David Genat: Only way is up for WA dad after remarkable near-$10m win on Deal or No Deal Island

He’s a Perth dad who says he hasn’t had a steady pay cheque in decades.

But David Genat is now a multimillionaire. And he struck it rich by securing one of the biggest prizes in TV history.

The 45-year-old former model made history by winning $US5.8 million ($9.2m), on Deal Or No Deal Island (think the original Deal Or No Deal, with physical challenges), the biggest prize ever given away on a US network game show. Amazon Prime’s Beast Games is the only show to have ever dished out a bigger prize, when it awarded $15.9m to the victor last month.

Australia’s newest millionaire said he was feeling “pretty good”.

“I’ve got a lot of new friends now,” Genat joked.

After his win on Tuesday night (local time), he went out celebrating and we caught up with him on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, where he was carrying out interview after interview — while dealing with the after-effects of a massive night celebrating.

His jackpot means he’ll never have to work again.

“Twenty-five years in fashion entertainment, you’re bouncing job to job to job. So I’ve never had a consistent pay cheque ever,” said Genat, who is no stranger to Australian TV viewers after appearing on two seasons of Survivor. “I can kind of do whatever I want now ... that’s the beauty of it, it’s financial freedom.”

Genat, nicknamed the Golden God, earned that freedom by relying on a bit of luck and the guidance of his late father, who died in 2022, as he rejected several multimillion dollar offers from the banker in the show.

“I was being held before the big final case game and I (was) really meditating and getting in the zone,” he said.

“I’m praying. I was talking to my dad, who passed a few years ago, and I was like, ‘Dad, if this is gonna go well, just give me a sign.’ I look up and there was a tree canopy, there was no open sky.”

Genat managed to convince one of the show’s staff to take him out to where he could clearly see the sky — and he spotted a shooting star. “I was like, ‘Oh, there he is’.”

With only two cases left, including the jackpot $19,438,244 case, Genat eventually took the banker’s deal.

“I want to be clear, if you take this offer, this would be the most money anyone’s ever made on network television,” host Joe Manganiello said.

“You would truly be the Golden God. But if you turn this down, and you have $75 in your case, David, you would be the biggest loser in TV history.”

It just as well Genat did take the deal, as his own case did indeed only have $75 in it.

“I’ll get a new watch, I was going to get a motorcycle. with the current state of savings accounts, I think I put it in the bank I can make $US300,000 a year or half a million Aussie dollars a year,” he said.

Genat is originally from Perth but now calls Texas home.

It’s not the first time he’s secured a big win on TV after emerging victorious on Australian Survivor’s All Stars series in 2020, when he took home $500,000.

But last night’s win has blown that out of the water, even if he stands to lose a bit of it in income tax.

“Let’s just hope that Mr President’s going to dissolve the IRS, because I heard he’s doing that, reality show villains are the President now,” Genat said.

Either way he’s set for life.

“The money won’t change me,” he said, tongue in cheek, putting up the window of his chauffeur- driven car.