Why Family Feud is the Greatest Game Show of All Time

Family Feud is one of the longest running game shows to be shown on American television. There have been times throughout the show's production when it has been taken off the air due to lack of viewers. I think this makes Family Feud even more likable in my opinion, as it indicates to me that the show is sometimes gone, but never forgotten; the show gets taken off the air, and yet it still bounces back with the same fun, charm, and general popularity that a game show requires to exist.

The show has had quite a few presenters over it's 30 years in production. Richard Dawson was the host when Family Feud first aired in 1976. It first started as a daytime show being shown once a week. After a while it was also broadcast at night with the daytime show still on. Family Feud was the first game show to have ten episodes on per week. In 1985 the show was off the air completely, until the revival three years later. CBS aired the show in 1988 with the popular Ray Combs as the host. The show continued and was named Family Feud Challenge until the cancellation of production again in 1993. The standard Family Feud show continued in the original format as opposed to the challenge version, which was an hour long. The name became The New Family Feud, and was run with Ray Combs as the host until he was fired in 1994 due to lack of ratings. The producers decided to bring Richard Dawson back as the host. The show only lasted another season until it was booted off the air again. There have been a few other hosts since the show regained status in 1999. Loui Anderson, Richard Karn, and the current host John O'Hurley.

Richard Karn has been my all time favorite host. I also liked him in the comedy sitcom Home Improvements. He is sometimes named Richard JR as he shares the same first name as the original host Richard Dawson. He left the show in 2006, and was replaced by John O'Hurley.

The show used to be played with two families of four playing against one another, but now there are five members on each team. The families have to guess answers to general questions based on what a survey of 100 people have said. The family with the most amount of money at the end of the rounds wins the game, and proceeds on to the fast money round. One member of the family goes to a secluded booth while another family member answers a series of questions. The other family member returns answering the same questions. The family requires a certain score to gain the $20,000 jackpot.

We can all sit at home and say "You should have said that" or "why did you say that?", but at the end of the day it is probably true that if you were in a studio with millions of people viewing you that you would be nervous too. I think that Family Feud will continue to be the greatest game show on television for many years to come, and if it isn't, it should be.