Stream It Or Skip It?

As Deal or No Deal Island returns to NBC/Peacock, it’s with a mandate for its hybridized, “Fuck it, why not” concept: since Season 1 was a hit, Season 2 can jam even more components of shows like Love Island and Wipeout into the established betting-and-briefcase reality show gameplay of Deal or No Deal, move the entire bit outdoors, and power it with a warm equatorial breeze. Last season, Deal or No Deal universe (DNDU) regular and exec producer Howie Mandel was revealed as the Banker. Not anymore! As teased by returning host Joe Manganiello, the identity of the show’s mysterious well of money is just one of the “crazier twists” the new season of Deal or No Deal Island has in store. Also new? It’s not just Boston Rob: there is now a major presence of pedigreed reality show talent amongst the players, with Parvati Shallow, David Genat of Australian Survivor, and Big Brother alum Dr. Will Kirby all in play to win the banker’s money.     

Opening Shot: “The last time a group of guests visited the island, one of them walked away a millionaire.” Over shots of sand and surf, Deal or Deal Island establishes the stakes for its participants, and the challenges. Good and bad bets? Sure, yes. But also…”I’m realizing these people are crazytown!”

The Gist: As the game’s initial 13 contestants arrive by boat, let’s hear about some of their identifying details and strategies. Lete says her dreams are as broad as her shoulders, and that everyone else is here to play her game, while Phillip thinks his job as a teacher has taught him how to “manipulate in the best way possible.” Sydnee shows off handwritten notes on how to win, assembled in a 3-ring binder, Luke stresses how he won’t “play scared,” and big-bearded Rock asks banker’s assistants Ben and Kamari if they’re hiding any Coors Lights in the jungle. Making the biggest impression in the intros? Parvati. “I could be a cult leader if I wanted to,” she lets loose with a saucy wink, and you just know this person was designed and built to disrupt the reality show mainframe.

This fits, because Deal or No Deal Island itself is like bespoke reality for an age where nothing is real anyway. And Parvati and Australian Survivor winner David are soon pairing off from the rest of the players to whisper about how they’re gonna dominate. As Manganiello describes parameters of gameplay – daily physical excursions, a prize pod that perpetually adds to its monetary figure, and nightly elimination rounds of the actual Deal or No Deal game, in direct competition with the Banker –  the contestants form teams to take on their first task. It’s a pyramid, with cases on all three sides, and differing routes for access. Is somebody gonna faceplant on that flippy pontoon? Is David really gonna openly deride his teammates’ decision-making? And wait, could Luke actually only be here for the zipline?

Back at the game’s homebase, after the players ooh and ah over the basic-looking seaside geodesic cabanas they’ll live in for the duration, it’s time to switch into Temple Mode. This is where Deal or No Deal Island goes big and goes home. With the results of the first excursion, three players are vulnerable to elimination, while the grand prize cash pot everybody is trying to fund is already in extreme flux. Alliances are bubbling up. Participants are wondering about the veterans of reality show tactics who live among them, and Joe Manganiello is teasing even more twists to come, including the later-game insertion of designated agitator Dr. Will Kirby. (“I’m here to bankrupt the Banker.) Deal or No Deal Island! There is a suitcase on a dais next to a tropical rainforest. This matters because they told you it does.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? With Howie Mandel doing the pop-in and its established Banker lore, Deal or No Deal Island will always honor its source material. But this time around, with Survivor alums inside its second season, there is already separation between levels of play occurring on DONDI, as if it was a Pro-Am event. There is also the hybridism of the “Island” part of its name – at least one flirty insta-relationship is teased, blurring the lines between the Islands Love and Deal or No Deal. And for that matter, around here, the excursions can reach Wipeout levels of slo-mo whoopsies.   

Our Take: The formats relied upon by reality programming weren’t themselves anything until we made them interesting. It was our interest, our parasocial chatter, that amplified the styles of play, levels of drama, and new tiers of celebrity personality in the reality space. So in that respect, it’s not too crazy that something like Deal or No Deal Island not only exists, but with its second season is officially a hit. It’s a permutation of concept, just to see if something will stick, and it has, so here we are. If they suddenly announced that a season of Survivor was gonna occur entirely inside an abandoned shopping mall – “Survivor: Thrifty Acres” – it would probably be a huge hit.

But until that happens, Survivor veterans, like Parvati and David here, will probably keep appearing on shows like Deal or No Deal Island or The Traitors – which also returns this month for a new season – because their established personas and tactical skills are huge potential winners for both internal play and external ratings. Is Deal or No Deal Island a carve-out of an existing concept? Yes. Does it need to exist? No. (But did the original? Also no.) Does DONDI do what it is supposed to as a wilder, but somehow just as shallow version of the original, with swimsuits added and the drama juiced? Even more yes.  

Sex and Skin: Nothing really, but there is regular emphasis placed on cheesecake shots of the bikini’d and/or musclebound and board-shorted. 

Parting Shot: [Joe Manganiello voice] “It is time to meet the face behind the game, the queen of competition…” but for now we only see the wide-eyed reaction shots of contestants on Deal or No Deal Island.

Sleeper Star: Do the other players on Deal or No Deal Island know that the contingent from Survivor are calling them? “We’re gonna eat them like little gummy bears.” Here’s hoping somebody without any previous reality show experience sizes them up, rises up, and seizes Sleeper Star mode as they put these people and their boasts in the dirt.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m the golden god of Australian Survivor” – come on, dude. But David Genat isn’t done. “A very niche part of the internet considers me the greatest Survivor player of all time.”

Our Call: Stream It. The existence of Deal or No Deal Island season 2 means all bets are off on reality format recombination. But in an anything goes era, the show has the concept, the host, and a raft of contestants – some of whom you know – who are fully committed to the rules and regulations it just made up. Which is all the more reason for us to watch what happens.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.