A new life form?

Tonight we saw Pat M crash and burn. Everybody, including the banker, didn't want that to happen, and yet it did. Pat M fared only slightly better than Lucy, who walked away with £5 and we definitely didn't want to see that happen either. There seems to be a direct link between popularity and disaster.

Gaz, Kirsty, and Hilary, have all walked with massive amounts of money, what made them different? Actually nothing, they all went to the end just like Pat and Lucy, its just that large amounts of money were still in play when they got there. I think the last player to know exactly when to stop during the game was Aaron.

Its not the banker, his offers are based on whats left on the board, with a margin to reflect the player's game style. No, the real problem seems to be the player's persona, real or adopted for DOND. Pat should have dealt at the end of round three, Lucy at the end of round five, Fadil any time before the end - but they couldn't do it. Like gladiators, they had come to play, and they had their audience to please.

There is a dynamic going on in DOND UK that we have not seen before, and its not in the US version, among others, where models open the boxes. Watching contestants day after day until they finally become players we get to know them and want them to do well, but what we might miss as members of the audience is that this is a two-way thing. Over the days and weeks that these people stand in the wings waiting their turn, they become addicted to the game; when they finally play, the game is everything, thoughts of personal gain come a long way second.

This dynamic has not been there from the start, it has evolved - it is now an entity in its own right, sustained by the pool of contestants which only lose one of their number per game, and through playing the game, and no doubt the wild hotel party nights, its characteristics are defined and nurtured.

How can this end?