‘Let’s Make a Deal’: How Wayne Brady Has Learned to Predict Contestants’ Moves

Wayne Brady‘s not psychic, but he does use some of the improvisational skills he expertly displayed on Whose Line Is It Anyway? in his current role as host of CBS game show Let’s Make a Deal.

“I was taught very early on that if I make anyone that I bring on stage me with me look good, then, I’m going to bask in the reflected light,” Brady told TV Insider at CBS Fest 2025 on the Paramount Studios lot earlier this month.

“They need to leave thinking, ‘This is the best experience of my life,’” Brady says of how he wants Deal contestants to feel whether they win or lose the game.

He says he had an epiphany about how to look at his role as host about seven years ago. Brady’s not boasting, but he says that he felt he had the gig down. “I knew that I was great at the job – and that’s not tooting my own horn, you should think you’re great at your job,” the Daytime Emmy-winner says. “Who wants to say, ‘Oh, I suck at my job?’

Brady realized he could make the experience an even greater one for everyone if he treated interactions with contestants as an improv. “As performers, you’re always trying to get your job,” he points out. “Then, once you’re doing that job, you’re trying to get the next job. It’s a cycle. I wanted to start treating the show where it’s not about Wayne. The show is about the people who are on it. I put it in the perspective of me doing an improvisational scene.”

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“I [decided,] ‘Oh, when people come onto this game show, they need to feel good. I need to make them feel good,’” Brady adds. “When I locked into that, and then, you layer it with a nice little glaze of gratitude, I discovered, ‘That’s how I’m going to have fun.’ This show is about the people.”

Brady’s not known for being a psychic, however, his experience interacting with contestants has honed his prediction skills.  “I don’t even know what the odds are that I could say or the percentage, but I have a good instinct,” he shares. “I’ve got a good instinct just from doing the show, but I think also from years of doing improv, I can tell you what an audience member is going to do.”

“I can tell you what an audience is going to laugh at, and I know what someone is going to choose most of the time,” he shares. “There are times that I know which door someone’s going to choose in the ‘Big Deal’ depending on who they came with. If they say they have two grandchildren, I think they’re going to choose Door No. 2 because they’re doing it for them.”

Conversely, Brady theorizes, “If they come by themselves, and maybe they’ve got a big ego — like they’re No. 1 — then they’re going to go with Door No. 1. I sometimes think I know when they’re going to pass on an envelope because they’re a gambler, but that’s part of the fun of game. It’s the psychology. It’s a blast.”

Brady says he also had a blast appearing on The Bold and the Beautiful from 2018 to 2019 as Dr. Reese Buckingham, a man who got in over his head and stole Liam (Scott Clifton) and Hope’s (Annika Noelle) newborn baby in order to pay off some gambling debts.

“I got to do a couple of things at once,” says Brady. “I got to do it in my mom’s memory, and then, I got a chance to work with my daughter [Maile Brady, who played Tiffany, an intern at Forrester Creations]. And I got to tick off another box of the things that if I could go back in time and say, ‘Hey, lil’ Wayne, you won’t believe this but you’re going to be on that show that your grandma really loves in the afternoon.’”

Let’s Make a Deal, Weekdays, CBS