Let's Make a Deal (also known as LMAD) is an American television game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created and produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall, the latter serving as its host for nearly 30 years.
The format of Let's Make a Deal involves selected members of the studio audience, referred to as "traders", making deals with the host. In most cases, a trader will be offered something of value and given a choice of whether to keep it or exchange it for a different item. The program's defining game mechanism is that at least one of the items is hidden from the trader until the choice has been made. Only after the items are revealed does the trader learn if they have chosen something of a higher or lower value than their starting item, or if they have received a comedic "zonk" prize with little or no value.
When Let's Make a Deal first started, contestants wore suits and dresses, normal attire for the time. In short order, however, audience members began to dress in outrageous and unique costumes to increase their chances of being selected as a trader, and that has become a signature feature of the show.
The current edition of Let's Make a Deal has aired on CBS since October 5, 2009, when it took over the spot on the network's daytime schedule vacated by the soap opera Guiding Light. Wayne Brady is the host of the current series, with Jonathan Mangum as his announcer/assistant. Tiffany Coyne is the current model, joining in 2010, with musician Cat Gray in 2011.
The 15th season of the current version premiered on September 25, 2023, and six primetime episodes were filmed during the season. One is the show's Christmas primetime episode, and five more were broadcast in January and February 2024, between seasons of Survivor.
The show is owned by Glass Entertainment Group (owned by Nancy Glass) following an August 2021 acquisition of Hatos-Hall assets, with Sharon Hall, a former Endemol Shine executive, as the consultant.
As of January 2022, CAN'T STOP media has been in charge of the format's international distribution.
Broadcast history Let's Make a Deal first aired on NBC on December 30, 1963, as part of its daytime schedule. After 1,257 episodes on NBC Daytime and 16 episodes on NBC Primetime, the show moved to ABC on December 30, 1968, where it remained until July 9, 1976; and on two occasions the show was given a weekly nighttime spot on those networks. The first syndicated edition of Let's Make a Deal premiered on August 30, 1971. Distributed by ABC Films, and then by its successor Worldvision Enterprises once the fin-syn rules were enacted, the series ran until 1977 and aired weekly.
The show originally premiered at 2:00 pm Eastern (1:00 pm Central), replacing the game show People Will Talk. After 5 months, it was moved to 1:30 pm Eastern (12:30 pm Central), to make the show a runaway hit. The show had practically no trouble whatsoever against As the World Turns on CBS and mostly drama reruns on ABC. After the show moved to ABC, the show continues to be a hit and dominant at 1:30 pm, this time facing off against game shows on NBC.
In 1975, the trouble came to an end, when former lead-out Days of Our Lives expanding to an hour, and started beating Deal, drawing away younger audiences. Also that year, ABC lured away Fred Silverman from CBS, and wanted to revamp the network's daytime image. During the week of December 1–8, 1975, the show went to an hour-long format, with the intention of making it permanent if successful. Although Deal continued to produce high ratings in the 1:30 pm slot, Silverman moved the show to noon, replacing Showoffs, thus putting it up against High Rollers and The Magnificent Marble Machine on NBC and The Young and the Restless on CBS at first, moving Rhyme and Reason to Deal's former timeslot and The Neighbors and later Break the Bank to Rhyme and Reason's former time slot. Silverman, ABC head of daytime programming Michael Brockman and other ABC executives were surprised, though when Deal actually beat The Magnificent Marble Machine in the ratings, the show actually failed to draw, a 30 share that NBC daytime executives required a show to have in order to stay on its daytime schedule. Marble went into reruns afterward due to the delay of the planned replacement The Fun Factory, and after the strike ended, NBC picked up The Fun Factory on June 14, 1976, which ran about even with Let's Make a Deal in the ratings, with The Fun Factory having perhaps a slight lead, due to its more traditional housewife target audience.
However, Brockman and ABC president Silverman were not interested in seeing an aging show like Let's Make a Deal stand in the way of his plans for a more youthful image for ABC's daytime lineup, so he resolved to cancel the daytime series outright. On July 9, 1976, the show came to an end on daytime, on July 12, Hot Seat (a Heatter-Quigley series) took over the timeslot, but it did not last long as Deal had and the more successful Family Feud took over the 1:30 slot once owned for the past few years by Deal. The daytime run intended to come back with a new host, but never happened. The nighttime show continued in syndication, moved production to Las Vegas Hilton, but this too ended on May 21, 1977, and Hall moved on to host a short-lived NBC game It's Anybody Guess, but did not last long.
A revival of the series based in Hall's native Canada was launched in 1980 and aired in syndication on American and Canadian stations for one season. This series was produced by Catalena Productions and distributed in America by Rhodes Productions, Catalena's partner company; Catalena was forced into bankruptcy by an unpaid Monty Hall in August 1981. In the fall of 1984, the series returned for a third run in syndication as The All-New Let's Make a Deal. Running for two seasons until 1986, this series was distributed by Telepictures.
NBC revived Let's Make a Deal twice in 13 years. The first was a daytime series in 1990 that was the first to not be produced or hosted by Monty Hall. Instead, the show was a production of Ron Greenberg and Dick Clark, and featured Bob Hilton (best known for announcing other game shows) as host (although Hall would eventually return as guest host after Hilton's dismissal).
A primetime edition was launched in 2003 but drew poor ratings and was canceled after three of its intended five episodes had aired. This version had reporter Billy Bush as host, and had a significantly larger budget.
A partial remake called Big Deal, hosted by Mark DeCarlo, was broadcast on Fox in 1996. In 1998 and 1999, Buena Vista Television (now Disney–ABC Domestic Television) was in talks with Stone-Stanley (the producers of Big Deal) to create a revival hosted by Gordon Elliott, but it was never picked up. The show was one of several used as part of the summer series Gameshow Marathon on CBS in 2006, hosted by Ricki Lake.
The current edition of Let's Make a Deal premiered on October 5, 2009. Like the show it replaced, Guiding Light, CBS gives affiliates two options on when to air the game show. Some markets, particularly those in Eastern time such as flagship WCBS-TV, air Let's Make a Deal at 10:00 am to serve as the lead in to The Price Is Right. Others air the game show in the 3:00 pm Eastern slot where Guiding Light traditionally had aired, where as of 2025 it serves as the lead out program for the serial Beyond the Gates. (In all other time zones outside the Eastern Time Zone, the programs start an hour earlier.)
Although the current version of the show debuted in September 2009, long after The Price Is Right (which made the switch in 2008, first with primetime episodes in February, then daytime in September) and the two Bell created daytime soap operas had made the switch to high definition, Let's Make a Deal was, along with Big Brother, one of only two programs across the five major networks that was still being actively produced in standard definition. For the start of production for its 2014–15 season in June 2014, Let's Make a Deal began being produced in high definition, with Big Brother 16 making the switch later in June. Let's Make a Deal was the last remaining CBS program to make the switch by air date, with the first HD episode airing on September 22, 2014.
In 2020, Let's Make a Deal Primetime on CBS was announced, making the show one of the first to appear in primetime on the three legacy networks as a regular primetime series. Three primetime episodes were announced, with the first airing on October 27 as part of CBS launching both of their daytime game shows' pandemic-delayed seasons in primetime, the second on December 1 featuring guest star Phil Keoghan, and the third, a Holiday-themed episode with families on December 22. Three more primetime episodes aired during the 2021–22 season and four primetime episodes were filmed and planned to air in April and May during the 2022–23 season, but concerns over the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA labor disputes (the show is under a collective bargaining agreement for daytime shows signed in 2022) led to the four Season 14 broadcasts being moved to the 2023–24 season as part of moves to allow CBS original programming to continue in case of potential labor stoppages. Both unions eventually went on strike, and in July 2023, those episodes, along with new The Price Is Right at Night episodes for Season 52, were announced as replacement programming. The Let's Make a Deal episodes aired Fridays from November 3–17, 2023 in the 8:00 p.m. EDT time slot before Thanksgiving. Season 15 primetime episodes aired on two consecutive Mondays (November 27 and December 4), with additional episodes in January and February 2024, including the network's Super Bowl LVIII themed episode (both CBS Daytime game shows aired on February 7 at night featuring themes related with the game that CBS broadcast) and a Valentine's Day themed episode on February 14.
Accommodations for COVID-19 pandemic From Season 12 (2020–21) to Season 14 (2022–23), Let's Make a Deal filmed with a hybrid of audience members in-studio seated in pods as well as virtual traders playing from their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic (nicknamed "At-Homies") that delayed the start of Season 12. According to executive producer John Quinn, all COVID-19 protocols are in effect during production, including social distancing, testing, masks (only for crewmembers and while off set), and personal protective equipment.
Past personnel
The family of Monty Hall has been involved in all versions in one form or another since the original episode in 1963. Monty was the host of nearly every episode of Let's Make a Deal that aired from 1963 until 1986. This encompassed the entire original daytime series, which ran until 1976, as well as the accompanying primetime episodes that aired on both NBC and ABC and the three syndicated productions that launched in 1971, 1980, and 1984. He was absent only twice during that span due to illness; in 1971 Dennis James was called on to substitute while in 1985 Geoff Edwards hosted a week of episodes while Hall recovered from a bout of laryngitis.
Bob Hilton became the new host for the NBC 1990 series; however, due to low ratings, Hilton was fired from the show and in October 1990, Hall returned to the show (but was announced as "guest host") and remained as host until the series was canceled in January 1991. Billy Bush emceed the 2003 series, with Hall making a cameo appearance in one episode.