Family Feud (2014 Australian game show)

Representatives of the family are posed questions that have already been answered by 100 people. An answer is considered correct if it is one of the concealed answers on the game board, or judged to be equivalent. More points are given for answers that have been given by more people in the survey (one point per person). Answers must have been given by at least two of the 100 people in order to be included on the board. There are four members on each team.

Examples of questions might be "Name a famous George", "Tell me a popular family holiday spot", "Name something you do at school", or "Name a slang name for policemen". At least two people among the survey respondents must give an answer for it to appear as one of the possibilities. The participants are not asked questions about what is true or how things really are. Instead, they are asked questions about what other people think is true. As such, a perfectly logical answer may be considered incorrect because it failed to make the survey (e.g.: for the question about Georges, George Jones was a popular country singer, but if his name was not given by at least two people it would be considered wrong).

Airing in a 6:00 pm timeslot, Family Feud was originally broadcast five nights a week from Mondays to Fridays; an additional episode was added on Sundays from February 2015.[7] The show was filmed at Global Television Studios in Southbank, Melbourne from 2014-2017 and at Network Ten's Studios in Pyrmont, Sydney in 2018.

Family Feud premiered simultaneously on Ten and its multichannels Eleven and One on 14 July 2014.[8] The decision to simulcast the show on Eleven and One was to gain as much exposure as possible during the first week of broadcast.[9] A combined audience of 690,000 viewers watched the first episode, while the second episode saw Family Feud's ratings rise to 719,000.[10]

Following the decision to simulcast Family Feud, Ten requested ratings provider OzTAM merge its ratings across three channels as a combined figure, instead of releasing a breakdown of audience figures for each channel.[11][10][12] Although the simulcast was originally scheduled for the first week only, Ten continued to simulcast the show across its three channels.[9][13] Several media buyers and news websites criticised Ten's decision to merge the ratings. One media buyer told news website Mumbrella that "It looks like Ten are trying to pad the numbers when they should just be honest."[10] Glenn Dyer of Crikey wrote that "it's not against the rules, but it is poor form" and believed that the move was "probably to try and boost the audience figures" for the show. Dyer also questioned whether Ten being "scared of failure" is the reason they are "afraid to separate the figures".[12] Ten's chief of programming officer Beverly McGarvey responded to the criticism saying, "There is no 'padding' of numbers at all. That is ridiculous. We are simulcasting Family Feud across Ten, Eleven and One, and the OzTAM numbers show many people are watching the show."[10] David Knox of TV Tonight added, "Ten appears to have painted itself into a corner. It has now run the simulcast for so many weeks that pens will be poised the minute it disappears and those numbers drop."[14] Ten's chief programming officer Beverly McGarvey said in 2015 that there were no plans to end the simulcasting, saying "People engage with Family Feud and it works as a triple test. It's half an hour a day and we have no plans in the short term to make any changes there."[13]

In January 2015 Ten announced that the show had given the network its biggest audience in the 6:00 pm weekday timeslot in more than five years.[13][15] In an interview with TV Tonight, the Nine Network's head of programming Andrew Backwell felt that Ten were "getting a bit ahead of themselves" on calling Family Feud a ratings success in that timeslot as its ratings are derived from a simulcast on Ten, Eleven and One. He said, "It does half of what Channel Nine does in the slot and it's across three channels. If you look at the share in the slot, you wouldn't be touting it as a big success."[13]

On 8 May 2018, it was announced that Ten had decided to axe Family Feud.[16] The show was replaced in the timeslot by another game show, Pointless.[17] Denyer was later announced to be hosting an Australian adaptation of the American game show Ellen's Game of Games for Ten, which was called Game of Games.[18]

On 22 May 2020, Network Ten announced a revived Family Feud 10-part prime-time special series to give back to frontline workers[6] which aired from Sunday, 16 August 2020.[4] The maximum grand prize was increased from A$50,000 to A$100,000.[6]

All Star Family Feud is a spin off series which sees celebrities compete in teams to raise money for their chosen charity.[19] The series first broadcast on 14 March 2016.[20]

In October 2014, Family Feud came under fire from various media outlets for asking the question, "Name something people think is a woman's job." The correct answers included cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, and nursing. Many viewers branded the question as misogynistic.[21] Network Ten later made an apology, stating that the question was "ill-advised" and should not have been included. Ten stated that the questions are picked out of an international database[21] and that the questions are often "not reflective of all Australians".[22] The show again caused controversy in January 2015 with the question, "What is something annoying a cyclist might do?" The question caused a mixed, mainly negative reception on social media.[23] Australian Cycle Alliance president Edward Hore said he was "shocked by the question", continuing to state that "the hatred against cyclists has to stop" and that "everyone knows a cyclist."[24]

• Official website
• Production website
• Family Feud at IMDb
• Family Feud on Twitter