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00:00Well, when we talked last year, you know, we talked about what I had sort of coined
00:03your reality TV renaissance.
00:05You had appeared back on our screens for the first time since the pandemic.
00:08And look, there is going to be another opportunity to see you on our screens
00:12later on this year.
00:13But we sort of have this intermediary between, you know, the traders
00:16and Australian survivor in the form of a deal or no deal island.
00:20So I would love to hear how this all came together to have you, you know,
00:24shipping off to a very different island before you flew out to the other one
00:27proper.
00:29Oh, man.
00:30Well, Sharon Vong is like my reality show guru mentor.
00:40I don't know what you would call her.
00:41She's like the Wizard of Oz for me, for reality TV shows.
00:45So Sharon is the one who convinced me to do traders
00:49and then also called me for deal and was like, would you do it?
00:53You would be so great.
00:55And Rob had just done it.
00:57And I'd watched Rob play and I was I thought it looked really fun.
01:04And I'm used to going out and playing reality games
01:07that are grueling and very stressful.
01:11And I said, why not do a show that's fun, that has a really fun host?
01:16Joe Manganiello is a blast.
01:18And you get fed.
01:20You get to live this life of luxury and potentially win
01:23multiple millions of dollars without starving to death.
01:27And Sharon pushed me over the edge.
01:29I said, all right, let's see.
01:31Well, you were not the only, of course, reality TV alumni to show up
01:34this time around.
01:35So I got to start with this moment with you and David, where you clock who he is.
01:40And it sort of sets up
01:42where initially it's kind of like an alliance of mutual destruction
01:44of like, I have your secret, you have my secret.
01:46But it does become, at least from what we've seen, you know,
01:48through these episodes, like a true number one ride or die pairing.
01:52Talk to me about how this ended up coming together.
01:55I love a ride or die.
01:57I haven't been able to get one in a while.
01:59That's like a good one.
02:01But if you go back and watch me on Cook Islands,
02:04Nate was my ride or die over there.
02:06And then in Micronesia, I had Amanda and Sari and then Natalie.
02:12And, you know, I love her.
02:13I even have Russell as a ride or die.
02:16Like when you get a good strategic game player
02:21who you vibe with out there, to me, that's magic.
02:24So when I found that in David, I didn't know that it would be that way.
02:28At first, I was just like, I need this guy on my side, not against me.
02:33And he could blow up, blow up my spot.
02:36I could blow up his.
02:37But let's just see.
02:39And then as the game played out, I was like, oh, I can really trust him.
02:42And he's good.
02:44He plays like me.
02:46But he's like a guy.
02:48So I was like, oh, my God, this is wild.
02:49He's sort of like my male foil out there on the island.
02:52Like we had it was really strange because we got each other
02:57like our brains work in very similar ways in the game.
03:01So just like, oh, yeah, I get him.
03:04He gets me. Let's ride this to the end.
03:07And so from that sort of nucleus, you build out the family in a manner of speaking.
03:11So talk to me about how that came together, because listen, you know,
03:14you've been around the block with these types of shows.
03:16It seemed from our perspective that this was a very obvious alliance.
03:20Was this something you were sort of aware of until the rug
03:23gets pulled out with the MG of it all?
03:26The best alliances happen organically.
03:29The Black Widow Brigade.
03:31I didn't plan that ahead of time.
03:32It happened because it was a mixture of the incredible
03:38contestants, the cast that was in the game.
03:41So we have this special moment with David and I on the swing.
03:45Dixon comes and sits between us and we're just having a real conversation
03:48about family.
03:49And Dixon shares this sort of sad story about his parents.
03:53When he was a baby, he was essentially given up for adoption to this other couple.
03:57So David and I are like, I will be your mom and dad out here.
04:00No prob.
04:01And then I'm thinking, well, this is a fun game
04:05to play the family inside this game.
04:09So I just wanted to have I wanted to max out on fun
04:14and playing this role play of the family felt silly and campy and fun.
04:20But it was also strategic because I had David and I already working together.
04:26Dixon already knew who I was.
04:28He was kind of running around making one on one alliances with everybody.
04:32So I just I knew that about him.
04:34But I was like, let's play this.
04:35Let's play up the family.
04:37And I wasn't sure we weren't trying to hide it.
04:39Everyone knew about our alliance out there on the island.
04:42And I played it up every time we were at dinner.
04:45I was like, hey, sweetie, make sure you eat your vegetables
04:49before you get your dessert.
04:51Like it was silly and it was annoying everyone.
04:55And I was like, I'm a double down on this because it was fun for me.
05:01And then when M.G.
05:03Well, what you didn't see was I told M.G.
05:06to play the banker.
05:07I said, M.G.
05:09Will is going to target you if he plays,
05:12because I knew how threatened Will was by David.
05:15So I was like, it was very clear that M.G.
05:17and David were very close.
05:18They were hanging out a lot on the island.
05:20And I was like, oh, she's kind of seen as his right hand sort of heat.
05:25M.G. was seen as David's ride or die.
05:27And so I was like, well, it's going to take you out.
05:29I think you should play.
05:30And she was like, man.
05:33Well, let's talk about Dr.
05:34Will here, because, yeah, well, sometimes, you know, reality TV winners
05:38glom together like you and David, sometimes it is like oil and water,
05:42really from the jump, you know, when he walks in
05:45and just publicly outs that you were on Survivor.
05:47Now, you had mentioned this was on the show as well, but like some people knew.
05:51But I'm intrigued from your perspective before we even get into the will of it all.
05:54How did you try to sort of incorporate that into your game?
05:59And how did your game change, if at all?
06:01Once Will makes it entirely public to everybody, Survivor fan or not,
06:06what you're capable of.
06:08I knew the information was going to come out at some point.
06:13I was prepared for people to know who I was.
06:17I just wanted it to be a little later in the game when it blew up.
06:22But once Will outed me, I was like, OK, I'm dealing with this.
06:27I already had a few strategic relationships,
06:32so I wasn't that worried about it.
06:34You know, the way I played Dondi was I just showed up
06:38and surrendered to what was happening in the moment without trying to fight it.
06:43I accepted reality and then I worked with it.
06:46So when Will came in, I was like, OK, this is a new element to the game.
06:50Let's see what's going to happen.
06:52I already had some chess pieces in place.
06:54Now here's this wild card.
06:56And Will is an extreme wild card.
06:59What's going to happen? He's chaos.
07:01Can I work with him? Can I not?
07:03When he outed me, I don't think he meant to do that.
07:06I think he knew or I think he thought that everyone knew who I was.
07:11Is it the way he the way he said it?
07:13It was just very casual at dinner.
07:16And then he was still trying to work with me at that point.
07:18So I don't think he was trying to blow me up.
07:20But then later on, he said that he was.
07:23So, you know, revisionist history happens a lot in these games.
07:26But I was like, OK,
07:29I'm not going to be mad at him about leaking that info.
07:33I am still going to see if there's a way to work with him.
07:38And then I quickly realized, I just don't think that we're going to vibe.
07:42And in these games, that's really critical.
07:45Like you need to be with someone who you have some influence over
07:50and that will actually take in the information that you're sharing.
07:54And then you guys can have a conversation about it and make a plan together.
07:59Will is not that kind of guy.
08:00Will wants to run the show.
08:01He wants to be the boss and be in charge.
08:03And if his plan doesn't work out, he throws a fit.
08:06And I cannot work with that kind of guy.
08:08Give me your reaction.
08:09I mean, we saw a little bit of it to Will's whole I'll take the deal.
08:13But wait, I didn't actually lock it in.
08:15And, you know, we see you on the sideline trying to like also assuage David,
08:20who like is clearly getting a little hot headed as well.
08:23So talk to me about kind of managing your own reactions
08:25while also regulating his.
08:27Oh, my God.
08:29Look, I am really used to surviving amidst chaos.
08:33I grew up in chaos and I've I've cultivated a
08:39I've refined my skill of thriving inside of chaos.
08:43I think that's why I do well in these games.
08:45So when Will is playing deal or no deal,
08:48he slams his hand on the button, the first deal.
08:51And I'm like, wait a minute.
08:53All you've been saying since you got here is that you want to bankrupt the banker
08:58and now you take the first deal.
09:00You're full of it.
09:02So I was reflecting that back to Will, but also I wanted other people to hear
09:08that Will is saying stuff that doesn't match up with his action.
09:11So you can't really trust him.
09:13So I wanted to blast that loudly in front of everyone.
09:17David's getting so irritated because I think if you have.
09:22Real life personal experience with people
09:26who have narcissistic tendencies or this type of personality
09:30that tends to suck all of the air out of the room,
09:33it's really hard to deal with that in any contrived scenario
09:39like these games where it's like, oh, just what are you?
09:43Why are you here?
09:44Like this kind of personality really grates on my nerves.
09:49And I think David also has experience with that kind of personality in his life.
09:53So for me, I've done my best to distance myself
09:57from those types of people in real life so I don't have to deal with them.
10:01But in these reality shows, they're like fire for a show.
10:06People love to watch them on TV and watch the effect
10:10that they have on other people.
10:11And it's it's insane.
10:13So I know how to deal with it.
10:15I don't love dealing with it, but I know how to deal with it.
10:17And I know how to calm people down.
10:18I'm very good at regulating.
10:20That's why I take on the mom role.
10:22That's why I was mom.
10:24So we have mom and dad.
10:25I'm like, OK, dad, time to just take a breather back.
10:30Don't let him get to you.
10:32I don't know. It was it was Mike.
10:35You got to make your fun where you can.
10:38And I just had a great time stepping into that role.
10:43I know I interviewed Joe Manganiello for my podcast yesterday,
10:47and Joe was saying that to me.
10:49He said, your superpower is that you can see what people need
10:55in the moment and feed them exactly what they need.
11:00So that they're OK.
11:01And that is what I was doing out there, especially for David.
11:05I felt like I got him pretty well.
11:07Well, I want to talk about one moment where maybe that didn't necessarily happen.
11:11I want to talk about the beginning of this episode that that's coming up
11:13tonight here, where, you know, you approach Philip
11:16and you talked to him a bit about I don't understand why you,
11:21you know, helped become a part of this plan.
11:23You know, Will is somebody that would have bullied you when you were a kid.
11:28And Philip is not happy in confessional.
11:31He actually accuses you of, quote, weaponizing childhood trauma.
11:35So I would just love to hear your reaction to all that.
11:38Philip was so confusing to me
11:41because Philip would say
11:44all of these very sensitive things, talk about being a good person,
11:49talk about honor and integrity, treating people with respect and kindness.
11:53And he made that sort of his cross to bear his hill to die on.
11:58Philip and I had many, many, many conversations about Will and how
12:04how he was not the kind of person that Philip wanted to elevate
12:07in terms of platform or in terms of the game.
12:10So I aligned with that.
12:13I was like, yeah, I agree.
12:15I loved Philip, like loved him.
12:17He's such a sweetie.
12:20But there was also this other side of Philip that he didn't show me.
12:25And when he was working with Will, I was like, oh, wait a minute.
12:29You're saying all of these things about being a good person
12:33and respecting people and and like not treating them like shit, basically.
12:40But you're working with the person who is really disrespecting people
12:45and bullying them.
12:46That didn't line up for me.
12:48So I had a really hard time seeing that.
12:51Hmm. Because the way I saw Philip was he's this good guy.
12:56He wants to treat people with respect.
12:58So how could that kind of person
13:02who really pledges this good guy kind of thing
13:06be working with Will underground?
13:09I I had a really hard time seeing that clearly.
13:13So when he when Philip was saying that I weaponized his childhood trauma,
13:17I think in looking back and watching that play out,
13:21now I can see it as, oh, Philip needed to be the good guy.
13:25So he needed to because he was working with Will.
13:28He still needed to find a way to be the good guy.
13:31So he had to make me the bad guy.
13:33Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
13:35And I was like, I that don't track.
13:39It does not track for me.
13:40Well, you talk about, you know, feeding the fun.
13:43And part of that was probably feeding the fire of everything
13:45going on with C.K. in this episode, because I mean, on paper,
13:50you know, the family's left a little flat footed.
13:53You lost M.G.
13:54Luckily, you know, you all end up being safe, but like
13:57helps that you have someone like C.K.
13:58not only ready to face the banker, but then also letting loose
14:01everything that happened behind your back.
14:04I mean, as a as a, you know, a veteran reality star,
14:07this is a situation you've seen many times before,
14:09but I'm sure it never loses its luster.
14:11C.K. is a dream come true.
14:16She is wild.
14:18I was I had a great relationship with C.K.
14:20We lived in the dome together, so we got very close.
14:24It's not really being shown, but she and I had a really solid,
14:28pretty close relationship.
14:29So when she came and talked to me, I could give her that support
14:32because I'd already built up that street cred with her
14:35from our dome nights together.
14:38But C.K. could not turn her brain off.
14:41She was one of those.
14:42She's a strategic gamer.
14:44She's a poker player.
14:45She's a I think an investment banker in her real life.
14:50And she just is nonstop thinking, strategizing.
14:55I love those kind of people.
14:57They are like it's like a treasure box
15:01to play with those kind of people, because I'm like, oh, she's fast.
15:06The way she thinks is fast.
15:07She'll change her mind.
15:09She'll switch on a dime.
15:10She'll throw herself out there.
15:11She was really brave and ballsy and willing to play the banker.
15:15Any chance she got, she would put herself out there.
15:18She was running over to me and Philip in the middle of a challenge
15:21trying to get in our heads.
15:22I was like, oh, my God, she's really she is
15:26like dynamite in this game.
15:30And when she was like, I'm ready to blow this up, I'm like, get it, girl.
15:34All she needed was a little support.
15:36She needed a hype man, a cheerleader.
15:38And I was there for her.
15:40Exactly. Listen, you're a true mom skills, right?
15:43I'm like, listen, you make your own decisions and you'll you know what?
15:46You'll learn from your mistakes.
15:47But I'm not going to be the one
15:48to be the helicopter parent here and police them.
15:51No, I would never tell her not to blow up the alliance
15:53that's trying to take me out.
15:55Yeah, sister.
15:57Well, last thing I want to ask is, you know, we're halfway through the season
16:00and we leave things on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I'm intrigued.
16:03You know, lots of surprises we've experienced in these first six episodes.
16:06What would you say is one of the biggest things
16:09that will surprise all of us as viewers and fans
16:12for the second half of Dandi's season two?
16:15It gets hotter and hotter from here.
16:18You think there's drama now?
16:20It gets really intense and wild.
16:24And the end of this game is the most it was a spiritual experience.
16:32It was the most mind blowing experience of anything I've ever witnessed
16:36in my entire life.
16:37The end of this game.
16:39I've never seen anything like it in my history of television
16:44ever competing on a show, watching a show or anything.
16:48I've never seen anything like what you will witness at the end of this season.
16:52Oh, my God.
16:53Well, I'm glad, you know, if it's getting hotter and hotter,
16:55you have a nice supply of iced tea, you know, ready to go.
16:59Iced tea is not even featuring.
17:00We did a dance.
17:01We sang songs like, where's the iced tea?
17:04Well, if you one upped Boston Rob, truly not only in appearing on the show,
17:07but being like, you come up with a little ditty, like we got a full iced
17:09tea routine going on.
17:11Joe and I did a dance because, you know, he's a magic Mike.
17:13Of course. Yeah.
17:15So Joe, my last challenge that you just saw,
17:17I think it was the running challenge in the jungle.
17:20Joe and I did a nice tea dance and they didn't show it.
17:23Well, maybe that's the problem is you say it's for a magic Mike
17:25and it's now on NBC.
17:26So like maybe standards of practice has got in there.
17:28It might be a little too spicy. Yeah, you're right.