Like I said, this season was much larger-scale both in terms of length and overall budget compared to last season, so to compare and contrast the two wouldn’t really be fair, although I gotta say after a mostly brutal first half (minus those on-target BD wins revealed second) things picked up considerably towards the end, after reassessing & re-looking through all of this season’s episodes (& correcting mistakes that I missed before). Here’s the best and worst from it all (feel free to shoot us some suggestions on what to add to those lists, as well as some reports of typos that may have gone unnoticed).
BEST
-This season introduced Mega Money Monday (ft. Drew Barrymore) where $10K is in play hidden in any deal, and Fabulous Car Friday where a game (or two) is played for a luxury-valued car.
-More primetime specials.
-Debut of new games such as Trader’s Court.
-On target BD win record (revealed second) improved SIGNIFICANTLY vs. last season (and a handful of those averted total ep. flameouts (including the otherwise unlucky St. Patrick’s Day episode) and snapped long losing streaks).
-Back-to-back on-target BD wins to start the wk. of 9/20 (not including the preempted 9/21 episode which was rescheduled to 11/4) and those were the first two of the season.
-Yancy on the 10/22 episode started her marriage off the right way by picking Door #1 and averting a BD skunking.
-Brendan received $10K as part of Mega Money Monday on 11/1 from Tiffany for bringing a guitar pick, which was the BIGGEST QD WIN TO DATE!
-The Big Deal was revealed second for three days in a row from 3/1 to 3/3 (was won on the former two but was sadly LOST on the third day and for the fourth week in a row).
-Long time LMaD veteran Armida made her third appearance on the show on 4/15 after previously appearing in the 1963 pilot and in 2020.
-The 4/18 episode was a banger — Not only was the three-week BD drought SNAPPED, we had four perfect deals, two car game wins (0 to 80 and Cash Register), and the BD was REVEALED SECOND (fourteenth such win this season)! Now if only there were fewer Zonk victims, then I would’ve given this episode a PERFECT 10.
-The budget for the Mother’s Day episode was quite generous (four perfect deals w/ one being disguised as a Zonk).
-Recklessness went very good for Zakia during the 6/1 primetime special celebrating National LMaD Day, trading her Jeep Cherokee for…
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…A 111-DAY, 6-CONTINENT & 48-PORT WORLD CRUISE (incl. 10 on-shore excursions) WORTH $76,006!!!!!!! Hopefully, that expensive cruise doesn’t get forfeited, because that gutsy trade did consequently result in a car game SKUNKING this week.
-This season ended w/ a PBDW (whether intended or not).
WORST
-Our struggles still continue w/ Accelerator (including the TOTAL TRAINWRECK playing for the first Fabulous Car, a Porsche Cayenne worth $77,420, and same thing in the Zonk Redemption special (the originally intended S.F.) for a Ford Mustang GT Fastback worth $40,420 which was the last Fabulous Car offered).
-Also a fair share of heartbreaking bailouts & losses of car games, like usual, most notably Jazlyn’s Timeline heartbreaker in the 4/4 episode.
-Not nearly as many perfect aired Quickie Deal weeks compared to last season.
-Multiple lengthy car game droughts throughout the season.
-Only four Fabulous Cars were given away.
-A high number of preemptions due to soccer, the capitol hearings & other special reports.
-PBDW was denied at the end of Week 2 in the Tony Awards special that was originally supposed to air 5/12/2020, paired along w/ an unaired QD skunking.
–TOTAL FLAMEOUTS in these following episodes: 9/30, 10/8 (incl. a TOTAL TRAINWRECK playing of 3 of a Kind for that ep.’s Fabulous Car, a BMW 330i worth $46,770), 10/19 (via PD trade-down), 11/12, 11/16 (via PD trade-down), 12/9, 12/15 (incl. an Accelerator TOTAL TRAINWRECK), 1/5 (incl. a BD KNOCKOUT multiple times in a week for the first time this season, and we were also immediately SKUNKED on BDs this week to start 2022, and we also saw that SD streak extend all the way to 1/12), 1/18 (incl. a contestant making the dreaded mistake of saying “BLACK” five times in a row in Red or Black), 1/31, 2/9 (during what was the WORST WEEK OF THE SEASON (skunked in both car games and Big Deal (starting w/ our sixth BD KNOCKOUT this season, 11 Zonk victims during the week and a tie for SEASON-WORST at the time w/ just three PDs), 3/21 (via PD trade-down), 3/21 (via PD trade-down and that was the second week in a row that started w/ a QD SKUNKING) 3/24 (via PD trade-down and incl. a Ca$h Train WRECK), 4/11 (via PD trade-down and incl. the first TOTAL TRAINWRECK playing of Go For a Spin since 11/5/2019), 4/22 (via PD trade-down & incl a Beat the Dealer TRAINWRECK and Monica stupidly thinking that there was a movie based on “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” which cost her the Fabulous Car of the Day, a ’22 Lexus RX 450h worth $53,840, and it’s a shame because of how this week went up to this point), the 6/8 Costume Spectacular primetime special (but that wasn’t all that bad because of the prizes won in the minor deals) & 6/28 (via PD trade-down), and that’s not including the flameouts containing Medium Deal wins.
-These following prizes went to waste in a TOTAL TRAINWRECK playing of Keep on Rollin’ on 10/7: Round Viking Spa + pair of contemporary rocking chairs ($5,551), Island Windjammers cruise ($10,318) and a Nissan Kicks.
-Karen foolishly traded away a KIA Forte FE in hopes of going for the Big Deal in the 10/11 episode…and that backfired when she ended up w/ the Small Deal, a reqteq grill/smoker & All Spice Cafe sauces ($2,248). And to make matters worse, we had an unaired QD SKUNKING. And ironically enough, a different Karen went on to win the Big Deal two days later.
-We suffered our second car game skunking of the season during the scary Halloween special.
-Jason on the 11/3 episode intentionally settled for the home theater pkg. in his deal to go for the BD, but it backfired as he ended up w/ the Small Deal (Bike/Inline Warehouse roller skate pkg. ($2,950)).
-These following prizes went to waste in a Five Card Wayne TOTAL TRAINWRECK on 11/19 (the episode featuring Jay Leno): Balenciaga accessories ($6,305), Dine W/ 9 party ($4K) & $15K.
-Thanksgiving week wasn’t very thankful — Not only we had our first BD KNOCKOUT this season ending a seven-episode winning streak in this order to start this season, we had our first BD SKUNKING this season the following day.
-Kala on the 12/16 episode was infamous for this reason — She won a ’22 Hyundai Elantra SE in 0 to 80, but you’d think there wasn’t much hope Kala would go for it? THINK AGAIN- SHE BLEW IT IN WHAT HAS TO BE THE MOST FOOLISH BD OF THE DAY GAMBLE OF ALL-TIME (her family said they would kill her if she didn’t go for it, but maybe they will now (ended up w/ the SD (DISRUPT surfboards + Lucky Jack drinks)). It’s also unfair to those who didn’t win as much on this show that would’ve loved to go for the Big Deal. And I STILL HAVEN’T FORGIVEN HER for this stunt she pulled there, and humiliating her family on national television in the process. SO STUPID AND INCONSIDERATE OF YOU KALA! 😡 😡 😡
-We started the new year w/ a BD KNOCKOUT for the first time since 2012.
-Janelle on the 1/21 episode FOOLISHLY gives up $15K in hopes of going for the Big Deal…and that was indeed a HORRIBLE MOVE (won rec teq grill, Margaritaville machine & Nick’s ice cream ($2,249) (SD)).
-We had what was the MOST PAINFUL AND EXPENSIVE TOTAL TRAINWRECK PLAYING OF ONE DIE GALAXY WITH A LAMBORGHINI HURACAN EVO SPIDER WORTH $347,093 IN PLAY in the 1/26 primetime special that aired on Bobbymgsk’s birthday (Andre did receive consolation money, though, but still, that did nothing to heal the intense pain of this event).
-There were two car games (Go Big or Go Home and Pair-a-Dice) ending in TOTAL TRAINWRECKS during the 2/7 episode.
-Speaking of the wk. of 2/7, which was the WORST WEEK OF THE SEASON, the wk. of 2/14 really didn’t fare much better, as we suffered our SEVENTH BD KNOCKOUT OF THE SEASON during the not-so-romantic Valentine’s Day episode, and we also had back-to-back BD SKUNKINGS. That’s because the 2022 Winter Olympics wasn’t kind to the program.
-The BD was KNOCKED OUT RIGHT OFF THE BAT five weeks in a row February-March and three of the five weeks during that stretch started that way.
-The wk. of 3/28 ended on a very BRUTAL note as on 3/31 (ft. country music singer Jimmie Allen) CASH REGISTER ENDED IN A TOTAL TRAINWRECK and DICE DUEL ENDED IN A HEARTBREAKING BAILOUT, and what’s even more unfunny is that we had a DOUBLE TOTAL TRAINWRECK during April Fool’s (Ca$h Train and Keep on Rollin’; Prizes gone to waste on the latter: PRO-FORM elliptical trainer & TEMPO gym, Furn. Town Plus D.R. + dinnerware, flatware & serving board and Fabulous Car Porsche Macan), and on top of that, we were SKUNKED on the Big Deal for the sixth time this season as well as on car games for the eighth time this season. Didn’t help that we also had a DOUBLE SKUNKING back-to-back the following week as well as THREE STRAIGHT BD SKUNKS for the first time since May 2015 and before Easter for the first time since 2018.
-A lackluster one out of five Quickies were won on 6/8.
-The eighteenth on-target BD win of the season (& back-to-back in unintentional aired order) was ruined by an aired QD SKUNK.
And that’s your list of BEST/WORST moments of Season 13 of Let’s Make a Deal.
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