Family Feud (or simply Feud) is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and currently hosted by Steve Harvey. Two families compete on each episode to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.

The show has aired in three separate incarnations since 1976. Its original run from 1976 to 1985 aired on ABC and in syndication, with Richard Dawson as host. In 1988, it was revived on CBS and in syndication with Ray Combs hosting until 1994, with Dawson returning until the latter version ended in 1995. The third version, also in syndication, began in 1999 and has had four hosts: Louie Anderson (1999–2002), Richard Karn (2002–2006), John O'Hurley (2006–2010), and Steve Harvey (2010–present). The show has had four announcers: Gene Wood (1976–1995), Burton Richardson (1999–2010), Joey Fatone (2010–2015), and Rubin Ervin (2015–present).

Within a year of its debut, the original version became the number one game show in daytime television; however, as viewing habits changed, the ratings declined. Harvey becoming host in 2010 increased Nielsen ratings significantly and eventually placed the program among the top three most-popular syndicated television shows in the United States. Harvey has also surpassed every previous host in tenure.

The program has produced multiple regional adaptations in over 50 international markets outside the United States. Reruns of episodes hosted by Steve Harvey air on Game Show Network, as well as in syndication while reruns of earlier versions air on BUZZR and Pluto TV. Aside from television shows, there have also been many home editions produced in board game, interactive film, and video game formats.

Gameplay

The game features two competing families, each represented by five members (four during the 1994-95 season), who compete to determine the answers to survey questions. While there is no minimum age to participate in Family Feud, as long as at least one member of the family is 18 years of age or older, producers recommend that contestants are 15 years of age or older due to the nature of some questions.

Each round begins with a "face-off" question that serves as a toss-up between two opposing contestants. The host asks a survey question that was previously posed to a group of 100 people, such as "Name something you expect to see on the streets at Christmas time." although the goal reverted to 300 points for special weeks. From the debut of the original series until 1992, families were awarded $1 per point scored.

From 1999 to 2003, the family with the highest point total after four rounds of play won the game regardless of their score. The first three rounds were played as normal rounds. In the fourth round, the point values were tripled, but the families were only allowed one strike if they had control. In the rare instance that the family in control was trailing and could not accumulate enough points to potentially overtake the leaders before striking out, the game ended without the other family attempting to steal.

On the first two series a match continued until a family reached the goal. The current series reinstated the 300 point goal in 2003 but kept the four round format. If neither family has reached 300 points after four rounds, one more triple value question is played as a sudden death face-off. Only the top answer is displayed on the board, and the first contestant to buzz in with it wins the points and the game for their team.

In the original periodic primetime specials, three games were played, with the first two ending when a team reaches 200 points. For the third game, only one question round was played with the winning two celebrity teams from the previous rounds playing.

Beginning on March 2, 1983, each family had a small plastic tree placed at the end of their podium that had bundles of Tootsie Roll Pops on it. The anchor member of the family, who was standing next to the tree, would have a chance to draw one of the lollipops from the tree on his/her turn. If the stick of the Tootsie Roll Pop had a black mark on the bottom, the family won $100. The lollipop trees were used on the show until the cancellation of the series and made their final appearance on the last episode of the daytime series on June 14, 1985.

Fast Money

250px|right|thumb|Current host [[Steve Harvey posing with contestants (2016)]]

At the end of the main game, the winning family selects two members to play the show's bonus round, known as Fast Money. One contestant is onstage with the host, while the other is sequestered backstage with headphones so as not to hear or see the first portion of the round. The first contestant is asked five rapid-fire survey questions and has a set time limit in which to answer them (originally 15 seconds, extended to 20 in 1994). The timer starts after the host finishes reading the first question. The contestant may pass on a question and return to it if time remains.

After the first contestant has answered all five questions or run out of time, they are awarded a point for each person in the survey who gave the same response. Once these points are tallied, the board is cleared except for the total score, while the second contestant is then brought out to answer the same five questions. The same rules are followed, but the time limit is extended by five seconds (originally 20 seconds, extended to 25 in 1994); in addition, if the second contestant duplicates an answer given by the first, the host will say “Try again,” and prompt the contestant for an alternate answer. If the two contestants manage to reach a combined total of 200 points or more, the family wins a cash prize; otherwise, the family is awarded $5 for each point. In the original periodic primetime specials, each game was followed by a Fast Money round. The first two were each worth $5,000, and the final one was worth $10,000. This initially lasted until September 2009, when the Bullseye round returned at the start of the show, meaning the total for Fast Money was an adjustable amount between $15,000 and $30,000 depending on how much each family won during Bullseye. In July 2010, however, Bullseye was removed and the prize money reverted to $20,000, which has remained ever since.

Returning champions

When Family Feud premiered on ABC, network rules dictated how much a family could win. Once any family reached $25,000, they were retired as champions. The accompanying syndicated series that premiered in 1977 featured two new families each episode because of a then common television syndication practice known as "bicycling" (wherein individual stations sent an episode of a series they had already aired to another station, reducing the number of tapes a syndicator had to send out but also ensuring that stations did not air the same episode of a show the same day, nor were they assured of airing in a proper sequence).

The CBS daytime and syndicated versions which began airing in 1988 also featured returning champions, who could appear for a maximum of five days. For a brief period in the 1994–95 season which aired in syndication, there were no returning champions. For these episodes, two new families competed in this first half of each episode. The second half featured former champion families who appeared on Family Feud between 1976 and 1985, with the winner of the first half of the show playing one of these families in the second half. When the champion rule was reinstated, the winner of the first half faced the champion family in the second. Occasionally two families from the 1976-1985 version would play the first half and celebrities would play for charity in the second half.

In some cases from 1992 to 1995, the returning champions continued until they were defeated. From 1999 to 2002, two new families appeared on each episode. In 2002, returning champions again appeared with the same five-day limit. In 2009, a new car was announced for a family who wins five games in a row. This was first changed to a $30,000 cash bonus in May 2024, and then changed again in September 2024 to a vacation and a $10,000 cash bonus.

Bullseye/Bankroll game

In June 1992, the CBS daytime edition of Feud expanded from 30 to 60 minutes and became known as the Family Feud Challenge. As part of the change, a new round was added at the start of each game called "Bullseye". This round determined the potential Fast Money stake for each team. Each team was given a starting value for their bank and attempted to come up with the top answer to a survey question to add to it. The Bullseye round was added to the syndicated edition in September 1992, which remained 30 minutes and was retitled as the New Family Feud.

The first two members of each family appeared at the face-off podium and were asked a question to which only the number-one answer was available. Giving the top answer added the value for that question to the family's bank. The process then repeated with the four remaining members from each family. On the first half of the daytime version, families were staked with $2,500. The first question was worth $500, with each succeeding question worth $500 more than the previous, with the final question worth $2,500. This allowed for a potential maximum bank of $10,000. For the second half of the daytime version, and also on the syndicated version, all values were doubled, making the maximum potential bank $20,000. The team that eventually won the game played for their bank in Fast Money.

In 1994, with Richard Dawson returning as host, the round's name was changed to the "Bankroll" round. Although the goal remained of giving only the number-one answer, the format was modified to three questions from five, with only one member of each family participating for all three questions. The initial stake for each family remained the same ($2,500 in the first half of the hour and $5,000 in the second). However, the value for each question was $500, $1,500 and $2,500 in the first half, with values doubling for the second half. This meant a potential maximum bank of $7,000 in the first half and $14,000 in the second. This is the first and (to date) only version of Family Feud to air exclusively on NBC. In 2015, the show was revived by ABC with Steve Harvey, host of the syndicated version of Family Feud, selected as host, and Burton Richardson returning as announcer. This would mark the first time any version of Family Feud has aired exclusively on ABC since the initial Dawson version was canceled in 1985. Harvey has hosted Celebrity Family Feud since 2015, while Richardson announced for Celebrity Family Feud from 2015 until 2023. Rubin Ervin replaced Richardson as announcer in July 2024.

, twelve seasons of Celebrity Family Feud have aired (1 on NBC, 11 on ABC).

Hosts and announcers

<gallery class="center">

File:Richard Dawson Family Feud 1976 (cropped).jpg|Richard Dawson hosted the show from its debut in 1976 until 1985, and again from 1994 to 1995.

File:Ray Combs.jpg|alt=This is a file from Wikimedia Commons and is free to use. Due to Combs death, which occurred shortly after the CBS edition of Family Feud ended, it is very difficult to obtain free use images of him.|Ray Combs was selected as host when the show was revived by CBS in 1988. Combs served as host until 1994.

File:Louie Anderson 2001.jpg|Louie Anderson was the host of the show's current syndicated edition from its premiere in 1999 until he was dismissed in 2002.

File:Richard Karn 2015.jpg|Richard Karn replaced Anderson as host in 2002 and continued to host the show until 2006.

File:John O'Hurley by Gage Skidmore.jpg|John O'Hurley replaced Karn as host in 2006 and hosted the show until 2010.

File:SteveHarveyHWOFMay2013 (cropped).jpg|Steve Harvey replaced O'Hurley as host in 2010 and has hosted the show ever since.

</gallery>

When Family Feud was conceived in 1976, Richard Dawson (then a regular panelist on the Goodson–Todman game show Match Game) had a standing agreement with Mark Goodson that when the next Goodson–Todman game show was in the planning stages, Dawson would be given an audition to host it. Dawson had read in trade publications that a pilot for a new show named Family Feud was in the works, and it was originally to be hosted by Star Trek actor William Shatner (although since they were involved in the run-throughs, Geoff Edwards and Jack Narz, the latter of whom reputedly was Goodson's initial choice to host, were under consideration). Incensed, Dawson sent his agent to Goodson to threaten to present an un-funny, silent, and bland persona on future Match Game episodes if he was not given an audition for Feud.

Dawson was then selected as host of the original ABC and first syndicated versions of Family Feud. As writer David Marc put it, Dawson's on-air personality "fell somewhere between the brainless sincerity of Wink Martindale and the raunchy cynicism of Chuck Barris". Writers Tim Brooks, Jon Ellowitz, and Earle F. Marsh attributed Family Feuds popularity to Dawson's "glib familiarity" (he had previously played Newkirk on Hogan's Heroes) and "ready wit" (from his tenure as a panelist on Match Game). with Johnny Gilbert and Rod Roddy serving as occasional substitutes.

In 1988, comedian Ray Combs took over Dawson's role as host on CBS and in syndication with Wood returning as announcer and Roddy and Art James serving in that role when Wood was not available.

When Family Feud returned to syndication in 1999, it was initially hosted by comedian Louie Anderson, In 2002, Richard Karn was selected to take over for Anderson, Steve Harvey was later named the new host and began hosting on July 10, 2010. Harvey has been hosting the show ever since. Announcements were made using a pre-recorded track of Joey Fatone's voice, which was used on the show until the end of the 2014–2015 season. Rubin Ervin, who has been a member of the production staff as the warmup man for the audience since Harvey took over, became the announcer at the start of the 2015–2016 season and has retained the role since. , Harvey is the longest serving host in the history of Family Feud, having hosted the show for fifteen seasons.

The first four versions of the show were directed by Paul Alter and produced by Howard Felsher and Cathy Dawson. For the 1988 versions, Gary Dawson worked with the show as a third producer, and Alter was joined by two other directors, Marc Breslow and Andy Felsher. The show's classic theme tune was written by an uncredited Walt Levinsky for Score Productions. The theme and cues for the 1994–1995 version was written by Edd Kalehoff and are based on the Walt Levinsky composition. The themes used from 1999 to 2008 were written by John Lewis Parker. Match Game aired on CBS, and by 1976, CBS vice-president Fred Silverman, who had originally commissioned Match Game, had moved to a new position as president of ABC. The show, along with a revised daytime schedule for the summer, was first announced by ABC at an annual meeting in May. The show premiered on ABC's daytime lineup at 1:30&nbsp;p.m. (ET)/12:30&nbsp;p.m. (CT/MT/PT) on July 12, 1976, replacing Rhyme and Reason, which moved to 1:30 pm after the slot that previously belonged to Let's Make a Deal for 11 years (seven years on ABC). Because it faced the first halves of two long-running and popular soap operas, CBS' As the World Turns and NBC's Days of Our Lives, Feud was not an immediate hit. Soon, the show surpassed its lead-out The $20,000 Pyramid to became ABC's highest-rated game show. But a timeslot change several months later made it a ratings winner for ABC, and it eventually surpassed Match Game to become the highest-rated game show on daytime TV.

Due to the expansion of All My Children to one hour in April 1977, the show was moved to 11:30/10:30&nbsp;a.m., as the second part of an hour that had daytime reruns of Happy Days (later Laverne & Shirley) as its lead-in. It remained the most popular daytime game show until Merv Griffin's game show Wheel of Fortune on NBC, propelled by a new, highly-popular concurrent syndicated evening version, surpassed it in 1984. and finally to five nights a week (Monday through Friday) in the fall of 1980, representing the first time that a weekday network game ran concurrently with a nightly syndicated edition. Dawson and Feud coasted for several years at the top, seen twice a day in much of the country.

However, the viewing habits of both daytime and syndicated audiences began changing around 1984. the syndicated premiere of Wheels sister show Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek as host also siphoned ratings from Feud with its early (and surprising, given an unstable first few months) success. With declining ratings (probably due mainly to its overexposure and viewers subsequently tiring of the show), and as part of a scheduling reshuffle with two of ABC's half-hour soaps, the show moved back to the 11:30/10:30 timeslot in October 1984, as the second part of a one-hour game show block with Trivia Trap (later All-Star Blitz) as its lead-in, hoping to make a dent in the ratings of The Price Is Right, coincidentally another Goodson-packaged show. Dawson also was growing increasingly exhausted with his workload. Having worked the equivalent of "eleven years" as host of Feud, as he told the Archive of American Television in 2010, Dawson did not want to continue in his role much longer.

At the halfway point of the 1984-85 television season, the fate of Feud still had yet to be determined. While ABC had yet to confirm its stance, it would eventually decide not to renew its contract with Goodson to air the daytime series once it expired in the spring of 1985. Viacom, meanwhile, was considering renewing the syndicated series and contacted Dawson to see what he wanted to do. Dawson told the syndicator that he would be willing to do one final season of thirty-nine weeks of episodes and then "be done with it" when the season concluded in 1986. Dawson then waited to hear back from Viacom, expecting a contract offer once they reconnected.

However, a decision by a core group of stations forced a change in course. When the syndicated Feud began in 1977, NBC was one of the first station ownership groups to buy the game show. Since then, its owned and operated stations all aired Feud in their Prime Time Access timeslots. With the recent downturn in ratings, though, NBC decided that it would drop the syndicated series from its stations at the end of the season if it was renewed. Instead of trying to find new affiliates in those markets, feeling that the ratings decline would only worsen, Viacom decided to cut their losses and shortly thereafter informed Dawson that they were not renewing Feud for another year; Viacom made this official at the 1985 NATPE convention in January.

The ABC series, which had already been cancelled, came to an end on June 14, 1985. The syndicated version aired its last new episode on May 17, 1985, with reruns of the final season continuing until September of that year. Although first-run episodes were no longer airing, Viacom offered a "best of" package of reruns to stations for the 1985-86 season; the package was withdrawn from syndication at the end of the season.

The decision to cancel the CBS daytime edition of Feud did not have an effect on production of the syndicated edition, but it too was having its share of ratings trouble. While initially receiving desirable time slots such as the Prime Access slots it had previously enjoyed in some markets, it began to lose ground as stations looked elsewhere for programming; for example, tabloid newsmagazines like A Current Affair, Inside Edition, Hard Copy and American Journal tended to draw better ratings, especially among younger demographics. The syndicated series found itself disappearing from some markets, while others saw the show relocated to much less desirable time slots such as overnight or early morning.

With ratings at all-time lows entering season six, which premiered in the fall of 1993, distributor All American Television told Mark Goodson Productions that if changes were not made to Feud, they would cease distributing the series at the end of the season in 1994. New company president Jonathan Goodson, who had taken over for his father Mark after his death from pancreatic cancer in 1992, began discussions with his producers to find a solution; switching hosts was one of the ideas, and bringing back Richard Dawson was frequently bandied about.

With Dawson now on board, All American Television chose to renew Feud for at least one more year, and the seventh season debuted on September 12, 1994. A newer, more modern-looking set was built, some adjustments were made to the gameplay, and the show was expanded to an hour with the return of the Family Feud Challenge format; All American allowed affiliates to choose between airing the entire sixty minute program or the second half of the hour as a standalone. Dawson's return garnered some interest early on, but the ratings slipped once again and Feud was finally cancelled at the end of the seventh season. The last first-run episode aired on May 26, 1995, with reruns continuing until September 8.

1999–present

right|thumb|[[John O'Hurley in 2023]]

thumb|right|Current host [[Steve Harvey in 2013]]

Family Feud returned in syndication on September 20, 1999, with comedian Louie Anderson as the next host. Three years later, Richard Karn took over the series, at which point the format was changed to reintroduce returning champions, allowing them to appear for up to five days. Roker would ultimately host the first season of Celebrity Family Feud on NBC, which aired in summer 2008.

Karn hosted the show for four years until he was replaced by John O'Hurley in 2006. By 2010, the show's Nielsen ratings were at 1.5, putting it in danger of cancellation once again (as countless affiliates that carried the show from 1999 to 2010 aired it in daytime, graveyard or other low-rated time slots). That same year, O'Hurley left the show after four years and was replaced by Steve Harvey, who has hosted the show ever since.

Since Harvey took over the show, ratings increased by as much as 40%, and within two years, the show was rated at 4.0, and had become the fifth-most-popular syndicated program. Fox News' Paulette Cohn argued that Harvey's "relatability," or "understanding of what the people at home want to know," was what saved the show from cancellation; Harvey debated, "If someone said an answer that was so ridiculous, I knew that the people at home behind the camera had to be going, 'What did they just say?' ... They gave this answer that doesn't have a shot in hell of being up there. The fact that I recognize that, that's comedic genius to me. I think that's [what made] the difference." In June 2015, Family Feud eclipsed Wheel of Fortune, which had been on top for over 30 years, as the most-watched syndicated game show on television, and consistently began ranking among the top three shows in all of syndication. The show has had improved syndication clearances and better timeslots. It has been airing in early fringe and prime access slots nationwide.

Production of Family Feud was shifted from Universal Orlando to Harvey's hometown of Atlanta in 2011, first staged at the Atlanta Civic Center from 2011 to 2015 and later at the Georgia World Congress Center from 2015 to 2017 and from 2020 to 2021. Harvey was also originating a syndicated radio show from Atlanta, and the state of Georgia provided tax credits for the production. In 2017, production moved to Los Angeles Center Studios (later moved again to Universal Studios Hollywood and later still to CBS Studio Center) in Los Angeles to accommodate Harvey's new syndicated talk show Steve, returning production of the regular series to Los Angeles for the first time since 2010.

In March 2020, after initially announcing that production would continue with no studio audience, Fremantle suspended production of all of its programs (including Family Feud) due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Family Feud returned to production, returning to the state of Georgia after several years in California and with health and safety protocols (including social distancing and no studio audience) being enforced.

From 2021 to 2024, the series was filmed at the Cathy Family-owned Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Georgia. In early 2024, production of Family Feud moved back to Atlanta, and was moved to Tyler Perry Studios on the site of the historic Fort McPherson, with its celebrity edition also being moved there from California in 2025. In 2026, production moved back to Trilith Studios, with its celebrity edition also being moved there.

In February 2023, Family Feud was renewed for three more seasons, taking the show through May 2026.

Reruns

Game Show Network has aired reruns of all the versions of Family Feud since inception. Currently, it airs blocks of reruns from the Steve Harvey run of the program. Reruns of episodes hosted by Dawson, Combs, Anderson, and Karn have been included among Buzzr's acquisitions since its launch on June 1, 2015. Dawson's and Combs's episodes also air as part of Family Feud Classic, a free ad-supported streaming television channel offered through Pluto TV. In 2019, reruns of the Karn-hosted episodes started airing on Up TV during the morning hours.

Reception

Family Feud won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show in 1977 and 2019, Outstanding Directing for a Game Show and the show has won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host, once with Dawson in 1978 and three times with Harvey in 2014, 2017 and 2022. It was the first of the 1970s game formats that Goodson and Todman had brought to television that had received substantial critical success, as earlier efforts had been ridiculed for their lowbrow appeal despite their broad popularity. and also on TV Guides 2013 list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, founders of the website Television Without Pity, wrote that they hated the 1999 syndicated version, saying "Give us classic Feud every time", citing both Dawson and Combs as hosts. Additionally, they called Anderson an "alleged sexual harasser and full-time sphere".

In more recent seasons, the show has become notorious for pushing the envelope with questions and responses that are sexual in nature, with content frequently referring to certain anatomy or acts of intercourse. This type of material has drawn criticism from viewers, including former NCIS actress Pauley Perrette, who in 2018 sent a series of tweets to Family Feud producers questioning why the show had to be "so filthy." Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center, a politically conservative content analysis organization, suggested that the responses are in line with sexual content becoming more commonplace on television. while Imagination Entertainment released the program in a DVD game format.

The game has been released in other formats by multiple companies; Coleco Adam released the first computer version of the show in 1983, and Sharedata followed in 1987 with versions for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Apple II computers. GameTek released versions for Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Genesis, 3DO, and IBM PC compatibles (on CD-ROM) between 1990 and 1995. Hasbro Interactive released a version in 2000 for the PC and PlayStation. In 2006, versions were released for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and Microsoft Windows. Seattle-based Mobliss Inc. also released a mobile version of Family Feud that was available on Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular. Glu Mobile later released a newer mobile version of Family Feud for other carriers.

In conjunction with Ludia, Ubisoft has published Family Feud video games for multiple platforms. The first of these was entitled Family Feud: 2010 Edition and was released for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC in September 2009. Ubisoft then released Family Feud Decades the next year, which featured sets and survey questions from television versions of all four decades the show has been on air. A third game, entitled Family Feud: 2012 Edition was released for the Wii and Xbox 360 in 2011. A fourth game, produced by Ubisoft and developed by Snap Finger Click, was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Stadia in 2020.

In addition to the home games, a DVD set titled All-Star Family Feud starring Richard Dawson was released on January 8, 2008, by BCI Eclipse LLC Home Entertainment (under license from Fremantle USA) and featured a total of 43 segments taken from 21 special celebrity episodes from the original ABC/syndicated versions on its four discs, uncut and remastered from original 2" videotapes for optimal video presentation and sound quality. It was reissued as The Best of All-Star Family Feud on February 2, 2010.

International versions

Family Feud Africa

Family Feud Africa, also hosted by Steve Harvey, began production after season 21 of the American version completed production in December 2019. It began airing on April 5, 2020. The countries included in this version are Ghana and South Africa. In conjunction, a website was launched dedicated to the region to catch up on previous episodes, submit entries and engage from a local perspective. Similar to the pre-1992 United States rules, families win money based on their main game score. Both families earn R50 per point with the higher scoring family playing Fast Money. The first and second rounds are single, the third and fourth rounds are double, and the fifth round is triple. For Fast Money, families play for R75,000, with a loss earning the family R150 per point.

Another spin-off show, titled Family Feud Botswana, hosted by Steve Harvey, began airing on February 9, 2025. The rules are identical to Family Feud Africa, where every point is worth P50, though the family that reaches 200 points in Fast Money would win P50,000.

See also

  • All Star Family Feud
  • Family Fortunes
  • Google Feud
  • Pointless
  • Dirty Rotten Cheater

Notes

References

Works cited

/

  • Current Production website