Dr. Will’s Weird Tantrums Are Ruining ‘Deal Or No Deal Island’
Deal or No Deal Island is a reality competition show based on the long-running Deal or No Deal game show. A group of contestants arrive on an island where they compete in daily challenges to 1) stay on the island and 2) raise the cash prize pot for the final contestant left on the island. The final contestant faces the banker in a classic game of Deal or No Deal.
While I’d only seen an episode or two of Deal or No Deal in the 20 years it’s been airing in the U.S., Im a big fan of competition reality shows of all kinds. NBC employed a tried and true method for enticing new viewers to try the show out, hoping they get hooked enough to become loyal fans. It worked on me, I binged the first season of the show in a few days and now watch new episodes the day they’re available to stream.
What was this method? They cast a few reality show legends (Boston Rob on season one and Parvati Shallow on the current season) among the new faces in the cast. Not only is it fun to see strategic career gamers like Boston Rob figure out how to manipulate their way through a new game, having someone familiar to watch raises the stakes (and increases my enjoyment) of the show. This is what makes my current obsession, The Traitors, so good.
On the currently airing second season of Deal or No Deal Island, Survivor winners Parvati Shallow and David Genat (who won Australian Survivor twice) are among the cast. They showed up along with the “regular people” in the cast and tried to blend in. In contrast, Big Brother winner Will “Dr. Will” Kirby showed up in a tuxedo, getting a special entrance on a tender boat.
Castmate Parvati Shallow called Dr. Will “completely insane” and described their first interaction to Entertainment Weekly:
He shows up on the beach, everyone leaves the challenge, I’m the last one walking out and he goes, ‘Parvati, the Black Widow. Born September 21st, 1982. Went to Sprayberry High School, graduated at the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism.’ I was like, ‘What is happening?’ I go, ‘What’s my sign? He goes, ‘Virgo.’ I was like: This man has been either stalking me for a long time or has just memorized all these trivia facts about me. I didn’t know what to think about him. Is he going to want to play with me? Is he going to want to be against me?
Since joining the cast, Dr. Will has been the central character for each episode, and not in a good way. The focus has been on him not because he is the most interesting player, but because his attention seeking behavior is so over-the-top. His antics include:
- Outing Parvati as a Survivor player to the cast (previously, only a few of her castmates recognized her).
- Attempting to play the game pantless.
- Storming off set when his plan to drop his partner with a fear of heights during a heights challenge backfired and both players were (safely) dropped to the ground.
- Picking briefcases in joyless numerical order, bucking the show’s tradition of contestants sharing their guesses based on sentimental, superstitious or even silly reasons.
- Hitting the “deal” button while playing Deal or No Deal to see how his castmates would react and then reneging based on a technicality.
There’s a fine line between a villain that is fun to watch and a villain that makes a show unpleasant to watch. Dr. Will has crossed this line. While I love the trend of casting reality stars across different shows, casting needs to focus on reality alum that is more entertaining than irritating.
