the filming of the show and today we present the secrets and insights we discovered.
Tap each
red box to open and find the spoils inside:
BOX 1
The show's produced by Primedia Studios and filmed by Homebrew Films at Atlantic Studios in Cape Town, Montague Gardens - a large shebang with lots going on.
Arendsvlei and Suidooster are also filmed there and Overklank Studios are based there too - the people who do the Afrikaans dubbing for many of the eExtra novelas.
BOX 2
Contestants are chosen from around the country and the show covers their travel and hotel accomodation while they're in town.
Each contestant behind the boxes remains on the show until they get a chance to play as the featured contestant.
This means that many of them travel back and forth over the weekends. Filming happens from Tuesdays to Fridays so they fly back home for the weekends and then fly back to Cape Town to film the following week until they play solo.
This applies to everyone from out of town and not Capetonians who stay at home while filming. Meh.
BOX 3
The R250,000 jackpot has been won once so far, by Siya N. who took the risk of turning down the Banker's final offer of R135,000.
The show's production assistant Charl Marais tells us that contestant winnings are deposited into their bank accounts on the night of their win and all contestants are FICA'd before they play.
BOX 4
The production films five episodes a day, which is why Katlego Maboe isn't on Expresso after his return earlier this year because Deal or No Deal takes all day to film and it's too much to do both.
Yes-yes, we thought about the scandal that surrounded him while we chinwagged with him, and then thought it must have been challenging for him returning to TV, knowing everyone knows about it and will have a different opinion on what happened, but won't necessarily speak to him about it.
Oh, the burden of fame dahling. You just never know who to trust or what they're going to say about you next.BOX 5
We were interested to see how emotionally involved the film crew get with the game. Okay, so we didn't get them reacting in the pic exactly, don't sue us - please imagine it.
They don't just stand there staring into their cameras all the time but actively freak out with other crew in moments of big losses or big wins.
We were conflicted about this... not by the crew's reactions but by how we felt at witnessing a big loss up close. One of the contestants we watched lost a large amount of moolah and was clearly very disappointed, which pulled at our heart strings. A much larger amount had been so close and the outcome was a gamble, out of her control.
Is this is a problem with the format? - we wondered. We argued it from various angles and concluded that there are people who are happy with their winnings and no-one would have a shot at any money if the show and its format didn't exist so our answer to the question was no.
BOX 6
These little suckers (at the red arrows) add to the frenzy. When something OMG happens they swivel, turn and create light sabers like Star Wars robots who have a life of their own.BOX 7
The crew's behind-the-scenes snack table. That empty bowl was crammed with Jungle Oats bars when we arrived and disappeared by the time we snapped the pic. We were to blame too. No-one touched those dried fruit things in the top photo.
BOX 8
Flowers especially for us? That's too kind. We couldn't work out whether they have fresh flowers behind-the-scenes each day or if they were there because the media was visiting. We decided on the latter because who gets fresh flowers every day?BOX 9
Goss heard on set: some of the contestants freeze and clam up once it's their chance to play, as if the magnitude of the money and the stakes suddenly paralyses them. This is when Katlego needs to step up to earn his pay cheque.BOX 10
Our fave quote of the day
Katlego tells us about a contestant who'll be starring in an episode coming up on 28 August:
Katlego: When she was younger she overheard her father speaking to her mother after they'd called her from her room. They didn't know that she was there and she heard her father saying, "You know, that little girl is gonna be beautiful one day. I'm going to invest every cent that I have to help her to bloom," - and she held onto that.
It's like such a life defining thing and she used that, in a moment, to make a decision about believing in herself in the same way her dad believed in her and she made the call to say "No deal," and the next two boxes were the right boxes that she opened and she walked away with a sizeable amount of money.
For me, in that moment, it wasn't so much about the money she won but about telling parents and people who are watching this - because usually families watch - as a parent, whether you're a mother or a father, take every opportunity to tell your child how much you value them.
Those words are going to ring true in their life, for the rest of their life, and you never know when it might be life defining and change their lives for the better.
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