Family Feud (Johnsonverse)

Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson featuring two families who compete to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The show has had two separate runs, the first of which started in 1976. Its original run from 1976 to 1985 aired on ABC and in syndication, with Richard Dawson as host. In 1987, the series was revived on WBC with Ray Combs. Combs left Feud in 1997 to host The Price Is Right, and was succeeded by Dolly Parton. In 2003, Parton left and Bernie Mac took over as host. Studio announcers who introduced the contestants and read credits included Gene Wood (1976–1996) and Burton Richardson (1996–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. Since the 2010s, Nielsen ratings have significantly increased and eventually placed the program among the top three most-popular syndicated television shows in the United States.
The program has produced multiple regional adaptations in over 50 international markets outside the United States. Reruns of episodes hosted by Dawson and Combs air on Game Show Network, as well as in syndication. Aside from television shows, there have been also 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, who compete to determine the answers to survey questions. The show begins with the families being introduced, seated opposite each other as if posing for family portraits, after which the host interviews them.
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 the hour that you get up on Sunday mornings." A certain number of answers are concealed on the board, ranked by popularity of the survey's responses. Only answers said by at least two people can appear on the board.
The first contestant to buzz in gives an answer; if it is the most popular, his/her family immediately wins the face-off. Otherwise, the opponent responds and the family member providing the higher-ranked answer wins. Ties are broken in favor of the contestant who buzzes in first. If neither contestant's answer is on the board, the other eight contestants have a chance to respond, one at a time from alternating sides, until an answer is revealed. The family that wins the face-off may choose to play the question or pass control to their opponents.
The family with control of the question then tries to win the round by guessing all of the remaining concealed answers, with each member giving one answer in sequence. Giving an incorrect answer, or failing to respond, earns a strike. Three strikes gives their opponents a chance to "steal" the points for the round by guessing any one of the remaining answers. Otherwise, the points are awarded to the family that originally had control. This is done after the family confers with each other. Any remaining concealed answers on the board that were not guessed are then revealed.
Answers are worth one point for every person in the 100-member survey who gave them. The winning family in each round scores the total points for all revealed answers to that question, including those given during the face-off but excluding the one used to steal. The number of answers on the board decreases from round to round, and as the game progresses, certain rounds are played for double or triple point value.
===Fast Money===
===Returning champions===
==Hosts and announcers==
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". Dawson showed himself to have insistent affections for all of the female members of each family that competed on the show, regardless of age, kissing them, an act that attracted some controversy then among viewers. Writers Tim Brooks, Jon Ellowitz, and Earle F. Marsh attributed Family Feud's 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). The show's original announcer was Gene Wood, with Johnny Gilbert and Rod Roddy serving as occasional substitutes.
In 1987, comedian Ray Combs took over Dawson's role as host on WBC with Wood returning as announcer and Roddy and Art James serving in that role when Wood was not available. Combs hosted the program until the end of the 2006–07 season, when he was tapped to host The Price Is Right. Steve Harvey was later named the new host and began hosting on September 18, 2007. Harvey has been hosting the show ever since. Wood retired as announcer at the end of the 1995–96 season, and Burton Richardson took his place.
In 2015, Harvey signed with WBC for the primetime reboot of Celebrity Family Feud, with Burton Richardson returning as announcer. Harvey has hosted Celebrity Family Feud since 2015.
The first four versions of the show were directed by Paul Alter and produced by Howard Felsher and Cathy Dawson. For the 1987 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 current main staff include executive producer Gabrielle Johnston, co-executive producers Brian Hawley and Sara Dansby, and director Ken Fuchs. The show's classic theme tune was written by an uncredited Walt Levinsky for Score Productions. The theme and cues introduced in 1994 were written by Edd Kalehoff and are based on the Walt Levinsky composition. A remix by John Lewis Parker was used from 2003–2014. Since 2014, another new arrangement of the theme was used, again composed by Kalehoff. The production rights to the show were originally owned by the production company Goodson shared with his partner Bill Todman, but were sold to their current holder, Johnson Television, when it acquired all of Goodson and Todman's format catalog in 1986.
Category:Johnsonverse
Category:Game shows