‘Deal or No Deal Island’: Phillip Solomon Reveals Unaired Conversations With David Genat

The final five, which Phillip Solomon not so lovingly referred to as a pit of snakes, came to a head on Tuesday night’s (March 11) episode of Deal or No Deal Island, titled “Money to Burn.”

After toasting the sacrifice of their “son” Dickson Wong, the only two remaining members of the “Family,” David Genat and Parvati Shallow, soon realized they were now on the outside looking in as Phillip, Courtney “CK” Kim, and Alexis Lete joined heads in hopes of taking them out. If given an ounce of power, any of the three would clearly target the pair — even CK, who Parvati had been working with in the past, was ready to make a move.

The two had to get to work trying to make their own fate. Since all of David’s other allies were gone — after the exits of Dickson, La Shell Wooten, and Maria-Grace Cook — he turned to Phillip to make a deal. (Phillip had been friends with Parvati before but took issue with her bringing up his statements about experiencing childhood bullying as a game move, and they never quite healed from that.)

David planted the seeds of a potential partnership before the daily challenge, and he really got into it when it came down to just him and Phillip in the daily. Each of the fellas held onto a heavy bar for dear life in hopes of nabbing the highest-value case, which came with safety, the ability to send someone directly home, and the choice of who’d face the banker at the temple. Phillip could’ve dropped his bar at the same time as David to give Lete the win, but David convinced him not to, letting David secure the highest case and earning Phillip a nice consolation prize of $75,000 to take home for outlasting everyone else. His secondary reward was, of course, being immediately sent home by David.

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'Deal or No Deal Island': Dickson Wong Reveals What We Didn't See About That Challenge & Temple

So did Phillip know he was doomed the moment he made a deal with David, or was he surprised to hear his name called out? Has he made up with Parvati yet? And does he have anything else to say about that viral temple speech? TV Insider caught up with Phillip Solomon to find out!

What did you think about your Harriet Tubman speech going viral and the response to it?

Phillip Solomon: To be honest, it is not my finest moment. But it was genuine and sincere. I’m just going to give you a little background behind it. On day two being there, Seychelle [Cordero], CK, and I were in the water talking about this show and reality TV of it all, and we were talking about what we were scared of. I was like, “You guys have to understand, as a Black male of color on a large platform, I know that I can’t scream and yell and lose my cool because I’m going to automatically appear more aggressive. The three of us are People of color on reality TV, so we understand, whether people want to admit it or not, it’s going to be a rough road for us all. So we have to tread lightly as far as what we say and whatever else.” We were like, “We have to keep each other in check,” if you will.

That took place on day two. Five days later, you see that I’m not in the mood to talk, and you poke and you prod, and it just hurt a little bit extra because her and I had that discussion already. So I was like, “Why would you make me lose my mind if I don’t have to? We talked about this, remember?” The thing that people have to remember and not get twisted is, even though I am laid back, I will lean forward quickly. I think you just have to learn… Don’t push people unless you’re ready for a show, and I gave her a show, and I will give her another one.

Where do you stand now with CK?

[She is] currently the only member of the cast I do not speak with or interact with. To be honest, I think it just comes down to … I told myself that as an adult, you have an option to interact with whoever you want to or don’t want to. I think you have to be able to say … you were a bad player or you played a bad move in the game, but I think there are certain people that you see in these shows where you’re like, genuinely, in your core, you’re a bad person. I think, for me, I’m just so far along in my life and my experience that there’s no need to open yourself up to those interactions.

When did you realize that you couldn’t trust Parvati?

Probably when I saw her. [Laughs.] She has a reputation, and to just kind of give context to the Parvati of it all, on day one, we connected as friends. She made a comment about Storm and Lete and MG. They were talking on the boat on the water, when you see us actually meeting each other, we were legitimately meeting each other. Under her breath, she’s like, “Oh, it’s like the cast of Dawson’s Creek.” I looked over at her and I was like, “They’re not old enough to know that that is, but I am.” So we connected on that and became friends and inseparable from there on day one. We never talked about alliances or a final two or whatever else.

What’s so interesting is that we’re both kind of restarting our lives as adults. She’d gotten out of her marriage. She was unhappy. She was kind of navigating the world as a single mother. She had come out recently. I had just left the classroom after 12 years, so we were both kind of like, we have the age and experience, but we’re starting adulthood all over again, redefining ourselves and redefining where we go in the world. So we connected on that. Once I talked about the fact that I was overweight, I do speak differently, I’ve had to overcome a lot, that conversation was off-camera. That was just me and her alone, so when she brought it up on camera, that’s why you see me just have that visceral reaction. I was like, “I didn’t think we were playing like that. I didn’t think that was something we were going to use during the game.” Just to do what? Get Dr. Will out? Dr. Will is such a non-concern in the grand scheme of our lives. So you see me offended, initially, but that’s because I’m a civilian. I’ve never played like this before. The average American hasn’t been told by someone else, “Can you separate this and that?” And they’re like, “Yeah, we’re going to separate it just like your parents did when you were 8.” It’s such a weird term to make for a civilian, that you’re like, “Wait, what?” It hit so hard. I think it would never hit me that hard again. But I get the advantage of watching what it looks like for time, number one. So you’ll never catch me having that reaction again, but you have to understand it wasn’t a gameplay move. I was actually offended.

Monty Brinton / NBC

Have you forgiven her?

We talked it out and resolved it that same night. After La Shell went home, we went back, and we talked it out again. I started it with, “Hey, this morning my head spun all the way around like The Exorcist, so I’m sorry. I was actually extremely angry.” I knew I didn’t give her the time and space to express how she felt about the situation. So later on that night, I went back to her. We talked for a solid 20 minutes or so, like a ‘90s sitcom, hugged it out, all good.

They did not air it. I think it just didn’t give them what they wanted as far as the plot where we were going to go head-to-head until the very end. But we had already resolved it, and it’s done. Currently, at this point, I spoke to her probably twice yesterday, a couple times the day before. We talk extremely often. We are very similar people and in the real world, we are very close.

What was going through your head in the challenge with David, and how confident were you that he was going to protect you once he got the power?

I was pretty confident that he was going to protect me because what the edit doesn’t show is that David and I were close. How you saw us talking while I was working out, we worked out together almost every day, if not every other day. So we had a really close relationship. When you hear David say in the last episode, “I probably trust Phillip the most,” it feels, as a viewer, so out of left field, but if you were there, it makes perfect sense. We talked every morning. There’s no clocks, so we were both up at 6 a.m. walking around, hanging around.

So he was another one where we hadn’t really talked long-term game, we were just friends. And so once we did actually be like, “Okay, we’ve played this game as long as we can as parallel lines working in the same direction, but never interesting. When this intersects, what is it going to look like?” I knew at that point he was still a civilian. So I was like, “Great. Do you think we can take out Parvati in the end?” He’s like, “I don’t know if we can. It would make me better if we took her out before.” So when you see me volunteer, right before we leave, I was like, “Do you want me to play and take her out?” I was doing that just because I was like, “Listen, it’s easier for me to get blood on my hands because me and her have not always been on the same page, than you and her. I’d rather me take her out than you blindside her.”

You’re both cool now after the show?

We are. I think if you really look at it, the finale from Season 1 was a big physical challenge. Running, jumping, climbing, whatever else. I was his only real physical threat that was still there. After he let go in the endurance challenge, I hung on, on my own, for six minutes, alone. I was just good. So in being a personal trainer, in looking how I look, I think I was his last big physical threat. If you watched Season 1 at all, you’re like,”Why would he go to the finale with me?” That makes sense. It hurt a little that night and maybe the next morning. I think long-term, you’re like, “That makes sense.” I got to go out with good spirits, good energy, good skin. I got to go out on top of my game. And with an appearance fee of $75,000! So there are worse days.

Who were you rooting for to win when you left?

I think, in my head, I have to be team Lete. I think that she was the best civilian player that was still left, and for me, as a middle school educator, as someone who consistently tries to set the example and be the role model, I was like, “I want the winner of the season to be somebody that I can at least shake hands with and say, ‘Congratulations, you played a great game that I agreed with, that I support, that I would tell someone to go back and watch it all the way through.’ That’s my winner.”

What can you tease about the finale?

If you are a Survivor fan, the last challenge is absolutely insane. It’s about as final tribal council as you can get. That’s all I can say.

How has the reaction been from people in your regular life?

One of the things I think I’m proud of is that everyone, whether it’s a family member, a friend, a client at the gym, or whoever else, they all say, “You are exactly like I thought you would be.” That means so much to me. When you go into an experience like this, you’re like, “I’ve never done it before. I hope I don’t do something weird or talk weird or not be myself.” It was my greatest fear that I was going to watch the show and be like, “I don’t know who that man is. He is very checked out or a shell of himself, or whatever.” They were like, “All the things you said there are things you say here.”

Deal or No Deal Island, Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC

-Additional reporting by Alyssa Norwin

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