Deal or No Deal Island is weakened by, uh, Deal or No Deal

Deal or No Deal Island tells you what it is in those five words: this is the NBC game show on an island.

Moving it from a studio to an island allows the show to keep the same players for an entire season, and introduces elements of strategy and challenges.

At its core, though, it remains Deal or No Deal, the Howie Mandel-hosted game show that aired on NBC from 2005 to 2009, and then went on to a syndicated version and a short-lived CNBC version.

With a resurgence of survival competitions, never mind Survivor’s longevity on broadcast TV, there’s some logic to putting this game show on an island.

Still, the name alone has prompted jokes that this show might have emerged from the 30 Rock writers room, or was the product of a brainstorming session that involved asking AI a question or two.

Curious if that was true, I asked ChatGPTto “combine the reality TV show Survivor with the game show Deal Or No Deal, and give me a one-paragraph summary of how the game would be structured.” This was the result:

In this hybrid reality game show, titled “Survivor: Deal or No Deal,” contestants are stranded on a remote island and must compete in physical challenges and strategic gameplay to outwit, outplay, and outlast their opponents. Each week, the tribe that loses the immunity challenge must face the “Deal or No Deal” twist, where they are presented with a series of sealed briefcases, each containing a different reward or punishment. The tribe must collectively decide whether to open a briefcase or keep it sealed, with the contents ranging from food and supplies to disadvantages in future challenges or even elimination from the game. The game culminates in a final tribal council, where the remaining contestants must plead their case to the jury, who will ultimately decide the winner of the grand prize.

After watching two episodes of Deal or No Deal Island, I like that format so much better, because it tips toward Survivor, while this new version tips way too much toward Deal or No Deal for my taste.

If you like Deal or No Deal, you may be charmed by this, and/or annoyed by everything that precedes that part of the episode.

I find Deal or No Deal to be excruciating. It’s a quick game dragged out to an hour or half-hour by hand-wringing over what are truly random selections.

I do not care about the random reason why someone picks the number printed on a silver briefcase, because whether that is their lucky number or the digit of their beloved aunt’s high school jersey number, it’s still just a random selection.

I also do not care to spend time listening to contestants begging the model to reveal a certain dollar amount, as if that will magically change the number inside the case.

I’m a lot of fun.

Deal or No Deal is not entirely random, of course; after the random elimination of some options, it becomes a game of odds. Take the offer, or take a risk?

There is a twist added to the island version, though: The player can take the banker’s offer, but if that offer is lower than what’s in their case (a “bad deal”), they’re eliminated from the competition. If the offer is higher (a “good deal”), they pick another player to go home.

That’s how players are eliminated on Deal or No Deal Island, and also how the game’s prize increases—up to $200 million, we’re told, though we also know that the prize will never get that high.

Yes, the person who opens all the briefcases doesn’t actually win any of the money, which dramatically reduces the stakes.

That’s why the producers included Boston Rob Mariano among their 13 players: to stir shit up and make the eliminations the part that we care about, not the money.

The game takes up the second half of each episode. The first half is devoted to finding out who will actually play.

The players compete in a challenge, which here is called an “excursion” because that’s what you go on if you’re on a cruise, and the banker is on a yacht, and I don’t have any actual idea, sorry.

The challenges ask the players to collect briefcases in some way, and determines two things: What high case values will be in play, and who gets immunity and who’s on the chopping block.

The player(s) who ends up with the highest-value case has immunity, and decides who will play Deal Or No Deal. They’re faced with an interesting strategic choice, because the player they choose is at risk of elimination and/or getting all the power.

That’s my favorite part of Deal or No Deal Island’s game, because it’s a simple choice that can reverberate. Alas, it only leads to more Deal or No Deal.

Also playing is Claudia Jordan, who’s been on The Celebrity Apprentice and was once a Deal or No Deal model alongside Meghan Markle (who is not, for some reason, on this new show). She supposedly understands the game because she spent time opening one randomly selected briefcase per game.

Claudia and her fellow models have, by the way, been replaced by just two models for this game, who each have to open multiple briefcases.

Some players recognize Rob and are quite familiar with the mechanics of reality TV competitions. Others, not so much. “What group were you in?” one asks Rob. “You know, there’s brawns and brains…” Yes, I cried a little.

Rob has years of experience manipulating starry-eyed people in a game he’s familiar with, and while this is a new game, there is no survival element to distract him.

Deal or No Deal Island’s players are on an island off the coast of Panama, but they live in tents with beds. There’s running water, showers, and catered meals. “Toilet paper, and they’re feeding us?” Rob says. “This is like vacation for me.”

Another player, Nick, says, “I feel like I’m at a five-star resort.” I’m not sure why they’re not.

Despite the absence of shelter-building and food-hunting, Rob whiffs it as the show begins. “I want to control the game,” he says. “If these people are smart, they’d get rid of me right away.”

Yet in the first episode he’s unable to convince an ally to do his bidding, and in the second episode awkwardly asks to talk to someone privately while they’re in the middle of another conversation.

The players are all allegedly on the banker’s private island, though this time there isn’t an actor filmed in shadow pretending to be the banker, just reused shots of a yacht floating off the coast.

Too often, the show makes the players talk about the banker as if they’re some strategic genius. (The credits admit that “The Executive Producers determine and communicate all … offers.”)

“The banker is always testing us. In this particular excursion, he’s testing our ability to calculate the other players,” Rob says, and I wish I knew what that meant.

During the first challenge, host Joe Manganiello tells the players, “The banker is going to be very disappointed.”

As a host, I expected Joe Manganiello to be a pretty face, but he’s actually quite good, handling the disparate halves of this show smoothly, and managing the business of hosting without being overbearing.

Manganiello recently told Rob Owen, “When I’m on location (for filming), I watch Survivor,” and added, “You see other hosts that are pretty stoic throughout the ups and downs of the drama. I was really emotionally invested.” He also said he is “meeting with all of the producers outside of my trailer at every point through the show” so he can “think about what the edit would be and making sure that, without interfering with any of the action, that we’re getting the story.”

I appreciate that work, and it shows. I wish other parts of Deal or No Deal Island showed that much effort. It’s a show that gave me renewed appreciation for the excellent and often invisible work Survivor’s crew does.

Here, the players wear those necklace mics and awkward mic packs belted to them, even when they’re in the ocean. The banker’s offers come through a gold iPhone, which rings but doesn’t actually light up. I mean, c’mon, you can make a phone ring.

The first two challenges are chaotically edited, while Aron’s facial hair changes so dramatically in interviews it’s obvious that they’re pulling from much later in the game, which also ends up spoiling that he’s not leaving any time soon.

The combo of Boston Rob and Deal or No Deal may bring people to check out this awkward marriage between two different formats, which kinda works, sorta, but I wonder if there’s enough of either to keep people invested.

Deal or No Deal Island

An awkward marriage of two different formats kinda works, but can’t escape the IP that gives it its name. C+

What works for me:

• Joe Manganiello’s hosting
• The distribution of power among the players

What could be better:

• Not making us sit through a half hour of Deal or No Deal
• More thoughtful producing and editing