It’s not straightforward being the host of a TV present — except you’re Joe Manganiello (above proper, with contestant “Dr. Will” Kirby). “I didn’t should attempt to have enjoyable,” insists the actor and host of Deal or No Deal Island, including that the passion he shows every week on the truth competitors collection, now in its second season, comes naturally and could be traced again to a childhood spent taking part in playing cards with adults, studying chess as a 6-year-old and successful poker tournaments at a younger age.
Regardless of being finest identified to audiences as a werewolf on the favored HBO collection True Blood and a bighearted stripper in Channing Tatum‘s Magic Mike movies, it’s actuality exhibits which might be one in every of Manganiello’s true loves. “I do know nearly each episode of Survivor, ever,” he admits. “Once I received provided this job, I used to be that near asking my brokers, ‘I type of wish to go shadow the administrators on a Survivor season’ — simply see how the sausage is made.”
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Now he will get to see the reality-show course of up shut. “I believe the primary season was extra like determining how the bike labored,” he says. “The second season is like, ‘Oh, nice! Now I do know this factor !’ It’s second nature.”
Cash — the biggest prize within the present’s historical past — often is the endgame for the contestants, however for Manganiello, the joys that drives him is extra private. “I really like the social facet of it,” he says. “I really like studying folks. You type of wring your palms out watching folks cope with the stress.” Take the March 18th penultimate episode, for instance: In it, the ultimate three gamers grapple with the implications of their previous selections throughout gameplay.
“I actually do assume that the place we’re at proper now is sort of a curler coaster coming down the hill,” Manganiello provides forward of the season finale. “It’s only a run to the end. The technique, the drama, the stress ranges, it’s at an all-time excessive. I assumed it was not possible to do what occurs on the finish of this season. And I’ve received to say that it’s one of the insane issues I’ve ever seen occur in my total life.”
Deal or No Deal Island, Tuesday, March 18, 9/8c, NBC