MUMBAI: US broadcaster NBC has announced that it has upped the ante by raising the top prize money, along with contestants' blood pressure, by half a million dollars each night when the game show Deal or No Deal returns on 27 February for its week-long mid-season premiere

Contestants will be surprised when the new stakes are revealed. The top prize will be $1.5 million, and as the week progresses, the top prize will escalate each night by an additional one-half million dollars, concluding on 3 March with a $3-million-dollar prize.

The contestants will need nerves of steel to decide whether to put their trust in themselves or their support group as they are confronted with life-altering financial decisions in a highly pressured environment.

Also returning to the show will be the "Lucky Case Game," a live interactive element where viewers in each of the three time zones in the US have a chance to win $10,000 by texting on their cell phones or by logging onto the Deal or No Deal website at www.nbc.com.

At various points in the show, viewers will be alerted on how to play and all of the viewers who correctly selected the lucky case will be pooled together with the winner chosen at random. The lucky case will be revealed and the winner will be announced live at the end of the each show.