Deal Or No Deal set to return to TV… and the surprising way the rebooted game show could impact Channel 10’s ratings starved flagship The Project

The famous game show Deal or No Deal seems to be making a comeback.

Originally shown on Channel Seven, it was delisted in 2014, after running for ten years.

And now TV insiders are reporting that Channel 10 is eyeing a reboot.

But this move could jeopardize 10’s ratings-starved The Project, which occupies the ideal early evening time slot for a revamped Deal or No Deal reports TV blackbox.

Deal or No Deal debuted in 2003 and was hosted by Andrew O’Keefe.

However, the fallen 51-year-old presenter is unlikely to make a comeback on the show after his recent domestic violence court appearances and a very public battle against drug addiction.

It is speculated that Deal or No Deal producers Endemol Shine are pitching a re-boot for Channel 10’s 6pm to 7pm timeslot, Monday to Friday.

If continued, it would cut The Project’s current airtime from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Deal or No Deal became a popular fixture on Australian television for over a decade, with O’Keefe rising to celebrity status, including hosting Seven’s Weekend Sunrise.

A Deal or No Deal reboot could have dire consequences for the 10s. The Project pictured: The Project host Walled Aly

Rating-starved The Project occupies the ideal early evening time for a DOND revamp

At its peak in 2007-2008, the guessing game regularly attracted 900,000 viewers.

It comes after The Project lost a third of its viewership of its national audience over the past eighteen months.

Once Channel 10’s premier current affairs show, ratings have been steadily declining over the 2022-2023 period.

The decline in audiences coincides with growing criticism of The Project’s left-wing biases and the recent departures of several high-profile presenters, including Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar and Lisa Wilkinson.

Deal or No Deal became a popular fixture on Australian television for over a decade, with O’Keefe rising to celebrity status, including hosting Seven’s Weekend Sunrise

This year the show relaunched with a new panel consisting of Sarah Harris, Sam Taunton, Michael Hing and long-serving presenter Waleed Aly.

Last year, OzTAM ratings showed that the program had lost nearly a third of its viewers since 2011.

The struggling show saw Subway’s ratings drop to an all-time low of just 367,000 last year.

That’s a 30 percent drop from the five-city population of 538,000 a decade earlier.

O’Keefe, 51, is unlikely to make a comeback on the show after his recent appearances in court over domestic violence and a very public battle with drug addiction. Pictured: O’Keefe out of court in Sydney in February 2023