Toronto - When Howie Mandell returned to Canada this month, he was back for more than a family visit.

The Canadian stand-up comic and actor has gained new notoriety hosting the popular NBC game show Deal or No Deal, seen here on Global and its sister CH stations. Global will broadcast its own five-episode version, Deal or No Deal Canada, starting on Feb. 4 after the Superbowl.

"The idea seemed like such a good one," says Global VP of original programming Christine Shipton. "We saw how well the American version was doing and we figured, why not bring this to Canada?"

The show will be taped before a live studio audience in Toronto the week of Jan. 22-26, albeit with some twists on the original formula, says John Brunton, president of Toronto's Insight Productions, which is coproducing with Endemol USA.

"We have made this a Canadian game show. Even the set will have a distinctly Canadian touch," says Brunton. That could mean any number of things (Mounties? Hockey players? Sasquatch?) but Brunton wouldn't elaborate.

Insight is also behind CTV's hugely popular Canadian Idol, which, he notes, has also set itself apart from its U.S. and British predecessors.

"With Canadian Idol, I think we've done a really great job of celebrating our Canadian eccentricities, rather than being flat-out mean. We have simply taken a format and used it with our own talent," he says. The Idol format originated in the U.K., while Deal or No Deal is Australian.

Canada has an unusual and not terribly illustrious history of creating game shows. The Mad Dash, to pick one example, featured contestants on a life-sized game board competing for prizes that paled in comparison to American giveaways such as toasters and houseplants. It ran in syndication for six years.

Brunton stresses this will not be the case with DONDC, pointing to the potential grand prize of $1 million. "Just like the American show," except in Canadian funds.

He is tight-lipped about the budget of the five-episode run. "It's a lot of money, but I'm not going to say precisely how much."

Helping to foster pre-broadcast buzz was a cross-country search for five models to work on the show, as well as open calls for contestant applications. Shipton reports over 120,000 applications for contestants. "The response was overwhelming," she says. "People really love this show, and love the idea of competing for this much money."