TV Talk: Joe Manganiello hosts ‘Deal or No Deal Island;’ Wexford native coaches ‘The Voice’
Share this post:
PASADENA, Calif. — It’s a big week on NBC for entertainers who grew up in Western Pennsylvania. Mt. Lebanon native Joe Manganiello hosts spin-off competition series “Deal or No Deal Island” (9:30-11 p.m. Feb. 26 and 27, WPXI-TV) and Wexford native Dan Smyers of Dan + Shay joins “The Voice” (8-9:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and 27, WPXI-TV) as a coach.
‘Deal or No Deal Island’
NBC’s “Deal or No Deal” has been around in assorted iterations since 2005, but this new version marks a departure. Rather than each episode containing a single game, the format has been changed to a season-long arc.
Competitors, including “Survivor” alum “Boston Rob” Mariano (married to Beaver County native Amber Brkich), compete as they’re winnowed down all season long in episodes that are essentially half-“Survivor” and half-classic “Deal or No Deal.”
This month during NBC’s party following its day of panels for new and returning NBCUniversal series as part of the Television Critics Association winter 2024 press tour, 2000 Carnegie Mellon University grad Manganiello approached a photo station that featured “Deal or No Deal Island”-stickered silver briefcases and scarves, including one in tartan plaid.
“This one looks kind of Carnegie Mellon,” he observed before going in front of the camera to strike a running pose while holding a silver briefcase.
“I’d actually been offered hosting jobs before, and I had historically said no to all of them,” Manganiello said a few minutes later. “But it was the right show at the right time.”
In part, Manganiello said, that’s because he’s “a ‘Survivor’ junkie.”
“When I’m on location (for filming), I watch ‘Survivor,’ ” he said. “I will pick a season and just burn through them. I was always a huge fan of ‘Naked and Afraid.’ I was a huge fan of the original ‘Fear Factor.’ In fact, I got offered the reboot of ‘Fear Factor,’ but it wasn’t the right time.”
Filmed last fall in “a secret location” (an island off the coast of Panama), Manganiello said “Deal or No Deal Island” was the most fun he’s ever had on a job.
“You see other hosts that are pretty stoic throughout the ups and downs of the drama,” he said. “I was really emotionally invested. If someone pulls off this unbelievable money maneuver, they’re high-fiving me. This relationship (with the contestants) builds. That allowed them to trust me and tell me things that they weren’t telling the rest of the group. I became this confessional for them. There were moments that are absolutely heartbreaking. The audience’s heart is going to break the way mine did a few times. I would go home at night and not be able to sleep.”
Was there anything Manganiello could apply from his learning at CMU to hosting a reality TV competition series?
“CMU has a history of storytelling, right? That’s your degree right from the beginning,” he said. “It does develop a certain invisible umbilical cord between you and an audience or a scene partner when you’re on stage. If anything, there was an empathy developed from acting training that allowed me to understand what these players were really playing for and really be sensitive to their emotional state.”
Manganiello said his work in the documentary space, where a film’s story can be found in editing, also informed his hosting on “Deal or No Deal Island.”
“I’m meeting with all of the producers outside of my trailer at every point through the show: What’s going on, who hates who, who likes who, who’s teaming up with who, what are the permutations of what can happen or who could get voted out and then being ready for that,” Manganiello said. “And in the moment being able to think about what the edit would be and making sure that, without interfering with any of the action, that we’re getting the story.”
Manganiello has been at work for several years on a documentary about Dungeons & Dragons, the game and its players. The project started as a docu-series, Manganiello said, then was a film and now appears to be headed back to being a series again.
Manganiello’s latest acting role in the movie “Nonnas,” about a man (Vince Vaughn) who hires a group of grandmothers as restaurant chefs, filmed in New Jersey and was directed by 1988 Upper St. Clair High School grad Stephen Chbosky (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”).
“I didn’t realize that he was from Upper St. Clair. And I’m (from) Mt. Lebanon, so they’re big, big, big (high school) rivals,” Manganiello said. “My character is from Brooklyn in the movie, which is a different dialect, obviously, but Stephen would make me do the scenes in Pittsburghese just to amuse him in rehearsal.
“And then for the take,” Manganiello continued, “Stephen would come up to me and act like he was ready to give me this very serious note, and he’d look up and say, ‘Go Blue Devils.’ Or he’d say, ‘Go Lebo’ or ‘This one’s for Lebo’ to make me laugh. I love him. This movie has so much heart. I’m so proud of him. I’m so proud of the fact that we got to work together, and I really look forward to bringing (the film) back to Pittsburgh.”
The indie movie does not yet have a release date.
Lastly, Manganiello is reportedly dating a fellow former Western Pennsylvanian, 2007 Uniontown High School grad Caitlin O’Connor, who most recently played Dyan Cannon in HBO’s “Winning Time.” So I had to ask if he and O’Connor bonded over their shared background.
“Let me put it to you this way,” Manganiello said, smiling broadly. “We watched the Super Bowl in head-to-toe Steelers gear.”
‘The Voice’
Wexford native Dan Smyers, one-half of Dan + Shay, joins the 25th season of NBC’s “The Voice” with performing partner Shay Mooney.
They’ll coach contestants from the first red-chair-for-two along with Reba McEntire, John Legend and Chance the Rapper.
Representatives for Smyers declined to make him available for a hometown interview.
Dan + Shay will perform at the Pavilion at Star Lake Aug. 2.