Crossovers are a thing on NBC. The various Chicago and Law & Order shows have done this to great success multiple times. But a new crossover has recently emerged, a direct product of the current Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) strike.

With gaping holes in its schedule due to the writers’ rooms now on the picket lines, a highly unlikely crossover is about to invade our TV screens.

The return of the oft-maligned Deal USA, combined with elements of CBS’s Survivor. No, I am not kidding.

From someone’s clearly drug-addled mind comes Deal or No Deal Island, which, according to an article on Deadline, “is set on the Banker’s private island where he makes the rules and there are twists behind every palm tree. The series is described as a mix between the original long-running format and Survivor.”

As for the format, the article describes it as such:

“Hidden on the island are over 100 cases with millions of dollars split between them, which teams must retrieve so that they can play a game of Deal or No Deal against the Banker. Only one team will survive until the very last episode, where they’ll compete to beat the Banker for the biggest prize in Deal or No Deal history.”

This sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen. I get that NBC is struggling to find content because of the strike, but they could do so much better than this. I’ll be avoiding it like the plague. Ben, if you want to reprise your role as recapper, be my guest.

I convinced myself this was a late April Fools jokes when I first read about it.

This screams out as a filler program to fill the barren schedule during the writers strike, and I'll probably watch it just for the laughs of how much of a trainwreck it will be.

So a few updates to share regarding this trainwreck-in-waiting:

1. The writers’ and actors’ strikes are now over.
2. We have a new host. Joe Manganiello replaces Howie Mandel. Howie probably took one look at this format and said “Nope!” Rightfully so, I’d say.
3. We have a premiere date: Monday, February 26 at 9:30 PM with a 90-minute special. The show then moves to its regularly scheduled timeslot starting on Monday, March 4 at 10 PM.

Best of luck to you if you choose to sit through this nonsense. I’ll be relaxing at the retirement home.

Also according to Inside Survivor, Boston Rob Mariano of all people is rumored to be a contestant.

I guess there's gonna be a legit Survivor-like aspect to this, as there's absolutely no other justification for that casting.

Boston Rob is one of the world’s biggest media whores. His 15 minutes were up long ago, and yet he continues to invade our screens. Good grief…