‘Deal or No Deal Island’ Winner Jordan Fowler Reveals How Show Completely Changed Her Life

It was a long, hard (plus hot and full of bugs) road, but Jordan Fowler managed to beat the banker on Monday’s finale of Deal or No Deal Island. After Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano eliminated himself by coming in last in the foot race, and Stephanie Mitchell’s case didn’t have a high enough value for her to continue forward, it was up to Jordan to defeat her lone remaining competitor Amy McCoy in a balance challenge. And, despite some efforts by Amy to shake her off of the tight rope they both were tasked with crossing, Jordan emerged victorious and had the final chance to face the banker.

The banker for this Deal or No Deal spinoff was, perhaps unsurprisingly, original show host Howie Mandel, who was delighted to face someone who also claimed “determination” as their superpower.

With the help of all of the season’s contestants, who came back to the temple to cheer her on and help her make some tough decisions, Jordan managed to secure at $1.23 million offer (with just $1k in her own case, making it a very good deal).

TV Insider caught up with this season’s winner to talk about how this life-changing amount of money affected her (including on her fertility journey), and how she feels about Boston Rob’s claim that he would’ve beaten her if not for that penalty.

You had a lot to fight for this season: your father, your mother, and obviously you wanting to go on your fertility journey. Can you talk about like how this series and what you accomplished helped with that?

Jordan Fowler: Absolutely. When I showed up to the banker’s island, I was in a really challenging place in life on multiple levels. And I was feeling quite discouraged, but I remember coming back from that excursion, a difficult one, and we all jumped in the ocean and there was a sunset and I’m like, this is so where I meant to be right now. I need to disconnect. I need to restart. I need to reconnect with myself in so many ways because it felt like the pressure of the world was just weighing down on me in every facet of life.

And so I think it gave me such a strong lie that like not fighting my absolute hardest every excursion was a nonoption like that was part of my strategy like never be in the bottom to like take this seriously and in social game, like everybody has a story and I knew that I was coming into it with a hard place but I really wanted to get to know other people’s stories and that’s where that came from. So that ended up being part of my strategy, and I left that island feeling lighter and grateful and more connected with myself and I ever felt. So I’m so grateful. It was a win in so many aspects of my life.

When did you film that epilogue? 

Oh gosh, my perception of time is so off. A few months ago now.

You talked about your fertility journey during the show. Why was it important to you to update fans with that video afterward that you were having a baby?

To give people hope. Because I knew in that last excursion, I got so emotional for so many reasons. One, to be the final contestant felt unbelievable. But two, I felt reconnected with myself — reconnected with my body — and I was like, wow! I think I finally had hope again. I think I had lost hope in many aspects of what a family would look like for us, and I put it in the back of my mind. But in that moment, I’m like, wow, we can do hard things. We can overcome this. And so I wanted to share the positive news with people to give them hope that like, feel the things that you need to feel. If you need to unplug and go on an island like I did, into a wild excursion, to disconnect, do that. If you want to double down on research do that. If you want to attend infertility events do that. Whatever you need to do, you should do that. There’s no right or wrong way to handle such a difficult situation but never lose hope. And hopefully, that ending can give people the hope that I needed at one point in my journey.

It’s very nice. So digging into the game a little bit, everyone returned to root for you in the temple. Was there anyone there that you were worried about maybe trying to sabotage you or anything, or did you just trust them to help you?

I trusted them. My husband always laughs. He’s like, “No one can be good at Deal or No Deal, but you can be bad if you are greedy, and you just keep saying no deal, that makes you a bad player.” But otherwise like, it is luck. It’s for everyone. And honestly, I didn’t want that moment to be about me. Like you see, all those high-dollar cases, those are retrieved … this is for everybody. And I want to do right by everybody. I don’t want to be greedy. I want this to be an ending that we’re all super proud of. We didn’t just do all these excursions for me to walk away with a penny. How disheartening would that be for everyone? So I’m glad we could all play together. I really felt like everybody put away any feelings that they had about each other or about me and just wanted to be together for one last moment as a group. And I’m very grateful for that because I know they didn’t have to act that way. There was no rule around it, but I felt all the support.

Monty Brinton/NBC

I talked to the Boston Rob before, and he said that he thinks he would have won if he hadn’t gotten the penalty. Do you have any response to that?

Let’s set up that excursion. Let’s do it. I’ll do it pregnant.

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Boston Rob Says He 'Easily' Would've Won 'Deal or No Deal Island' Without That Penalty

Going back to the beginning, you talked about that team atmosphere in the temple. You were the one that kind of introduced that by helping Kim. You were the first one to step up and help her. Do you think you were kind of all the while trying to make people cooperate? Because you didn’t even join the Night Owls until the very end.

I didn’t because my strategy going into it was twofold. One, kill it and excursions, like really be a competitive player and never be in the bottom two. And then two, never be anyone’s number one target. If I could do those two things, that would get me far enough, and then I can reevaluate and reassess the situation. So in order to satisfy the latter, which is all about not being anyone’s number one, I really wanted to develop genuine connections with people. And I honestly was like embodying Cerie’s strategy from Survivor and The Traitors… genuine desire to get to know other people, listen more than you talk, understand their motives, what drives them, what gets them excited, and that allowed me to tap into that time and time again. They really are authentic relationships. There’s many group chats post-DONDI, and there’s still feelings out there about each other. But to be in so many of them is a testament to the fact that I really do care about each person, and I am glad that showed on the show and carries through into real life now.

When you knew that Rob was gonna have to wait on you to start his penalty time, did you slow down or was it just that just the way it worked out? 

I guess, like a sigh of relief. I was like, “Alright, I don’t need to do this math anymore. Let’s just keep counting. You can take your time.” I knew with running, I’ve got that. At the time, I was at the top of my cardio game. My husband and I trained for a cardio-type excursion. And I was like, this is gonna come in handy. So not worried so much about the puzzle. So like, oops, if it took me a little bit longer, sorry!

When it came to your allies, you said you didn’t want to be anybody’s number one, but you did seem to be closer to some people than others. Who would you say was your biggest ally or at least who you would have rooted for if you weren’t winning? 

You know what’s so funny? I just wish episodes could have been longer so everyone could have seen more about each individual player because there’s so much to fall in love with with each person. Like I had wild connections with so many different people, and I talked about that a lot. It was interesting for me to realize — I don’t know if it’s because of my mixed background or whether it be like religion or things that we had gone through — that I had truly unique stories with each person.

And so, by the end, Nick and I are quite close to today. Even Rob and Alyssa and I [are close]. The Night Owls are still a group that, as an entity, there’s so much support in that group. And I’m so grateful to be part of it. So I would say everyone — with the exception of Branson, who just, we never really got to know each other — [was close]. Jamil was in Nashville, and we had drinks on Broadway. So I mean, even folks like that, you have been such a wild experience that you do end up connecting so much with each other, but I really had — I knew that if the beach was empty, and there was like one person there, it wouldn’t be an awkward conversation. And I think maybe I was doing that to protect myself from any awkward things that could arise, but I was never socially nervous about anything because I knew that I had great friends, truly.

Going into the final challenge when you were up against Amy, who kept falling off. Did you feel pretty good about your chances or were you still a little bit worried? 

Let me just say that excursion is so much harder than it looks. I love Rob’s confidence in a face-off now — happily. But it was so hot. And there’s so much pressure, first of all, and then like it’s physically excruciating. It is so hard, and it’s much harder which she realized after that when she’s on it, it also moves in this direction, but when she’s just tapping on it, it was just up and down. So I was like, “Sure girl, keep tapping away in the middle.” But she did what she had to do. I don’t fault her for it. The stakes are so high. You’re fighting for your family. You’re fighting for incredible amounts of money. You do what you’ve got to do. No hard feelings throughout the season.

Did you guys have any predictions of who would be the banker and what was his reaction to it being Howie Mandel?

I mean, it’s hard to imagine Deal or No Deal without Howie. So I’m like, “At some point, he is gonna just like show up at our tents… Howie is he going to be part of this with us.” You imagine Deal or No Deal — I watched on the couch growing up — and you picture Howie. So, at some point, I was hoping he would be there. But to greet him like by myself? I’m like, “How lucky am I?!” Do I get a fist bump out of this?” It was wild. I did not expect that. We went straight from that final excursion straight to meeting the banker. I was having so many emotions all at once. To meet someone that you’ve watched on TV for literally decades was the coolest thing ever.

The show has been renewed for Season 2. Is there any conversation about maybe you coming back as a guest judge or maybe the banker? And then also what advice would you have for someone coming in? 

Yes, well, I will support Season 2 in any way, shape, or form. Truly, this was the first season — a huge risk for the network and for everybody involved, and I’m so proud of the end product. I remember watching that first preview that they launched earlier. We were like, “This looks so good.” I would’ve watched this if I wasn’t on it. That’s how you know that that’s a show to be proud of. So from an amazing casting team — who, like, how was I even chosen for this? — to an amazing production team and editors. I mean, everything at every turn has been amazing, and the support has been unparalleled. So from a reality TV production standpoint, have me involved in any way because I will happily say, “Yes.”

And then to folks for Season 2, there’s not a rulebook for this show. You don’t have hundreds of cast members where you can copy and paste their exact strategy. So use what you’re good at. Like I’m a marketer, I can read people really well. So I’m like, let me lean into that. Use your own unique strengths to come up with a strategy that works best for you, and there’s no right or wrong way. And I truly think that being real to yourself — that you play a game that at the end you can be proud of — is the best way to do it. That doesn’t mean you can’t be competitive. That doesn’t mean you can’t form your alliances and have enemies, but play a game that you’d be proud of at the end. Because regardless of if I won, I was like, I want to come out of this feeling like I want my kids to watch the show. And I can say that I am proud of that. So that’s my advice, and I’ll be watching! So good luck to Season 2 competitors.

Deal or No Deal Island, streaming, Peacock