‘Deal or No Deal Island’ Winner David Genat on Dethroning Ken Jennings & What We Didn’t See With His $5.8m Temple

We have a winner and a new TV game show record! David Genat managed to use his social skills to earn his way into the final temple and face the banker in Deal or No Deal Island Season 2, and he made a very, very good deal indeed. He’s now $5.8 million richer and dethroned Jeopardy!‘s Ken Jennings as the winningest game show contestant of all time!

Making it to the end of this season was no easy feat, considering his name was being thrown around for potential elimination in the very first week. The situation became especially dicey once his Survivor: Australia credentials finally came to light and had people questioning whether they wanted a previous TV show winner to succeed again.

However, David made rock-solid alliances with people who stood by their promises to him. Parvati Shallow was a faithful sidekick to the very end, even after her own elimination, as were fellow “The Family” members Dickson Wong and Maria-Grace Cook.

Once inside the temple, he found himself on a roll that could not be stopped. Despite pleas from others to please take some of the massive deals being offered by the banker, Chrissy Teigen, he stood his ground until there were only two cases left. Ultimately, he accepted the offer of $5.8 million and cemented himself as a TV legend forevermore.

So how does he feel about making game show history and taking Jennings’ crown? And what didn’t we see about the “Golden God” and his journey to Deal or No Deal Island victory? TV Insider caught up with David Genat to break down the season.

You have now dethroned Ken Jennings, who’s literally won the “Greatest of All Time” title on a game show. What does that mean to you that you get to leapfrog all these people and become number one? 

David Genat: I mean, it’s pretty special. It’s pretty amazing. And, I mean, Ken… Legend, right? And I think that’s something when people are playing game shows, they’re like, “Oh, I wanna be Ken Jennings.” I can’t say I wanted to be Ken Jennings, but I’m very happy that I am. I’m very happy that I beat Ken Jennings. No disrespect to you, Ken. Maybe he needs to come back for some more Jeopardy! or something.

You started out this season under the gun a little bit because Luke had to decide if he had won, if he was gonna take you out. How did you manage to stay in the game so long? 

Look, Amanda, my social game is very, very good, and it wasn’t shown in the episode, but there’s no way Luke was sending me home. You can ask him point blank — I’ve asked him after the fact — but Luke was my guy. And that’s what I did really well, was I made sure that if you were going up to play the banker, I was your best friend. I was genuine about those relationships. Luke and I connected really well, and I just made sure that like if he won, Seychelle was going home. I felt sure of it. So I’d never felt really in danger in temple. I really pride myself, that’s my best asset. I’m good at the challenges. I’m an athletic guy, but the social game is the most important part of competitive reality, in my opinion. And that’s what I do. That’s what I do well.

How’s it been for you and your family to watch all this unfold? 

It’s like a dream come true. I’ve done a few shows now, and they take you away for a long time, and we spent a lot of time apart, so to be able to go, “All right. I’m gonna do it, but I’m coming back with $6 million,” it’s some nice vindication. And they go through it. They watch it, and they hear what people are saying, and reality fans like to talk a lot of sh**, so they’re not immune to that stuff. I generally try to keep them as far away from all this stuff as possible, but now they see why it’s worth it. And yeah, it’s really worth it, so we’re so happy, and it’s just been really fun to be able to celebrate it, and I’ll be back with them pretty soon, and yeah, we’re gonna, we’re gonna go crazy.

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Parvati Shallow Is Done With Reality Competitions After 'Deal or No Deal Island'

Parvati was a very loyal partner to you throughout the game. Did you give her any kind of consolation prize? 

Well, yeah, I think I might have to figure out something nice for Parv. No, I definitely will. She’s a really special person, and just getting to play the game with her as a fan of hers was incredible.  She has this ability to maneuver through competitive reality like I have never seen. And I’ve played with some of the best. I’ve seen the best, and she is by far and beyond the best competitive reality player of all time. She’s just incredible. So it was a pleasure to play with her. And what a moment for a fan of reality TV or a fan of Survivor to get to play with the GOAT.

Monty Brinton / NBC

Going into that last challenge when you’re up against CK and Lete, how confident were you that you had gotten the best cases and why? 

Again, it kind of just comes back to my social game. I came through the doors, I wanted to present big fun energy. I think with a lot of these games, it’s really easy for it to get super dark. And one thing that can keep you in the game — here’s your tip for people who are playing — is like, have fun, man. Just try to have fun and make people feel good. And that’s what I was trying to do through most of the game. There were times, obviously, it’s ups and downs, it’s a real rollercoaster because there’s so much emotion and so much money involved. But I wanted to come through those doors, and no matter who was on the other side, just give them so much love and just be like, “I am so happy, catch this buzz with me,” and just disarm them like that, even if they might have had some lingering doubts or annoyance that I was a Survivor player. And I managed to do that, so I had great relationships with all the people past the door. I know Will was my enemy or whatever in the show, but even with Will, I just make sure that people felt good and had humility and being like, “I’m only here because you got me here. This is your win, too. If you win with me, this is your win.” And thank goodness, because I found out later they were all going for Lete. They wanted Lete to win.

When you found out you were going to the temple, did you have a game plan, and did you end up just kind of riding the vibes like you said? 

Yeah, I mean, I did have a game plan. I had said to NBC when I was casting beforehand, they were like, “We want to put you on the show, and we’re really big fans of yours, and we think this would be great for you. But what do you think?” And I’m like, “I will do something on this show that you have never seen before.” And so I was really committed to trying to make it as good as I possibly could, and I knew the way to really put a stamp on it would be to do something big in this temple. And so yeah, that’s what I did.

Was it how well Dickson had done in his temple that made you kind of throw it to him a little bit? 

No, not really. They didn’t show it, but I wanted to draw my alliance into that final temple because they helped me get there. And I wanted them to be a part of that moment at the end and just bring them in. So all those guys I got numbers from. I got numbers from La Shell [Wooten] and MG [a.k.a. Maria Grace] and from Parv, obviously, and from Dickson.

I wanted them to feel a part of that energy, and I went in there, and I was having like a spiritual experience in there. Amanda, it was like something else, and I wanted them to be a part of it. So I did, yeah. I did have a game plan, but once they start throwing around those $2 million plus offers, the game plan is like, what’s that saying? It’s like, “Everybody has a game plan until they get punched in the face.” Well, $2 million is a pretty big right hook. So once those offers were above 2, I was like, “Oh man, this is crazy,” and I just really had to give my game up and look to a higher power to help me through.

Did you know in the end that the $12 million was in case number 7? You said you knew where it was. Were you right? 

I did, and I think it’ll eventually get released, but Joe [Manganiello, host], before that final offer comes in, is like, “What would you do?” And I told him, I’m like, “7’s the case. I want to switch cases; 7 is the case.” And we played through that scenario — they gave me the offer, the $5.8 [million, and] I accepted it. And then Joe was like, “All right. I need to see what would happen.” So they switched cases, I had the 7 in front of me, I opened it, $12.2 [million]. Everyone went crazy. And I have thought about that moment, in passing as well, but $5.8 [million] is so much money. And if I’m smart with it, it’ll be $12.2 [million] in a couple of years anyway. I said it to someone before today, but I was like, “If I won $12.2 million, Amanda, we would not be talking right now. I would be — me and Elon [Musk] would be going to Venus or something.” That’s how that would feel.

Going back a little bit, what was your reaction when you found out who the banker was, and then what was your reaction to when she was kind of buttering you up a little bit? 

Oh, you know, I like that. I like that. I mean, that’s how I play these games. So I definitely was like, “How are you doing there, Ms. Teigen?” It was great. It was a really good reveal. She is so gorgeous, holy cow. So when she came out, it’s like poof. It was actually a little probably more distracting than if Howie [Mandel] was up there. And she was just so fun. Chrissy is such a nice person — almost too nice to be the banker. We had a couple of moments where I think she was like feeling bad for some mean things she said to me. She’d be like, “I worry.” I’m like, “Girl, don’t worry, let’s go.” We ad libbed in this, just be as mean as possible, but she’s so nice. And we just had fun with it. So for me, seeing her on the ground [pouting], I was like, “Yeah, I’m doing my job, too, you know.”

What are you gonna do next? 

Oh, I’m gonna take a vacation. I don’t know. I really wanna do interesting projects. I studied theater in New York and acting, and I had always wanted to be like a dramatic actor. I’d been doing commercials. I was like, “I’m gonna go into acting.” And then I just took this weird roundabout path of getting to create reality show characters. So maybe I’ll go back to that. I might do some more reality — maybe I’ll do The Traitors. I’d be a really good faithful. I’m very honest. I cannot lie. I cannot tell lies, so I’d be a great faithful. So yeah, I don’t know, we’ll just see. I think there’s gonna be so much fun stuff I can do, and I just want to take a big holiday and buy a new motorcycle, to be honest, Amanda, and then I’ll think about it when I’m off cloud nine.