'Tis the holiday season, which means we likely won't have any major news coming up in the next couple of weeks - though we're looking forward to catching Million Dollar Money Drop next week! Since we've been having some good discussions lately, I thought it might be fun to dissect some current shows and see where you all think improvements could be made. This is just for fun, of course.Let's start with Family Feud. The current model of the show is doing well. Very well, in fact. Ratings are up almost every week, and new host Steve Harvey is getting mixed reviews. Most people seem to enjoy him, but there are still a few people who dearly miss John O'Hurley.
Hosting aside, the format itself hasn't undergone any huge changes. There have been small enhancements over the years, like giving families the chance to win a new car, the Bullseye Round, etc. But if you hadn't seen the show since the Dawson days, you'd still recognize it today and likely be able to jump right in and play along.
If you make changes to the game, where would you start? Would you give it a complete overhaul, make a few minor changes, or do you think it's perfect the way it is? Personally I think the current format works well and there's not much I'd change. I would absolutely bring back the live announcer, however, and there's no one better suited for that job on this show than Burton Richardson. I do miss him.
Comments are open, and I'm looking forward to this discussion! Every few days we'll take a look at a different show and offer up suggestions and ideas.
Photo courtesy Debmar-Mercury
Comments
Gameplay wise, instead of throwing out the question whenever both players at the podium miss, go back to the way it was during the Dawson/Combs era by going to the next 2 family members until someone scores.
$25,000 for winning Fast Money, and $10/point for not getting 200.
If they do a tournament of champions, winning family gets FIVE NEW CARS (And by new cars, I mean something like a Fiesta, nothing too expensive) and the jackpot…go ALL OUT!
Set wise, only a few minor things…
Have the lights around the ovals behind the families flash instead of staying steady on.
Have the lights on the board “point” to the side that wins/steals the bank after a question, they did when John hosted and stopped when Steve took over.
During Fast Money, the monitor that normally shows the bank total should show the point total of the round, and also how much money the family wins if they don’t get 200.
Have the buzzer sound after the last answer in Fast Money if they don’t score 200, a la Dawson/Combs.
Feud is better than it has EVER been, Steve is the best host of this run…John is a close second, he did well also but looked bored his last season. Don’t even get me started on Richard and ESPECIALLY Louie! I think Feud still has many seasons left in its run, it is far from being a tired show.
I’ll just make the change I’m sure someone’s going to mention, and that’s simply to either ditch the ‘88 music in favor of the ‘94 music, or use different cues for faceoffs and wins. Other than that, there’s nothing really worth changing at all. I’m extremely pleased with Harvey as host, wish him many more years.
TJ’s got it. Took everything I would have said.
And that comment was from me, lmao. I apparently went TJ crazy.
Most of what I would want changed in a perfect world have to do with how cramped the show is now with the increase in commercials over the decades, which really can’t be done. The show is just about as good as I could expect it to be as it is. I really wouldn’t want the top prize to be $25,000 just because that mates the highest possible winning $125k which is a bit uneven, but I agree about the $10/point change.
Chris P said it already but I’d like to emphasis it on the unlikely chance someone with power will see it. If I’m not mistaken in the final round if you don’t get 200 points you get 5 dollars a point and this has been the case since the Family Feud Premiered back in the 70s (or is it 60s, sorry). It really should be 10 dollars a point or even 15 dollars a point.
What ever happened to the bullseye round I thought that I saw it was in every episode during O’Hurley’s last season. But when I tuned into Harvey it wasn’t there. I liked how it allowed the jackpot to possibly rise to 30k
$10/point… that’s all I can think of.
I’m betting one big motivation for ending the bullseye round is that it rarely reached $20,000 and it doesn’t really suit Steve’s style either.
I agree with this: “If they do a tournament of champions, winning family gets FIVE NEW CARS (And by new cars, I mean something like a Fiesta, nothing too expensive) and the jackpot…go ALL OUT!” – but we don’t get to see this kind of tournament very often on Feud.
Some great suggestions here. I think a new music update is way overdue as well.
BMSprint makes a good point about the Bullseye round not being Harvey’s style. That never occurred to me, but it’s very true!
Sorry I’m late to the party, but the cars have been a pain!
I’ve never really been a fan of the show for many parts of the game play, so I guess I can’t say too much about tweaking it, but…I will anyway.
I’ve never liked how the last round was about the only round that matters, makes the rest of the game unimportant. While the end game is good, I’ve never liked how only two of five team members played. So if there was a good way to change those factors, it would be better.
I’ve never been one to complain about music, but I would think as long as the cues pay just enough homage to what came before, it should be good enough–just glad they got rid of the universal 90s game show thump, thump, thump music. Interesting how I’ve never seen anyone complain about Jeopardy changing their music almost every year.
$20K is a strange number for winning, $25K does seem better, not too many make it 5 days let alone sweep the bonus, so that final of $125K really wouldn’t be so bad, plus don’t they still have about $300/day in front game winnings or is that now really points, not to mention the car would really up the tally to a strange uneven amount. The $5 a point really needs to be more, even back then the show seemed a bit cheap because of it. I’m thinking $25/point, with $25K for 200–how’s that for “even numbers”?
part II:
I’d also like to see a return to the frozen family intro as there was in the past–always liked the strange poses.
For anyone that cares as to why I was never a big fan, well besides the scoring system, the family that wins the showdown will almost always win the round; and whatever team wins the first triple wins the game so a family could win three rounds and lose the game because they didn’t win the fourth round. That’s my perception, but if anyone has stats to say otherwise (on both parts), I’d like to see them. Also, like Greed, after the top three of something, it truly becomes a wild guessing game. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad television–I think this is great television. Wonderful play along at home factor; and I even found a new way to play along just today–have the show on mute and guess the questions! Makes it more like Pyramid…but different, strangely different.
Steve Harvey is still the surprise of the year, he’s doing a great job and the writing is there to allow what is happening to happen, all leading to great moments and better ratings–if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, things are good for this show right now.
I agree with the $10/point change. Heck, in this day and age, why not make it $20/point? A losing score of 199 still gets the family $3,980, which isn’t even 25% of $20K.
Like Carrie said, I’d also welcome back a live announcer. Something doesn’t seem right when the intro sounds EXACTLY the same–down to pitch, cadence, and pattern–every single day.
I’d pull from the old Mexican version a bit and give the winning family a bonus for getting all five #1 answers in Fast Money. Hiding a bonus under one of the answers (like Bert’s Family Feud did) wouldn’t be a bad idea either…
Now instead of coming in here with a bunch of pointless stuff ending with exclamation points, this is where it would be nice if FF would come in and join us–maybe tell us that some of our ideas have been considered in the past and why they weren’t implemented…I don’t know, anything to add?
Wayne, I sent this link to them on Twitter, so maybe they’ll stop by and comment.
I can only think of one, very minor change. Under the current format, if the same team wins both of the first two rounds, a third (double point) question is asked that is worth too few points for the team that won the first two round to possibly win the 300 points necessary to take the game. This makes that round utterly meaningless, and detracts from any surprise factor (that, in my opinion, any game show needs to stay interesting).
What I propose is this. Go ahead and make the third round whatever the survey responses dictate it’s worth. If the same team wins all three of those first rounds (and thus the game. This will be rare), insert an extra Fast Money Round (or perhaps some other, new, kind of bonus, if the producers don’t want to risk TWO $20,000 payoffs in one show) into the “fourth round” slot, so that families who are REALLY good are rewarded for their unusually great game play.
The music…. The walk across cues are oddly abrupt and out-of-place. Just use the 1994 walk across cues instead. I miss the family intros, too. Even if they did it like the first O’Hurley season, it would be welcomed.
Other than that, Steve Harvey is doing a phenomenal job and I think the Feud is in good hands.
@Wayne: No one complains about Jeopardy’s theme because it’s generally the same theme…just updated to match the look/feel of the overall program.
Getting rid of the up front bonus round was needed to give Steve more time. Actually this year the families DID introduce themselves it just never made it tongue show. Being funny takes time and Steve uses it all. A whole lot of the show gets cu to allow for the impromptu moments. We were on five shows and watched two others being taped so I speak from experience. And by the way the family that wins at the podium usually doesn’t sweep or win the round. Stealing points is a big part of winning.
Changes? Yes, raise the $ for each point to at least $10. $25 would be ideal $25,000 for 200. As far as FIVE cars? I dont think so!!! No one takes the cars anyway (no one did this season – they take a cash option $). One easy fix is change the home town moment BACK to family intros (recorded). Much of the time you never figure out the relationships. That definitely needs to be corrected. Plus the contestant preparing for fast money doesn’t see it so there’s no reaction to it. It’s a time/killer wasted at the end.
Sorry for the typos (in my last entry). Commented from my iPhone and couldn’t see the whole screen so I was typing blind. One major change to perhaps try: as was mentioned, the first three rounds are almost pointless. You just have to scratch (win one) and then win that LAST round. If you don’t, then you lose or win round four and have the play-off (I hate those). I would suggest that they play three rounds…single point round, double point round, and a triple (basically best two out of three). If a fourth round is needed let it be a triple point with only about four answers (but for time sakes, perhaps only give them ONE or TWO strikes that round). Here’s my reasoning: three rounds give Steve more time to do what he does best! On the days when a fourth round comes into play, on THOSE days, the drama of the sudden death ROUND (but not with just ONE answer) comes into play, and on those days there would be less time for hijinks (about the same as current shows). So, the early rounds would mean more, most shows would have more ‘Steve’ time, and on sudden death, it wouldn’t be ‘one answer take all’; there’d still be some element of ’skill’ play left to be fairer to both families. Just a ‘change’ suggestion since we’re playing ‘Executive Producer’.
Most of the changes have been suggested. The biggest flaw with this game right now is that the first three rounds just don’t matter; the payouts are also a bit low, with $25,000 and $25/point ideal (since the money won by very close losses is currently never over $1,000, and we should give them some kind of reward for getting here).
The new bonus round is open to interpretation; the only requirement for this change is that the family in the lead cannot throw the question and still win, which used to happen when the winner was simply the family in the lead rather than the first to 300.
It is easy enough to fix the issue of questions being thrown out: just keep tossing the question back and forth. If need be, a cycle of wrong answers can be edited out. The problem with editing out entire questions where neither contestant puts an answer up is Deal or No Deal’s “two-minute warning syndrome”: there, we knew based on the two or so minutes left in the show that the only huge case left would open this round because of: A) the abandonment of carryover games and B) the rest of the game could not physically be fit into two minutes if a small amount is opened, even without NBC’s trademark DRAG DRAG DRAG policy.
In this case, if the person who rings in misses the board, we know that the other contestant will get an answer up on the board because we wouldn’t be seeing this question if they also missed. This can be far more consequential than it sounds: what if the second contestant gives an answer that makes Steve mad because he cannot possibly believe it could be up there, but it actually is? The most essential part of the comedy – one that Steve is becoming known for – would be killed. So that might probably be my most unique observation…
Thanks everyone for all the great comments.
I am constantly trying to make Family Feud better.
Time is definitely an issue when you have a lot of comedy from a great host like Steve Harvey and you need to have a complete game. (20:05 minutes isn’t very long).
Keep your ideas and input coming…I never disregard any of your ideas, as Feud can always be improved.
Thanks for watching the show.
The Feud fans make all the difference.
Happy New Year!
Gaby
How cool is that? See, producers do actually care.
My three recommendations:
- $10/point in Fast Money. $5 seems way too cheap for 2011 and the most a losing family gets is $1,990 total, or $398 a person. Getting 10% of the top prize is acceptable, I think, if you lost by a single point.
- Change the music. I love “The Feud” but using the looped Combs version is just not gelling with the current feel. I really think the 1994 version would still sound great, it would keep the recognizable tune and would make everything come together. (If you have never heard it, it’s on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thYMztm89Fw)
- If you’re having to cut out too much of the banter to fit the 20-21 minute slot, go back to the original format. Single-Single-Double-Double, playing to 200 points. We get the game and Steve’s hosting and personality can shine even more.
I totally agree with $10/point and $25K vs $20K.
But “man” (just a figure of speech) let me tell yall, we are getting a FREE Comedy Show with Steve Harvey. Even if you’ve never watched the game, you will find yourself sometimes in stitches from laughing with Steve.
Have yall noticed how he seems to make each family member feel so comfortable. I mean it appears they completely let their hair down. I am absolutely loving the simplicity and comedics of FF. We need all the FREE laughter we can get in these times. Way to Go Steve!!!
What To Change On Family Feud
The game itself is okay and Steve is a blast, but the money the players have to split after winning is peanuts compared to other game shows. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I was watching a Canadian game show. Now they are cheap probably because they don’t have the big sponsors advertising, but what is Family Feud’s excuse? On Millionaire, for example, people walk away with $1000 when they lose. Sometimes 5 people on the Feud have to split even less if they don’t win the $20,000 in Fast Money, which is never a sure thing! As far as the car, maybe they give them all a motor cycle, Segway, Scooter, or something like that which is still geared to transportation, but they all own separately, so they don’t have to split it up by selling it or have to give their share of the prize to someone because everyone else is. It’s not quite fair. Then if they want to sell their prize, they can easily do without having to confer with all other members of the team. These kinds of changes will keep the audience they have and give them more as as there would be more intensive to watch, play, and sponsor the show. Just my thoughts.
William
On your Feb. 11, 2011 show there was a mistake made.
Jeff gave frech fries as his answer and Steve told him that he could not give thatbanswer, because Jeff’s Dad had said steak and potatoes as his answer. The Riley’s then won the game when they gave french fries as their answer. The famiy that lost shoud be abe to come back since they lost by default.
I wish Steve would relay ALL of the no. 1 answers like John O’Hurley did. I’m not a big Harvey fan, but, he’s not doing too bad, but I DO think the No. 1 answers are a BIG part of the show. AND!………….. my granddaughter and I, BOTH seen a HUGE mistake that Steve made with a contestant, telling him he couldn’t use “french fries ” and the other team came RIGHT back……..used “french fries” and WON! That was on today , on the 1pm or 1:30 pm show. I cannot remember the people’s names , but I DEFINITELY remember THAT!. This aired in Nahville Tn. on Comcast Channel 6. I think the family that lost should be brought back for another chance! I would like feedback on this. Thank you. I have had my say!
:)