The promise of an easy million bucks, a stage crowded with sexy models and the smoothly calibrated charm of host Howie Mandel made “Deal or No Deal” an unexpected hit in television’s December dead zone.

Now the NBC game show, returning 8 p.m. EST Monday for five consecutive days, is getting the chance to prove it’s the real deal and can compete in the thick of the TV season.

Based on a series that debuted in Holland in 2002 and became an international hit, “Deal or No Deal” is about luck and playing the odds.

Contestants are faced with 26 briefcases held by 26 models, each case with a hidden value ranging from a penny to the top prize that will escalate by week’s end to $3 million.

As the game progresses and cases are eliminated, a contestant weighs the chance of snaring a big prize against lesser but still tempting offers made by the show’s “bank,” represented by an anonymous, silhouetted figure.

The toughest part, Mandel said, is “to not scream, ‘You idiot, please take the money and go home now.’ When I see a person make the wrong decision, it really depresses me.”

The concept is simple but executed to within an inch of its life. The models, identically dressed and carefully posed, bring to mind the robotic babes in Robert Palmer’s classic “Addicted to Love” video, but in platoon strength.

The set is bright and shiny, like a bucketful of silver dollars; the atmosphere charged with money lust.

Mandel, an actor (“St. Elsewhere”) and comedian, is a natural-born host, offering gentle jokes and encouragement and skillfully juicing the drama as he utters the “Deal, or no deal?” catch phrase.

“For this show to play in prime time, it needed to be big, glossy, exciting and sexy – very much in the American tradition,” said David Goldberg, president of series producer Endemol USA.

In other countries, the prizes are smaller (Albanians shoot for $50,000) and the models either a minor part of the show or nonexistent. The imposing silver briefcases in the U.S. version of the game are, in the Italian series, amusingly modest shoeboxes.

But the spirit is the same, said Goldberg.

“I think the simplicity of the game is what makes it successful,” he said. “It taps into the most basic human emotions: greed, a desire to improve one’s situation, often in a very sort of get-rich-quick scenario. It’s something we can all relate to.”

Endemol, which has produced other international successes including “Big Brother” and “Fear Factor,” may have the American audience’s number.