Deal or No Deal Island’s Dickson Gets Emotional Over Moment With David

Reality TV veterans David Genat and Parvati Shallow have run season 2 of Deal or No Deal Island as the two “parents” in the powerful Family alliance. But even the powerhouse pair weren’t able to save their TV son, Dickson Wong, who was finally eliminated in the episode that aired Tuesday, March 4.

Dickson, 24, knew he was No. 3 in the three-person alliance and that he missed his chance to turn on his island parents. But he spoke glowingly about his relationship with each, telling Us Weekly exclusively about the moment he first connected with David, 44.

“The first night I was there on the island, I had an allergic reaction, and I was sitting on that couch, I had IVs in me, I had Benadryl all over me,” he recalled. “I was so loopy because of the IVs. The one thing I do remember, though, is that David sat with me on that couch the entire night.”

Fans of the show will remember Dickson telling David multiple times that the Survivor Australia winner had the qualities he wished his own dad possessed. While Dickson chose not to discuss his personal relationship with his father, he began to choke up when talking about how he grew close to David on the island.

“That relationship was 100 percent genuine,” he said. “I think his instincts came out. Why would it make sense for him to sit with me on the couch when he should be building relationships with everyone?”

Dickson, an avid competitive reality TV fan himself, knows how important it is to build relationships early in a game like Deal or No Deal Island. Seeing David sacrifice an opportunity to do that on night one, he said, “speaks volumes.”

As for David, he told Us in February that he gravitated toward Dickson because he admired his aggressive gameplay early on, even if it “burned a few bridges” with his castmates.

The Dickson-David bond extended to Parvati, who Dickson said tucked him into bed that first night. By the time the next morning came around, he was fine being the pair’s TV “son,” navigating the game as the other players tried their best to take shots at his parents.

“So it’s kind of like [Survivor winner] Jeremy Collins’ meat shield strategy where you surround yourself with the bigger threats,” he said.

Yes, he knew that in order to win the game, he would have to turn on them eventually, and he was planning to cut ties with David at the final five — if he got there.

“I wanted to target David at five, because I figured if I could get rid of [Alexis] Lete, eventually David would be vulnerable and I could hopefully get rid of him,” he explained.

It was an ironic admission, not just because of his relationship with David, but because of his flirt-mance with Lete, which was just heating up at the time of his elimination. Dickson gave her a friendship bracelet earlier in the episode and the two even shared a quick kiss in a previously unaired clip shown on the Deal or No Deal Island after show with “Boston” Rob Mariano.

Lete ended up choosing to eliminate Dickson at the end of the episode anyway, and Dickson said he would have done the same to her if he had the opportunity.

Deal or No Deal Island airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Peacock the next day.