The premise of Deal Or No Deal is that no-one – not even the imaginary Banker, i.e. the programme’s producers – knows the contents of the boxes. This makes the game a very simple game of chance, picking random boxes and making statistical decisions between offered deals and remaining probabilities.
This, at least, should be the mathematical premise of the show. The entertainment premise is the exact opposite – that the game is in some way tactically interesting. It is not. But every effort is made to persuade the audience that an intense battle of wits is being fought between the player, the Banker, Edmonds and even the non-playing contestants standing behind their boxes.