Each week, Deal or No Deal Island host, game master, and executive producer Joe Manganiello will weigh in with Entertainment Weekly regarding the latest events on the island. This week, he reacts to the two-hour premiere, including Luke’s epic one-episode run of futility, handling wrong calls in the Banker’s Temple, Sydnee coming on strong, and our first DONDI family.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, we need to talk about Luke. He zip-lined down in the excursion before waiting to see what high-value cases were selected. He then used his Steal to take Rock’s $450,000 case even though all the high value cases were guaranteed to be higher. He turned down a $218,000 offer from the Banker even though he had great odds for winning that deal. And then he gets eliminated with a $1 briefcase. Give me your take on Luke’s brief Deal or No Deal Island stay.
JOE MANGANIELLO: Well, as advertised, we break records this season — some good, some not so good. But most importantly, we discovered that even the worst game of Deal or No Deal Island ever played is still SUPER entertaining. And that set the tone for some extremely unorthodox play this season. Blackjack isn’t as much fun to watch when everyone plays by the book, and this year is completely off the rails in the most incredibly unpredictable ways. But yeah, Luke will go down in history… just not for the reasons I’m sure he’d hoped.
Luke Olejniczak on ‘Deal or No Deal Island’. Monty Brinton/NBC
I know you’re in the players’ corner when they face the Banker. So how do you react when someone like Luke passes up on a strong deal and you know it’s probably not a wise move?
Hey, his game is his game to play. I’m the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. My job is to show the players, and the people at home, the possible future permutations of their decisions and then step back and not lead the witness. We are going to have an amazing show either way, and as Luke proved, it’s entertaining either way. But let’s be real here for a second, to answer your question… it’s so painful to witness.
Sydnee Peck on ‘Deal or No Deal Island’. Monty Brinton/NBC
Sydnee came out of the gate very strong here — both with her attraction to David, and also by telling you at the Temple that she was her team’s leader… which certainly garnered some amused reactions from the other players. How much could you pick up on any tension between her and the other contestants at this stage of the game?
Listen, what you see at home is always, ALWAYS, the abridged version of what went on in the jungle. I bug all of the other producers and NBC executives every time I see them about the fact that we should have 3-hour episodes available on Peacock, or episodes with producers’ commentary like we used to do with DVDs. To answer your question, it’s really tough to hide what you’re going through emotionally out there on the island. It tests the contestants in ways they are never ready for and those usually wind up being the chef’s kiss moments of the season. We all saw that all coming a mile away.
David Genat and Dickson Wong on ‘Deal or No Deal Island’. Monty Brinton/NBC
Finally, I don’t even know what to make of this DONDI family consisting of Parvati as the mother, David as the father, and Dickson as their newly adopted son. Please explain it to me.
Imagine if the Hemsworth Family and the Manson Family adopted a member of the Partridge Family and… voila!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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