Don’t Look Now, But ‘Deal or No Deal Island’ May Just Make Game Show History

There are grand prizes, and then there are Deal or No Deal Island-sized grand prizes. NBC’s newest game show, which premiered in February, is already poised to potentially make history in its inaugural season as the final four contestants stand to make more loot than anyone ever has in the history of game shows… as long as that last man or woman standing can best that sneaky banker, of course.

On Monday’s episode of the Joe Manganiello-hosted series, titled “Are You Powerful?” the last five contestants in the game — including Survivor alum Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano, Stephanie Mitchell, Amy McCoy, Jordan Fowler, and Aron Barbell — made it through another grueling day in the sand, with Barbell finding himself facing the banker.

Unfortunately for him, taking an offer of $1.199 million wasn’t nearly enough to beat his own case, which meant he made a “bad deal” and had to be sent home.

With that, Aron is gone, and Boston Rob is now isolated by the remaining women and their “Night Owls” alliance. Boston Rob came in knowing that he’d have a target on his back; ahead of the show’s premiere, he told TV Insider, “I have a reputation, and it precedes me. So, I’m going to have a huge target on myself. You can’t vote people out. But there are different excursions where you can try to keep yourself safe. There’s a degree of uncertainty that makes it super exciting.” Now that he’s down one ally (albeit one that seemed poised to send him home, yikes!), it’s to be determined if he’ll be the one taking home the loot.

All the same, there now are four people left vying for the massive $8.908 final case prize. There’ll only be one winner of this Deal or No Deal spinoff, and if the last deal is anywhere near to as much money as is in the final case, this could mark the biggest prize pot in game show history, trouncing even Ken Jennings‘ career-long record of $5,296,214.29 from his work on Jeopardy!, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Grand Slam, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and more.

Watch this (very expensive) space!

Deal or No Deal Island, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC