[freeview87]

Interesting that you mention first episode curiosity. Most shows would take that in to consideration when scheduling which order to broadcast the episodes in and make sure a 'good' episode with no oddities was shown first and any weak episodes were probably shown in the middle of the run so that people who saw the first one may stick around for more.

Alan Carr's Picture Slam had an episode where two contestants banked more money in normal gameplay than the first step of the jackpot money tree was worth. They showed it somewhere in the middle of the series.

His brother presented an episode of Jimmy Carr's I Literally Just Told You, where the contestants were especially and notably terrible at the game. They showed it as episode 2.

The only time I recall this not happening was the one week of non-socially distanced episodes of Richard Osman's House of Games which they oddly showed at the end of the series after we'd all got used to the distancing.

Anyway, IIRC, my point was that Deal or no Deal can't do this as an episodes have to be shown in production order and they were lucky that the first one was the perfect episode in that the contestant won something worth having but could have got more.

Deal or No Deal is always shown in order as they refer to the previous contestant and the new one who joins.