After winning a series of challenges and going up against The Banker for the final round, David Genat took up more than $5 million in the Deal or No Deal Island season 2 finale. It’s the largest amount of money won on TV, both in a single win and accumulatively.
We had a chance to chat with David about his experience on the island, playing The Banker, and much more in this exclusive interview. Just what was his strategy going in, and how did he feel keeping his Survivor Australia win a secret for so long?
David Genat becomes the new ‘Greatest of All Time’ after his Deal or No Deal Island season 2 win
Hidden Remote: Congratulations on the win. How does it feel beating Ken Jennings as “The Greatest of All Time?”
David Genat: Ken who? That’s what I’m gonna say. It was funny, because that’s what I was so cognizant of once I got off the island. I was like “I wonder what the most money has ever been won on game shows,” and then I looked up Jen’s record. He made so much over the course of a bunch of shows, and I did it in one.
Ken, I love you. Thank you for setting that record.
HR: Now you need to do more shows and keep adding to the pot so you’re not beat.
DG: I have enough. I don’t think I need any more money, although the cost of coffee in Los Angeles is very expensive.
HR: Let’s talk strategy in the final game. I was screaming to take the deal, and so many of your fellow castmates wanted you to not risk any more. At what point did you know that you needed to take it?
DG: It was around like the $1.8m. I was doing some mental gymnastics, because I wanted this big TV moment. I was really feeling like I knew I was gonna win a lot of money, and seeing those cases, I was having a very spiritual experience. But around the $1.8m, your brains starts really playing tricks on you.
It was hot, and it took a really long time for the gravity to sink in. Around the $1.8m, I was like “Man, if you blow this everyone will be so upset.”
They run the game through the Lottery Commission, so there’s no cheating and nobody knows where the cases are. When they ran the numbers after the first round, I think I had less than 1% chance of winning.
HR: You went into the game keeping your Survivor Australia win a secret. Why did you make that decision?
DG: I thought it was interesting. I really thought there would be a super fan in the game, because when you get cast to do these kind of things, they’re not going to make it easy for you. They want that kind of struggle to happen. I told the producers what I was going to do. I created an alternate life to tell people.
But, it’s not my first rodeo, so I thought there would be a super fan. Then I saw Parv, and we recognized each other. I wasn’t ready to see her, but I told her what I wanted to do, and she wanted to play, so I wasn’t worried about her. I think for the first three days, I was worried people would know, but they didn’t say anything.
My anxiety was through the roof! It was wild. I don’t lie in my regular life, and that feeling of getting caught and someone calling me out made me want to puke every day.
HR: And then Dr. Will came in and knew something was up. What was that like? Did you worry more then?
DG: He’s very smart. I mean, he’s a doctor! But, the guy is so smart. After you’ve made a couple of shows like that, you’ll stand in a certain way when the cameras are approaching you, and you’re open to let other people into conversations. I just do that naturally, but I as trying to hide as much of my tells as possible and really dumb down my camera knowledge, but Dr. Will picked up on that quick.
HR: We saw he pulled you aside to ask you privately about your Survivor Australia past. Did you worry he would out you?
DG: Yes! I was really worried, especially the day after that initial conversation. There are some deleted scenes where I bait people about my past, because I thought it was going to be really funny. Anytime someone would talk about Survivor, I would be like “Survivor? Is that a show?”
But when Dr. Will came at me and asked me what show I won, he had this aggressiveness to him. I felt a bit hijacked. It was in the middle of the morning, after I’d done my meditation. I think you see in my face that I’d just woken up. I wasn’t ready for him to ask me about that. I thought he was going to expose me at Temple.
HR: Let’s talk The Family alliance that you created. What was our thinking going into the show to create that alliance?
DG: I’m a pretty visibly big person, and I need a visible alliance. I need big people who are gonna play with me. That’s really what happened with Parv. She was so good in the challenges, and it just gave me a really good platform to believe we’d win it. If people were with us, they had a chance to win, too.
HR: There were some beautiful moments between you and Dickson throughout the series. I know there’s editing, but those conversations seemed so genuine. Is that what it was really like?
DG: I think with competitive reality, you need to give people a reason to keep you in the game that’s bigger than “oh, this is a nice person.” What do you have that makes me want to keep you in the game? Alex, we’ve had a conversation and you seem really nice and I like your accent, but there’s no really much of a reason for me to keep you in the game.
You have to bond with people really fast and figure out if you have a genuine connection. That’s how life works, but we do it on a speed run. In real life, you’ll meet someone, you go for coffee, you hang out at a party, but we do it all at a speed, and that’s a strength I have. I can figure out where there are real bonds. With Dickson, the connection was 100% genuine.
I wanted him out at the start of the game, because, as a television personality, I didn’t want to repeat the Boston Rob/Aaron scenario. I was very cognizant of that. In the second Temple, I wanted Dickson gone, but I’m so glad that didn’t happen, because our relationship developed. He’s good strategically, and he loves playing these games. I want to play with big gamers, and I picked two of the best ones in there, Dickson and Parv.
HR: The final challenge brought back castmates who could help or hinder you. What was that like?
DG: That was really scary, because I’d been lying to these guys for like 25 days. I’d created some really strong connections and relationships, but they also thought I was a jujitsu instructor and a YouTuber, so I was really worried they would know and it would be really bad for me on the challenge. I was really p****d when I found out the guys got their phones back, so they could check up on me.
I was good at the game, but I had been misrepresenting myself. You don’t see many of the speeches, but I gave them all one. I humbled myself.
HR: What’s the next game you’d want to do?
DG: Is there an investment game? I think I need that. I don’t know. I’m a big fan of Traitors, but I think this money affords me the chance to do whatever I want now. So, offer me fun projects and I’ll look at them. I love making TV; I love entertaining people.
I’m gonna take a vacation to be honest.
HR: You deserve it! So, just as my last question, we learned that Chrissy Teigen was The Banker. What was that like for you to find out, and did you have any ideas beforehand?
DG: There is so much that end sup on the cutting room floor, but there were a bunch of things where we were trying to solve Chrissy’s identity. They were giving us clues, such as a feast and a fashion show with some bathing suits. That just didn’t make the cut, but yeah, the whole season, we went through to figure out who The Banker was.
There was another scene they cut, but I actually met her the night before Temple. She came to the dock and gave me another $2m case to add to the prize pot, which is why it ended up being $12m. We had this interaction where she was being like The Banker Villain, but she’s so nice that she couldn’t do it. She was just really genuine and a nice person to meet.
Deal or No Deal Island is available to rewatch on Peacock.
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