Family Feud (1999-)

Hosts

Louie Anderson 1999-2002 Richard Karn 2002-2006 John O'Hurley 2006-2010 Steve Harvey 2010-2020

Announcers

Burton Richardson 1999-2010 & 2015-present Joey Fatone 2010-2015 Rubin Ervin 2015-2020

Broadcast

Syndicated: 9/20/1999-present

Packagers

Mark Goodson Productions (1999-2002) Pearson Television (1999-2002) Fremantlemedia North America (2002-2018) Fremantle (2018-present)

Distributors

Pearson Television (1999-2002) Tribune Entertainment (2002-2007) 20th Television (2007-present) Debmar-Mercury (2007-present)

This is chronicling the current version of Feud.

Game format

Main Game

Face-Off

At the beginning of each round, two members of each family come up to the main podium and play a mini-round for control of the question called "Face-Off". The host announced how many answers are on the board (which are always in order based on popularity), and then read a survey question and the first player to buzz-in gets to answer. The player to give the number one answer or have his/her answer be higher than the other player's answer won control. In case of a tie (both answers with the same number of people who gave it) the player who answered first won control. If neither player gave an answer on the board, the players at the main podiums get a chance to answer for control.

For time reasons, during Louie Anderson's & (some of) Steve Harvey's tenure, if neither player's answer was on the board the question was thrown out, and a new one was played.

The player that won the Face-Off has a decision to either let his/her family play the question or pass the question to their opponents.

Main Question

The family that won the face-off earns control of the question. The controlling family's job is to reveal the remaining answers hidden on the board with each correct answer adding points to the bank above the board. The answer's value is determined by how many people who gave it. Each player on the controlling team in turn gave an answer and if the answer he/she gave is correct, it is flipped over and revealed. Revealing all the answers on the board won the round (this is classified as a "Clean Sweep"). Giving a wrong answer at any time earned a strike; getting three strikes (one in the final round from 1999-2003) caused the team to lose control of the question, giving the opposing family a chance to steal by giving one correct answer. A successful steal won the round, but an unsuccessful steal gave the round to the first family. The winners of the round took all the points in the bank plus (from 1999-2003) the value of the correct answer given by the stealing family.

Question Values

The first few questions had its values be worth the number showing. Later on in the game, the values of all the questions would be doubled (the double value round wasn't available from 1999 to 2003); and still later, the last question of the game would be tripled.

Winning

The first family to reach a set number of points won the game. For most of this version, the goal is 300 points. From 1999 to 2003 there was no goal; the team with the most points won the game, even though most families in this period reached the goal of 300 points. In addition, there was only one strike for the team in the triple round (round 4). This created a scenario in which a team could give an incorrect answer and still win if there were not enough points in the bank for the other team to win by a successful steal. Other times when an opposing family already had more points than the bank, if a controlling family gave an incorrect answer, the game would automatically end.

Bullseye Round & Sudden Death Question

From September 7, 2009 to May 28, 2010 (during O'Hurley's final season), Family Feud instituted a new Bullseye round. This was the round that affected the grand prize for either family if and when they make it to Fast Money. In this round, both families started with a bankroll of $15,000. Five questions were asked to each pair of family members in a Face-Off fashion, and only number one answers counted. The first player to buzz-in with the number one answer added money to their own Fast Money bank.

Scoring

Here how they scored for each question:

Questions	Values
Question 1	$1,000
Question 2	$2,000
Question 3	$3,000
Question 4	$4,000
Question 5	$5,000

Starting in 2003, a new Sudden Death tiebreaker was added. Each time neither family reached 300 points after four questions, the fifth and final question was played as Sudden Death. It is played the same as the Bullseye/Bankroll questions. The final two players played one final Face-off and the first player to buzz-in with the number one answer earned triple value and won the game. When the Bullseye round was re-instituted, the Sudden Death question was played after three questions meaning that fourth players played this question.

Additional Notes

• For O'Hurley's Bullseye era, the number of questions along with its amounts (with the exception of the starting amounts) are very reminiscent to that of the Combs version in the second half of the CBS Family Feud Challenge and in syndication from 1992 until 1994 when it was once known as The New Family Feud.
• Also nobody has won let alone reached the total amount of $30,000 during this season.

Brand New Car Giveaway

Starting in the 2009 season (during O'Hurley's final season), families have an opportunity to win a brand new car if a family manages to stay on for five shows as retiring undefeated champions. Currently, the gimmick is still carried over during Harvey's tenure (with the elimination of the Bullseye round) as host since 2010. 

NOTE: This does not affect The Fast Money round whether a family wins or loses on their fifth and final show.

Fast Money

The winning family went on to play Fast Money for a grand cash prize. The winning family chose which two players will play the game. The first family member stood at center stage while the second family member went off stage to a soundproof area. The first player has 20 seconds to answer five Family Feud questions. He/she has to give the most popular answer to each question. When he/she was done, the answers were reveled on a different board followed by the number of people who gave them. After all the answers were revealed and scored, the second player came out and took his/her turn. The second player had 25 seconds to answer the same five questions but with one exception: he/she cannot repeat any of the answers previously given by the first player or a double buzzer will sound, at which point the host says, "Try again." The contestant must give a different answer (the second player will also be charged for similar answers or an answer which fits into the same category as the first player's answer). When the second player was done, his/her answers were revealed and scored. The family wins $5 for each point made in the round, but if the two playing players reached 200 points or more, the family wins the grand cash prize.

Grand Cash Prizes

The grand cash prizes were different depending on the series:

• 1999-2001 - $10,000 (NOTE: This amount was also played in the Dawson ('76) & Combs Syndicated versions)
• 2001-2009, 2010-present - $20,000 (NOTE: started in Anderson's 3rd season, came back in Harvey's 1st season)
• 2009-2010 - Up to $30,000 (NOTE: This was played during O'Hurley's "Bullseye" era)
• 2016 - $50,000 (NOTE: This was played during Harvey's 1,000th episode)

Personnel

• Host: Louie Anderson (1999-2002); Richard Karn (2002-2006); John O'Hurley (2006-2010); Steve Harvey (2010-2020); Kaley Cuoco (2020-present)
• Announcer: Burton Richardson (1999-2010); Joey Fatone (2010-2015); Rubin Ervin (2015-2020) Jim Thornton (2020-present)
• Executive Producers: Michael Canter, Gabrielle Johnston
• Music: Score Productions; John Lewis Parker

Trivia

• With the exception of Ricki Lake, this version went through five different hosts.
• With the exception of Rich Fields, this version also went through three different announcers.
• This was the second and final G-T game show that both John O'Hurley and Burton Richardson worked together on as both Host and Announcer respectively from 2006 until 2010. Their first G-T game show they worked together on was the short-lived Syndicated reboot of To Tell the Truth from 2000 to 2002. Burton was the first announcer in 1999 with Louie Anderson hosting for three years until 2002 and current ABC version of Celebrity Family Feud with Steve Harvey since Summer 2015.
• Despite the different years between them (i.e. 2002-06 & 2006-10 respectively) both Richard Karn and John O'Hurley are the only two host out of the four from this version respectively to share the same four-year only hosting tenure among them.
• the 2002-05 Karn era set was used in the 2002 FOX special called TV's Funniest Game Shows hosted by Richard Karn and for the unsold 2003 game show pilot called I'm with Stupid hosted by British personality Graham Norton.
• The "*WOOSH!" sound effect for when an answer was revealed on the board in the main round was recycled from the short-lived syndicated revival of Card Sharks from 2001 until 2002, When a button was pushed to reveal the next card in sequence. the sound was originally used in the 2008 version and has been carried over since then.
• Steve Harvey is the only host with the longest period in history as well as 2010's decade. Steve hosted the show for the first five years, but after ABC requested for the primetime revival of Celebrity Family Feud, he then extended his hosting tenure until 2020. It was revealed that Harvey is probably the best TV entertainer in America.
• Al Roker was the first to host Celebrity Family Feud on NBC in Summer 2008, but Steve Harvey from syndicated version, is also the current host of ABC revival since 2015.

Links

Official site
Family Feud's Facebook Page
Family Feud's Twitter Page
Family Feud's YouTube Profile
Family Feud ('99) at persontv.com (via Internet Archive)
1999-02 Anderson era site (via Internet Archive)
2002-06 Karn era site (via Internet Archive)
2006-10 O'Hurley era sub-site (via Internet Archive)
2006-10 O'Hurley era site (via Internet Archive)