88 Fun Facts About Family Feud

Steve Harvey famously announced the wrong winner live on air while hosting which 2015 pageant?

Miss Universe 2015 ended with Harvey crowning Miss Colombia, then coming back on stage to say he had made a mistake and that Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, was the real winner.

Family Feud premiered in July 1976 as part of which network's daytime lineup?

ABC launched it on July 12, 1976, and within a year it was the top-rated game show in daytime television, strong enough to earn a second, syndicated evening edition.

Which word opens the classic Family Feud survey prompt, as in '___ something you take to the beach'?

Name: prompts such as 'Name something you expect to see on the streets at Christmas' are left wide open because players must guess what most people said, not what is correct.

How many people are surveyed to create the answers on Family Feud?

100 people answer every survey, which is why hosts open a round with 'We asked 100 people'; now and then the hundred are a chosen group, such as 100 men or 100 kids.

On 1970s Family Feud, what happened to a family that won $25,000?

It retired as champion: network rules of the day capped what one family could win, so a winning run ended at the limit rather than with a defeat.

How many strikes does a family get before control passes to the other family?

3 strikes end a family's turn and hand the other side one chance to steal; a strike is charged for an answer the survey did not give, or for no answer at all.

Family Feud's 1999–2002 host won a 2016 Emmy playing a matriarch on which FX comedy?

Baskets gave the comedian the part of Christine Baskets, which he said he based on his own mother, trying to be the woman rather than a man playing one.

Original host Richard Dawson became famous for routinely doing what to Family Feud's female contestants?

Kissing them began, he said, as a kiss for luck to steady a nervous contestant; when critics objected he asked viewers to vote by mail, and they overwhelmingly told him to carry on.

In Family Feud's Fast Money, what does the host say when the second player repeats the first player's answer?

Try again forces a fresh answer, and it is why the second player waits out of earshot during the first turn: they cannot know which answers are already taken.

On Family Feud, what combined Fast Money score must two teammates reach to win the grand prize?

200 points is the target: both players answer the same five questions in turn and only the combined total counts, so a weak first turn can still be rescued by the second.

Which comedian hosted the 1988 revival of Family Feud on CBS and in syndication until 1994?

Ray Combs fronted both editions; CBS dropped its daytime show in 1993, and a year later the syndicated one replaced him with the man he had succeeded, Richard Dawson.

Grant Denyer, a Gold Logie winner in 2018, hosted which country's revival of Family Feud from 2014?

Australia: Network Ten revived the show in 2014 with Denyer, who won the Gold Logie, the country's top TV popularity award, in 2018, the very year the daily series ended.

What happens when the opposing family successfully 'steals' on Family Feud?

They take the round's points: one right answer steals everything the other family had banked, while a miss leaves the whole bank with the family that struck out.

In a Family Feud Face-Off, what decides control when the first buzz misses the top answer?

The higher-ranked survey answer wins control; if neither reply is on the board at all, the question moves along both families until somebody finds one.

How many family members typically make up each team on Family Feud?

5 relatives make up a team, led by a captain at the head of the line; the one exception was the 1994-95 season, when teams were cut to four.

What comedian and actor hosted Family Feud from 1999 to 2002?

Louie Anderson fronted the 1999 revival and wanted Richard Dawson on his first episode as a salute, but Dawson's manager turned the invitation down without even asking his client.

Which two-word phrase does the host use to cue a reveal on the Family Feud board?

Survey says is the host's cue for the board to flip an answer or sound the buzzer, and it is familiar enough that entertainment reporters open stories about the show with it.

In Family Feud's Fast Money, what may a stumped player do?

Pass and return: the clock allows 20 seconds for five questions, 25 for the second player, so a skipped question is heard again only if time is left.

From 1983 to 1985, a Family Feud family could win $100 by pulling what off a small plastic tree?

A Tootsie Roll Pop: the last player in line drew one from the tree on their turn, and a black mark on the bottom of the stick meant $100, whatever happened in the game.

On Celebrity Family Feud, what is the prize money typically donated to?

A charity each team chooses gets the money: winning Fast Money is worth $25,000 to it, and a team that falls short in the round still sends it $10,000.

Which Home Improvement star hosted Family Feud from 2002 to 2006?

Richard Karn, Al Borland to Tim Allen's Tim Taylor, took over in 2002, and his arrival brought back returning champions, who could now stay for up to five days.

Which Seinfeld actor hosted Family Feud from 2006 to 2010, right before Steve Harvey?

John O'Hurley, Seinfeld's J. Peterman, hosted four seasons and later said he left partly because the show was turning to ribald humour and he wanted it kept family-friendly.

On Family Feud, what flashes on screen when a family's answer is not on the board?

A red X flashes with a loud buzzer for every miss, and silence earns one too: a player who cannot come up with an answer in time is charged a strike just the same.

Since 2010, what has been the standard Fast Money grand prize on Family Feud?

$20,000 has been the standard prize since Steve Harvey arrived in 2010, when the show dropped a one-season experiment that let families build a bigger jackpot before the game.

When the Hatfields and McCoys met on Family Feud in 1979, which animal was kept on stage?

A pig shared the stage with the two families all week; their real feud had been inflamed a century earlier by a court case over who owned some hogs.

Who was Family Feud's announcer for its first two runs, from 1976 to 1995?

Gene Wood announced both runs after starting out as a stand-up comic, for a time in a double act with Bill Dana, and briefly hosting a game show himself, Beat the Clock.

Which production company, also behind American Idol and America's Got Talent, owns the Family Feud format?

Fremantle inherited the format when its forerunner, Pearson Television, bought the American company holding the show's library in 1997; the group was rebranded in 2001.

Before Family Feud, Richard Dawson played Corporal Peter Newkirk on which classic sitcom?

Hogan's Heroes, the POW-camp comedy, made him a familiar face as its Cockney corporal; Dawson liked to joke that the show ran six years, longer than the war itself.

As a Family Feud game moves from round to round, what happens to the number of answers hidden on the board?

It goes down: each new survey hides fewer answers while the stakes rise, so a family in control has less room for error before it strikes out.

What determines the point value of each answer on the Family Feud board?

How many survey respondents gave it sets the score, one point per person, and an answer needs at least two people behind it to appear at all, so a board rarely adds up to the full survey.

What happens to Family Feud point values in the later rounds of a game?

Points are doubled then tripled as the game goes on, so a family that trails after the early boards can still overtake with a single late round.

On Family Feud, what happens if both Face-Off answers are worth the same number of points?

Whoever answered first wins control when the two answers tie on the survey, so buzzing in a split second sooner can hand a family the board.

On Family Feud, what happens when a family chooses to 'pass' after winning the Face-Off?

The opponents play the board when a family passes; the 1988-95 series was the only one without the play-or-pass choice, so the Face-Off winner always played.

Since 2003, what happens on Family Feud if neither family reaches 300 points after four rounds?

A sudden-death face-off settles it: one more question is asked at triple value, and the first player to buzz in with its most popular answer wins the game.

Before Family Feud, Steve Harvey starred with Bernie Mac and Cedric the Entertainer in which hit concert film?

The Original Kings of Comedy began as a touring show, and its success led Spike Lee to film the comics on stage for release in 2000.

Why did Family Feud bring Richard Dawson back as host in 1994?

Sinking ratings: with stations dropping the show, the producers swapped its host for the man he had succeeded; the lift was brief, and the series ended the next spring.

Which reality-TV family played in the opening episode of Celebrity Family Feud's 2018 summer season?

The Kardashians opened the season on June 10, 2018, against the family of Kim's then-husband, Kanye West, a game that set in-laws against each other for charity.

Where did Family Feud's 2002–2006 host, ticketed for rolling through a stop sign, meet the agent behind his sitcom break?

Traffic school: a classmate there, an agent, told him a new sitcom was casting; he was asked to fill in on its pilot for an actor who had left to make a film, and he stayed.

Which of these toy companies has released a traditional Family Feud board game?

Milton Bradley published the classic Family Feud board game in numbered editions from 1977 onward; later home versions came from Pressman and Endless Games.

The first Celebrity Family Feud aired for a single summer in 2008 on which network?

NBC ran it for one summer, the only time any Feud has aired on that network alone; when the celebrity edition came back in 2015, it was on a rival.

In Family Feud's 1990s Bullseye round, what added money to a family's Fast Money bank?

The number-one answer was all that counted: relatives faced off for one top answer at a time before the game began, and a perfect round quadrupled the jackpot the family later played for.

Steve Harvey co-created and fronted which 2016 series, with Ellen DeGeneres producing?

Little Big Shots, his showcase for talented children, ran three seasons with Harvey before the network handed the fourth to Melissa McCarthy in 2020.

Family Feud's 2006–2010 host finished second on the first season of which reality competition in 2005?

Dancing with the Stars' first season, in summer 2005, ended with the future Family Feud host as runner-up to Kelly Monaco, a result so disputed that a rematch was staged, which he won.

The browser game Google Feud borrows Family Feud's format but takes its answers from what?

Autocomplete suggestions are its survey: players guess how Google finishes a half-typed search. A Bob's Burgers writer built the game in 2013, and it won a Webby three years later.

Richard Dawson was a star panelist on which series before it spun off Family Feud?

Match Game's bonus round had contestants guess a studio audience's most popular answers, the idea Family Feud was built on, and the spin-off went on to beat its parent in the ratings.

In June 2015, Family Feud overtook which show as TV's most-watched syndicated game show?

Family Feud edged past Wheel of Fortune in June 2015 to become syndication's most-watched game show, after a ratings surge that followed the 2010 host change.

What is the UK adaptation of Family Feud called?

Family Fortunes began on ITV in 1980, and its computerised 'uh-uhh' wrong-answer noise became so familiar that people called it out at one host in the street.

Which NSYNC member was Family Feud's announcer from 2010 to 2015?

Joey Fatone said the producers came up with the 'crazy idea' of having a celebrity read the announcements; he had done voice-over work, thought 'what the heck?' and stayed five seasons.

At the height of his Family Feud fame, Richard Dawson was a frequent guest host of which late-night show?

The Tonight Show used him so often that when Johnny Carson weighed leaving around 1980, Dawson was considered as his replacement; Carson stayed, and kept the desk until 1992.

Richard Dawson played game-show villain Damon Killian in which 1987 film?

The Running Man let him send up his own image as the smiling host of a deadly game show, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the role won him a Saturn Award.

Who hosted the first Celebrity Family Feud when it launched as a summer series in 2008?

Al Roker, a morning-show weatherman rather than the syndicated show's own host, fronted the six-episode run, and the celebrity edition then lay dormant until 2015.

Family Feud's 1988 CBS revival premiered on which summer holiday?

July Fourth, 1988, brought the show back after three years off the air with a new host, and a nightly syndicated edition joined the daytime one that September.

In which US state was Steve Harvey, Family Feud's host from 2010, born?

West Virginia: Harvey was born in the coal town of Welch, where his father was a miner, but grew up in Cleveland, on a street the city renamed Steve Harvey Way in 2015.

What is the title of Steve Harvey's 2009 bestselling book?

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man became a New York Times best-seller and inspired the 2012 film Think Like a Man, in which Harvey appears as himself, and its 2014 sequel.

Family Feud's 1999–2002 host played burger-joint worker Maurice in which Eddie Murphy comedy?

Coming to America had room for him because the studio wanted one white actor in the cast, and Murphy picked the stand-up he knew and liked from a shortlist of three.

For 15 years from 2009, what did a Family Feud family win for five straight victories?

A new car was the five-day champions' reward from 2009 until 2024, when the show swapped it first for a $30,000 bonus and then for a holiday plus $10,000.

Which channel, launched in June 2015, began rerunning Family Feud's first four hosts?

Buzzr was built by the show's own producers as a home for their library of old game shows, and it launched with decades of pre-2010 Family Feud episodes on its schedule.

Family Feud's 2006–2010 host has presented which Thanksgiving Day television tradition since 2002?

The National Dog Show became a holiday fixture after a network, inspired by the film Best in Show, slotted it in behind the parade; he has co-hosted every broadcast since the first.

Before Family Feud, Steve Harvey spent the 1990s hosting which long-running variety showcase?

Showtime at the Apollo, taped at Harlem's Apollo Theater, was his breakthrough in the 1990s, and he returned to host its 2018 revival while still fronting Family Feud.

Which late-night show was pre-empted for several nights in September 2025 by Celebrity Family Feud reruns?

Jimmy Kimmel Live was suspended over its host's on-air remarks, and the network filled its 11:35 pm slot with celebrity-edition reruns until the show came back on September 23.

Richard Dawson once and Steve Harvey three times won which award for hosting Family Feud?

Daytime Emmy honours for game-show host went to Dawson once and to Harvey in 2014, 2017 and 2022; Harvey's last win closed the category, which then moved to the Primetime Emmys.

Since 2020, Steve Harvey has also hosted editions of Family Feud made for which continent?

Africa: Harvey tapes in South Africa, where separate editions are made for South African and Ghanaian families, and a Botswana version followed in 2025.

From 1999 to 2003, what ended a turn in Family Feud's tripled final round?

One strike ended a family's turn in that round, and since the leader after four rounds simply won, a single wrong answer on the last board could hand over the whole game.

Which British film star of the 1950s was Richard Dawson's first wife?

Diana Dors married him in New York in 1959, when he was still a British club comic; after their divorce he won custody of their sons, Mark and Gary, and raised them in California.

Richard Dawson met Gretchen Johnson, his second wife from 1991, when she was what?

A contestant on the show in 1981: Dawson said he sensed something between them at once and asked afterwards if he could call her, and they married ten years later.

As a teenager, future Family Feud host Richard Dawson joined what?

Merchant navy service came first; back on shore he tried stand-up in London clubs, billing himself as Dickie Dawson years before America knew him as Richard.

Richard Dawson played himself in 1983 when which sitcom's family went on Family Feud?

Mama's Family star Vicki Lawrence later named it a favourite episode: viewers know the game's format so well, she said, that watching her quarrelsome clan stuck inside it was the fun.

In the early 1970s, future Family Feud host Richard Dawson joined the cast of which sketch-comedy hit?

Laugh-In took him on as soon as his long-running sitcom ended, along with one of his co-stars from it, and he stayed until the series finished in 1973.

Which game-show producer created Family Feud?

Mark Goodson pitched an early version, Fast Company, as celebrities against civilians and no network bought it; it sold once he made it two families answering surveys.

Which company distributed the nighttime syndicated Family Feud that launched in 1977?

Viacom sold the evening edition to local stations for the whole of the original run, so for years the game aired twice a day and led both daytime and syndication.

In 1992 CBS's hour-long Family Feud made new families play off to meet the champions under which title?

Family Feud Challenge filled an hour from June 1992 and brought in the Bullseye round, a string of opening face-offs in which families built their own Fast Money jackpot.

In 1994 Family Feud renamed Bullseye, the round where families built their Fast Money stake, as what?

Bankroll was the 1994 label for the round; it was cut from five questions to three, and one player from each family now answered them all.

From 1978 to 1984, Family Feud's primetime specials replaced ordinary families with teams made up of what?

Casts of TV series, mostly the network's own, played for charity in hour-long All-Star Specials, the forerunner of today's Celebrity Family Feud.

From 1976 until 1992, how much cash did each point scored in Family Feud's main game earn a family?

$1 a point: scores were kept in dollars, so a 300-point win banked $300 before the bonus round; the 1992 revamp switched to plain points and moved the cash into Fast Money.

Which childhood obstacle did Steve Harvey overcome on his way to a career built on talking?

A severe stutter marked his boyhood in Cleveland, yet he said from an early age that he would be on television, a dream his official biography still opens with.

Family Feud's theme began as a prize cue on which show?

The Price Is Right had it first: composer Walt Levinsky wrote the country-style piece for that show's library of prize cues, and it was reused to open Family Feud in 1976.

Family Feud's casting rules require teammates to be related by blood, marriage or what?

Legal adoption completes the official list, so in-laws and adopted relatives qualify, while friends and neighbours cannot fill out a team.

After Family Feud's creator died in 1992, who took over his production company?

His son Jonathan, already a producer of the company's shows, took charge, and within two years he made the call to bring Family Feud's first host back.

Before turning to comedy, Family Feud's 1988–1994 host spent two years in Arizona doing what?

Serving as a Mormon missionary came first; when he landed the show, a church newspaper hailed him as television's first Latter-day Saint game-show host.

Before his big break, Steve Harvey was homeless for a time in the late 1980s and lived where?

In his car: he lived out of it while driving from one comedy club to the next, until a national comedy competition in 1990 led to his first television break.

Family Feud's 1988–1994 host appeared as guest ring announcer at which 1992 WWF event?

WrestleMania VIII in Indianapolis handed him the microphone for an eight-man tag match, and he spent the introduction insulting the villains' team, to the crowd's delight.

Family Feud's 2002–2006 host appeared in which band's 2002 video set on a fictional edition of the show?

The Strokes' 'Someday' video has the band face fellow rockers Guided by Voices across the Feud podiums, with the show's brand-new host playing himself.

In 2017 Family Feud moved its tapings to Los Angeles to accommodate what?

The host's new talk show Steve was made in Los Angeles, so the game followed him west; the talk show was dropped in 2019 for Kelly Clarkson's, and Family Feud moved back east the next year.

Since 2011, Family Feud has mostly been taped in or near which city?

Atlanta drew the show in 2011 partly because its host already broadcast his radio programme from the city, and apart from three years in Los Angeles it has stayed in Georgia.

Steve Harvey's first Family Feud season, in 2010–11, was taped at a theme-park studio in which city?

Orlando's Universal Studios housed the show for a single season, a move its previous host later said was one reason he left.

What does Family Feud call the past favourites invited back for its 50th-anniversary season in 2026?

Legacy families are fan favourites from earlier seasons who return to play again; the same season raises the Fast Money prize to $50,000 for ten special episodes.

Which former NCIS actress tweeted Family Feud in 2018 asking why the show was 'so filthy'?

Pauley Perrette wrote that she loved the host and loved game shows but could not see why the questions had turned to sex, 'even with child players'.

What nickname did the first host of the UK's Family Feud give its giant electronic answer board?

Mr Babbage honoured Charles Babbage, the Victorian who conceived the programmable computer; host Bob Monkhouse coined it, and the board was still called that under his successors.