New NBC Game Show "White Elephant" Holding Casting Calls For Contestants

Since Deal or No Deal, Howie Mandel has been making his mark on network television, from judging bizarre performances on America’s Got Talent to flash mobbing unsuspecting people on Mobbed. Mandel will be stepping back into the game show arena with the premiere of White Elephant. The casting producers for the upcoming NBC game show are now holding a casting call looking for fun and exciting contestants. Reality Wanted announced that the casting call will be held in the Southern California area and the submission deadline to apply is September 14th.

This is the first update I have seen concerning the new primetime series since NBC revealed the show's premise via press release a few months ago. White Elephant is based on the popular gift-stealing, holiday party game of the same name. Here’s how the game is played: each contestant will select an unmarked, gift package from a warehouse filled with millions of dollars in prizes. Afterwards, the contestants will be face with the decision to either open another mystery package with hopes of a better prize inside, or steal another contestant’s prize. At the end of it all, two contestants will remain and they will be faced with a "Prisoner’s Dilemma" to either share the prizes or steal their opponent’s prizes and keep it all for themselves. However, if both contestants choose to steal the prizes, both contestants will lose everything and go home with nothing.

Based on the premise, it’s essentially a mixture of Deal or No Deal, Let’s Make a Deal, and the Friend or Foe end game. Like with every other NBC game show that has aired in the past five years, you should expect a lot of emotions running high, commercial spoilers, a few voiceovers from the host, and “unexpected” twists while watching White Elephant. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how this show will be executed. According to The Futon Critic, NBC has picked up seven episodes for the inaugural season and although there is no set premiere date for White Elephant, the show is expected to debut mid-season between 2012 and 2013. Taking into consideration that the show is named after a holiday party game, I would expect this series to begin airing in December.