NBC Universal's "Deal or No Deal," the game show hosted by Howie Mandel, is heading into syndication next fall. While widely speculated that NBC Universal would roll out a half-hour version of the hit
into syndie, the show's distributor has announced that it has cleared it as a strip on most NBC owned-and-operated stations, including WNBC in New York; KNBC in Los Angeles, Chicago's WMAQ and KNTV in
San Francisco. It will also run on stations owned by CBS, Allbritton, Scripps and Sinclair.
Mandel will host the syndicated series, along with the NBC's prime time. The show is being sold on
a cash-plus-barter basis, with 5-1/2 minutes of commercial time for the stations and 1-1/2 for the distributor and is slated for afternoon and early evening slots. "We went out with it and got a
terrific response from the stations," says Barry Wallach, president of NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution. Both will have the same production team and tape from the same set. And Wallach
says the syndicated version will be much like the prime-time version with only minor changes, including smaller grand prizes.
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