Bert's Family Feud

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Bert's Family Feud
Genre Game show
Picture format 16:9
Running time Regular
30 minutes
Friday Night All Stars
60 minutes
Both times are per episode and include commercials
Creator(s) Mark Goodson,
Bill Todman,
(USA)
Starring Host
Bert Newton
Country of origin Australia
Original channel Nine Network
Original run February 13, 2006–
No. of episodes Regular
198 (As of November 30, 2006)
Friday Night All Stars
6 (As of September 1, 2006)
Official website

Bert's Family Feud is an Australian television show produced by Grundy Television in conjunction with FremantleMedia and broadcast on the Nine Network, with TV stalwart Bert Newton as host, and Paul Khoury as announcer. It commenced broadcasting on February 13, 2006. A Berts Family Feud Board game is also available, made by Crown and Andrews.

Contents

[edit] History of Family Feud in Australia

The show is a revamped version of Family Feud. Previous Australian incarnations of Family Feud were broadcast on Channel Nine from 1977 - 1984 hosted by Tony Barber, Daryl Somers and Sandy Scott. It was later revived on rival Channel Seven from 1987 - 1996 hosted by Rob Brough and John Deeks.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Show format

As is the case with the original US format, the games are based on surveys of 100 people.

Bert Newton eases into his role as Family Feud host
Enlarge
Bert Newton eases into his role as Family Feud host

[edit] Before the Show

Usually before each episode of Bert's Family Feud, except for on Mad Mondays, when Paul Khoury starts the show immediately, Bert sometimes ask a question and revealing the top answer after walking down to the centre of stage with Kathryn Trapani and Mandy Ritchie. Also, when Bert holds hands with Kathryn Trapani and Mandy Ritchie, both of them are dressed up as various things (eg. mermaids, cheerleaders etc.) to dedicate the day (eg. National day of Sweden) or the theme of the show (eg. netball players on the episode between Women's netball versus Men's netball teams).

[edit] Main Game

At the beginning of each round, one representative from each family steps up to the central podium. Bert (The host) reads out the question that was used in the survey. The first contestant to buzz in has the first opportunity to guess the most popular answer. If the answer he/she guesses is not number one or is not on the board at all, the member of the other family has the opportunity to guess a higher answer or any answer. If neither contestant guesses an answer on the board, the next contestants from both families step up to the central podium and the next contestant on the family that buzzed in first will have the next opportunity to guess at the board. This then changed the order for the following rounds.

The contestant who guesses the highest scoring answer has the opportunity to “pass or play”. A contestant who chooses to pass gives the competing family a turn at guessing the remaining answers. A contestant who chooses to play has the opportunity to guess the remaining answers. Each family member has an opportunity to give his/her own answers. If the answer they give does not appear on the board, repeat an answer on the board, or takes too long to think of a possible answer on the board, they earn an unwanted strike. Play continues with the same family until they have guessed all the answers on the board (therefore winning the round), or they have earned three strikes. In the latter case, play is handed over to the competing family to guess just one of the remaining answers. If they fail to do so, the other family wins the round. If they successfully answer, they win the round. They then earn the accumulated points.

"Bert's Bonus" is a new feature introduced on April 3, 2006 at the same time as Bert's Family Feud Celebrity Showdown commenced. A cash prize of $500 is located behind an answer on the board in any of the three rounds (with the location being announced at the beginning of the round it is featured in). If a contestant guesses the corresponding answer, they win the cash.

The number of points scored is determined by the number of times the answer was said in the survey. The score is only counted from the revealed answers. The value of the points and the number of answers on the board are denoted as follows:

  • Round 1: Single points & the top 7 or 8 answers on the board. (One time during Celebrity Family Feud week, the top 6 answers were on the board.)
  • Round 2: Single points & the top 5, 6 or 7 answers on the board.
  • Round 3: Double points & the top 4 or 5 answers on the board. (One time during Friday Night All Stars, the top 6 answers were on the board.)
  • Round 4 (Sudden Death): Triple points & the top 2 answers on the board. (Only played if neither teams has reached 200 points by the end of round 3.)

On Friday Night All Stars, 4th of August 2006, Round 3 was another single points round instead of double points round and round 4 was not a sudden death round but was triple points round. On Friday night All Stars, 11th of August 2006, Rounds 3 and 4 were double points round with the top 6 and 8 answers on the board respectively. Also once or twice on Friday Night All stars, one team reached 200 points at the end of round 3, but treble points was still played, presumably so that the show would finish on time and not earlier than expected.

The board
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The board

The first family that reaches 200 points wins the game. If after three rounds neither family has reached 200 points, a subsequent round is played known as “Sudden Death”. This round has values tripled and the top 2 answers on the board. Unlike the previous rounds, the last contestant in corresponding families only plays this round. Whoever guesses the highest scoring answer wins the round for their family and possibly the game. If after this round, 200 points has still yet to be reached, another Sudden Death round is played with the captains (1st person) of each family/team. (If neither contestant fails to give an answer of the board, play continues to the other contestants until an answer is present on the board.)

Although the winning family move on to the bonus round to play for a possible $100,000, the losing family usually takes home a $1,000 gift voucher from the Electrical and Furniture superstore Harvey Norman.

[edit] Bonus Round

The aim of the bonus round (known in other versions as the "Fast Money" round) is to score at least 200 points to win a cash prize. As an Original US version, Two members of the family are chosen by themselves to participate in the bonus round. One stays in the centre with the host while the other remains in a sound proof booth, whilst wearing headphones so the contestant cannot think of better answers to the questions until put on the spot by the host.

The first contestant is given 20 seconds to answer 5 questions. A contestant may pass at any time and can go back to it if time permits. After the 20 seconds are up, the host goes through the answers with the contestant. Once again, the number of points equals the number of times the answer appears in the survey. The number of top answers guessed by the first contestant determines how much the family plays for:

  • No top answers: $5,000
  • 1 top answer: $10,000
  • 2 top answers: $15,000
  • 3 top answers: $25,000
  • 4 top answers: $50,000
  • 5 top answers: $100,000

The second contestant is then taken out of the booth and is brought to the centre. This time, the contestant is given 25 seconds to answer the same 5 questions. The extra five seconds is given, as the second contestant is not allowed to give any of the same answers as the first contestant. If that happens, a warning tone is sounded to indicate such a situation. After the contestant has finished answering the questions, the host goes through the second round of answers until either the end of the five answers or, if the score of 200 is reached. Regardless if the family reaches 200 points or not, they are invited back for the next show to contest another family up to five times, therefore the maximum a single family can win (including all 5 Bert's Bonuses) is $502,500.

For all surveys, a minimum of 3 people must have the same answer in order for it to count as an actual answer on the board.

[edit] Celebrity Showdown

Bert's Family Feud Celebrity Showdown commenced on the 3rd of April 2006 and ended on the 7th of April 2006. Sixteen celebrities were involved in this program and they were:

On Monday, eight celebrities were split into two teams of four and the teams were chosen in a schoolyard pick by Jo Stantley and Peter Rowsthorn. On Tuesday, the other eight celebrities were split into two teams of four and the teams were chosen in a schoolyard pick by John Michael Howson and Toni Pearen. On Wednesday, the winning contestants from Tuesday and the losing contestants from Monday played and the schoolyard pick happened with two new teams chosen by Karl Stefanovic and Joe Bugner. On Thursday, the winning contestants from Monday and the losing contestants from Tuesday played and the schoolyard pick happened with two new teams chosen by Jessica Rowe and Darrell Eastlake. On Friday, all contestants were involved and this time, the contestants were picked again in the schoolyard pick by Denise Scott and Peter Rowsthorn, the rest of the contestants didn't play but became members of the audience.

A grand total of $46,500 was won by the celebrities, which was donated to charities of the celebrities' choice.

[edit] Friday Night All Stars

"Friday Night All Stars" was a special one-hour format of "Bert's Family Feud" on Fridays at 7.30pm, which premiered on July 28, 2006 and finished on September 1. Each week well-known Australian sporting (eg AFL and NRL) personalities pitted against each other to have the chance to win $100 000 for a charity of their choice. Newton's wife Patti and daughter Lauren also made guest appearances during the programs being the models in replace of Mandy and Kathryn (see above).

[edit] Additional rounds

"Bullseye" is an additional round to "Friday Night All Stars" in which four questions are asked. It is played at the start of the game (similar to the US format from 1992 to 1994; it was also known as the "Bankroll" round from 1994 to 1995). Each pair of contestants attempt to get the "bullseye" or the top answer for each question. For each correct answer, the contestant earns an extra amount of money to their minimum amount of $5000 in the bonus round. The first question is worth $500, the second question is worth $1000, the third question is worth $1500 and the final question is worth $2000.

The rule of having to reach 200 points to win the game does not apply to "Friday Night All Stars". Instead, the team to have the highest score at the end of competition play wins the game (therefore, no "sudden death"). This is due mainly to the format having four rounds of regular play:

  • Rounds 1-3: Single points
  • Round 4: Triple points

There were two exceptions to this format, though. On the first episode (July 28), a special guest appeared as a substitute for Round 3 and regular round rules applied. The other exception was on the third episode (August 11), where Rounds 1 & 2 were played for single points and Rounds 3 & 4 were played for double points.

During the Bonus Round, the values were changed depending on how many top answer he or she scored. The rest remained the same except if the team failed to score 200 points or more, they win the bullseye amount for the charity of their choice.

  • No top answers: Bullseye amount
  • 1 top answer: $15,000
  • 2 top answers: $20,000
  • 3 top answers: $25,000
  • 4 top answers: $50,000
  • 5 top answers: $100,000

[edit] Contestants

The contestants that were featured on the series were:

28 July 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

4 August 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

11 August 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

18 August 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

25 August 2006 Athletics vs Swimming

Trackstars (Athletics)

Fast Lane (Swimming)

1st September 2006 Basketball vs Rowing

Boomers (Basketball)

Oarsome Foursome (Rowing)

[edit] Mad Monday

On Monday May 22 2006, "Mad Monday" was introduced to the Feud. Instead of two families as contestants, two groups from various backgrounds come together to battle it out.

Bert with Family Feud assistants Mandy Ritchie & Kathryn Trapani
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Bert with Family Feud assistants Mandy Ritchie & Kathryn Trapani

[edit] Winners

  • On the 9th of June 2006, the Pezzulich family was the very first family to win $100,000. Stephanie successfully scored all 5 top answers with a score of 191. Amanda scored 15 points on one answer in her round to win $100,000. They currently remain the highest winning family to date, with $115,500 in total.
  • The Massa family became the second family to win $100,000 on 30th June.
  • So far, eight families have won 5 nights:
    • The Johnson family - $20,000 (16th - 22nd February 2006)
    • The Watt family - $55,000 (27th February - 3rd March 2006)
    • The Amey family - $16,500 (3rd - 9th May 2006)
    • The Wysman family - $31,500 (18th - 25th May 2006)
    • The McLean family - $1,500 (11th - 18th August 2006). This money was from three Bert's Bonuses, but they failed to win any Big Money rounds coming within 5, 8, 93, 43 and 2 points on separate occasions.
    • The Smith family - $1,500 (29th August - 5th September 2006). Again, this money was only from three Bert's Bonuses, but in the bonus round, they never came within less than 27 points of winning their Big Money rounds.
    • The Peart family - $1,000 (6th - 13th September 2006).
    • The Mooney family - $40,500 (12th - 19th October 2006).
  • When the 100th episode went to air on Wednesday, July 12, 2006, Bert's Family Feud had given away $999,500. On that same episode, Eric Koukounas gave the answer to which the Bert's Bonus was behind, reaching the $1 million milestone on the show.

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • On the first episode, normally the first and second contestants on the bonus round meet up together and hear the amount they're playing for. However, Bert told Kim (first contestant) to meet up with the other family members, leaving Danielle (second contestant) on the centre of stage to hear how much they're playing for.
  • The highest possible losing score was achieved by the Falcke family on the 15th February 2006, who scored 199 points to the Grime family on the Sudden Death round.
  • The lowest score to win the game was achieved by the Grime family on the 15th February 2006, who won from 53 to 200 points exactly in the sudden death question with a survey of 49 as the top answer. The Hodge family on 24th February 2006 also scored an even 200 points against the Kambounias family's 54, but this time there was no sudden death.
  • The highest score ever achieved in the big money round was 311 (needing only 200) by the Everitt family on November 1, 2006. Mick, the first player, scored 172 with all five answers scoring between 33 and 40 points each, but only managed three top answers. The second contestant then scored another 139 points including the other two top answers, winning them $25,000.
  • The lowest score ever achieved in the big money round was just 57 on September 6, 2006 by the Peart family. The first contestant scored only 53 points, but still managed one top answer. The second contestant scored only 4 points in total. In total, the pair managed seven zero-scoring answers (three and four respectively).
  • The format of Bert asking a question and giving the #1 answer at the beginning of every show was borrowed from the US edition of Family Feud -- during the show's tenure as the "Family Feud Challenge", announcer Gene Wood would read the teaser question, after which host Ray Combs would come onstage and read the #1 answer. The "Bullseye" round on Bert's Family Feud was also taken from The Family Feud Challenge, with a few modifications.
  • The closest possible winning and losing margin on Bert's Family Feud was 1 point on the 15th February 2006. The Grime family scored 200 points to the Falcke family's 199 points.
  • Controversy was made during the bonus round with the question "Name a type of footwear?". Trish from the Johnson family answered "Shoes". However, the survey gave it zero, according to Bert Newton, shoes was the uniform word of footwear and from there on, some questions began with "Besides ..." to avoid confusion and getting 70+ as the top answer.
  • From May 8 to May 12, 2006 (the week leading up to Mother's Day), Bert's Family Feud ran "Ladies' Week", where every contestant was female. Each family had a theme that they dressed up as (i.e. "Chefs"). However, on Thursday May 11, the Siggins family had 3 male contestants, so they dressed up as females! May 12's episode featured two groups of nurses playing for their hospitals (see above in "Mad Monday").
  • On the 10th of July 2006, Ice Queens vs Ice Men, this was the first time that two Sudden Death rounds were played with the Ice Queens team winning both rounds from 29 to 197 and winning the game with 416 points against the Ice Men team on 187 points. This episode had the most questions with 10 from the three rounds, sudden death rounds and the bonus round. Also it has the most cumulative answers on the board with 8 on the first round, 7 on the second round, 5 on the third round and 2 from both sudden death rounds; giving a total of 24 answers displayed on the board.
  • There was a mistake made on the 100th episode on 12th July 2006 in which the game resulted in a second Sudden Death. Bert announced it as being the first time this had occurred and this fact was announced again during the introduction of the following episode. This turned out not to be true; it had actually occurred for the first time during the episode that was broadcast 10th July (see above for details).
  • There have been at least eight occasions where a second sudden death has been played due to scores not reaching 200 points. The dates have been: July 10, July 12 (100th episode), September 11, October 4, October 19, October 23, October 30 (where for the first time neither player could identify an answer on the board) and November 1.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 28th of July 2006, during round 3, double points round, the top six answers were on the board for the first time, but "Double Points" wasn't shown on screen due to the fact it couldn't fit on the screen where it did when it was the top four or five answers were on the board.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 4th of August 2006, this was the first time producer Michael Pope was introduced on Bert's Family Feud to clarify that Poker and Chess are both games since Jason Akermanis protest that they weren't sports despite the question said to name a sport or game without a captain.
  • At the back of the special Family Feud shirts worn by crew, it says "BAH BOW!!", the sound of a strike.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 4th of August 2006, round 4 was first introduced not as a Sudden Death round and for the first time, was introduced as triple points round.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 4th of August 2006,, Jason Akermanis was the first ever contestant to name all five top answers as the second player to play the bonus round despite them winning $9,500 due to Brendan Fevola, the first player, failing to score a top answer.
  • On 9th of August between the Dynon family and the Sharkey family, this was the first time that neither the two contestants were able to name an answer. As a result, the next two contestants were called for. This then changed the order of the play for the following rounds.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 11th of August 2006, on round three, double points round, this was the second time that neither contestant was able to have an answer on the board. As a result, the next two contestants were called for.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 11th of August 2006, this was the first time to have the last round to have more top answers than previous rounds since the number of top answers either stayed the same, or decreased.
  • On Friday Night All Stars, 11th of August 2006, during rounds 3 and 4, double points round, the top six and eight answers were on the board, but "Double Points" wasn't shown on screen due to the fact it couldn't fit on the screen where it did when it was the top four or five answers were on the board. Instead, it was shown right before the blank answers showed up.
  • As of today, the Pezzulich family currently has the highest winnings of $115,500 which includes a Bert's Bonus.
  • On 17th of August 2006, neither of the first two sets of contestants were able to answer the question 'Name a wardrobe malfunction you would not want to happen to you' in round two. Bert decided to ask another question to save time. This was the first time this had happened on the program. That same question was asked on the Friday Night All Stars episode the following night.
  • On 18th of August 2006, the McLean family became the first family to have won five nights yet no money in the bonus round. Their winnings totalled just $1,500 from Bert's Bonus. On the fifth and final night, the family missed out by 2 points on $15,000 in the bonus round.
  • The lowest score ever scored in any round was 11 by the Guides on September 11, 2006. After the guides scored the sixth and seventh (bottom two answers) then received three strikes about a camping question, the Scouts failed to steal those points and it became the lowest score ever won on Bert's Family Feud.
  • The highest score ever accumulated during regular game play was 459 by the Scouts on September 11, 2006. After the regular three rounds, the Scouts were on 90 and the the Guides were on 138, which meant Sudden Death had to be played. The Scouts won Sudden Death, but with the number two answer (since the Guides did not give an answer on the board). The Scouts reached 186 against the Guides' 138. A second Sudden Death was played (since 200 points was still yet to be achieved); the Guides gave the number two answer and the Scouts then gave the number one answer, resulting in a total of 369 points scored in the Sudden Deaths.
  • Once on Berts Family Feud, during the bonus round, the player passed on one question, and before time ran out Bert had said "You got through the five" and stopped the clock. Then a few seconds later he realized that the player hadn't, and he had to ask the question again (without any time limit).
  • On 19 September 2006, during the bonus round, a representative from the Young family had taken the total to 199, one point short of the winning milestone of 200 points. This is the first time that this has happened so far.
  • The Mooney family have won all five sudden death rounds where Lucky Mooney won four of the rounds from the second to their fifth night on Bert's Family Feud. The other sudden death round was won by Chris Mooney who won the sudden death round because they didn't reach 200 points when Lucky scored the top answer on their fifth night. Lucky Mooney has officially won the most sudden deaths than anyone else and the Mooney family won the most sudden death rounds ever.
  • On the bonus round of 25 October 2006, Darian Quinlan had taken the total to only 28 (the lowest score ever by the first person) and scoring no top answers. Three of the answers also scored 0. Shae then scored enough points to take the grand total right up to 204, winning the Quinlan family $5,000.

[edit] A ratings booster

A principal motivation for establishing the show was that the Nine Network, which had had the highest-rating Australian television news service for many years, was seeing its viewing audience abandon the network in favour of the Seven Network's Seven News and the subsequent program, Today Tonight. This is thought to be partly due to its highly successful game show Deal or No Deal, which airs in the 5:30pm timeslot, leading into the news, as well as the fact that it was up against Nine's failing game show The Price Is Right (which subsequently ended in November 2005). It is widely considered that high ratings in the lead-in timeslot are important to strong news ratings. Network executives are hoping that Bert's Family Feud will reignite the lead-in timeslot. Following rumours that Nine would delay the program's launch until mid-year, the show debuted as planned on 13 February 2006. In the first week of ratings for 2006, Deal or No Deal was gaining more viewers than Family Feud with the Deal in the lead by about 300,000 viewers nationwide. In Brisbane, where Family Feud airs at 5:00pm, it regularly has more viewers than Wheel Of Fortune, which is on the Seven Network. However, on Good Friday, 2006, Bert's audience averaged 597,000, and Nine News beat Seven News nationally.

Bert's Family Feud averaged 238,000 viewers in Melbourne in the week from Monday April 24 - Friday April 28 ahead against Deal or No Deal, which scored 228,000[1].

[edit] Board Game

A Bert's Family Feud Board Game is avaliable, Made by Crown and Andrews. The board game follows much of the TV Show. The contents includes the following things: Bert's Family Feud Board Game box, Survey Says display folder, 8 response covers, 1 survey question cover, 3 strike tiles, 2 tokens, 150 survey response sheets, 150 survey answer cards, 100 "all play" sheets, as well as 2 pencils, a 60 second sand timer and rules. A close look at the box reveals the "Family Feud" logo seen on the US version from 1999 to 2006 used in the background.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://pbl.com.au/media/pdf/2006/2006%20Aust%20Television%20Ratings%20-%20Week%2017.pdf Nine Network ratings report: Week 17, 2006

[edit] See also

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