Bert's Family Feud

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Bert's Family Feud

Logo
Format Game show
Created by Mark Goodson,
Bill Todman,
(USA)
Starring Host
Bert Newton
Assistants
Mandy Ritchie
Kathryn Trapani
Country of origin Australia
No. of episodes Regular
274
Friday Night All Stars
6
Production
Running time Regular
30 minutes
Friday Night All Stars
60 minutes
Both times are per episode and include commercials
Broadcast
Original channel Channel Nine
Picture format 16:9
Original run February 13, 2006 – June 1, 2007
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

Bert's Family Feud was an Australian version of the game show Family Feud. The series was produced by Grundy Television in conjunction with FremantleMedia and was broadcast on the Nine Network, with TV stalwart Bert Newton as host. It commenced broadcasting on February 13, 2006 but was axed by the network on 9 May 2007 due to the strong competition of rival Seven Network game show Deal or No Deal winning the top ratings prize, when Andrew O'Keefe won. The last episode was filmed on 23 May 2007 at GTV-9 Melbourne and aired on June 1, 2007.[1]. Just 274 episodes were recorded, with the Castricum family being the final contestants, winning $85,000 in total. From July to September 2007, 'best-of' episodes continued to air on Mondays to fulfil the show's commercial obligations to a Wondersoft toilet-paper promotion.

Contents

[edit] History of Family Feud in Australia

The original Australian versions of Family Feud aired from 1977-1984 and were hosted by Tony Barber, Daryl Somers and Sandy Scott. The series began on the Seven Network, but soon moved to the Nine Network. It was later revived on the Seven Network from January 1988 and aired for eight years until 1996, hosted by Rob Brough and ending its run with former Wheel Of Fortune announcer John Deeks. A celebrity version aired in primetime in 1990-1991.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Show format

Like in all other formats, the games are based on surveys of 100 people.

[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 center 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). After that, Bert introduces the teams. In 2006, the contestants wore tags with blue background and white text, similar to an answer on the board. In Early 2007, the contestants wore tags with yellow background and blue text, similar to a Bert's Bonus answer on the board.

[edit] Main game

At the beginning of each round, one representative from each family steps up to the central lectern. 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 lectern 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.

From Early 2007, if neither contestant in the lectern revealed an answer on the board, instead of bringing the next two contestants, the top answer was revealed on the board and a new question was played with the same contestants.

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 launched 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. (One time during Celebrity Family Feud week, the top 4 answers were on the board.)
  • Round 3: Double points & the top 4 or 5 answers on the board. Recently, it has been the top 5 answers on the board. It is unsure if there will be the top 4 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.)
  • Round 5 (Sudden Death): Triple points & the top 2 answers on the board. (Only played if the team that won the previous Sudden Death still hasn't scored 200 points by then.)

On Friday Night All Stars on August 4, 2006, Round 3 was another single points round instead of a double points round and Round 4 was not a Sudden Death round but was a triple points round. On Friday Night All Stars on August 11, 2006, Rounds 3 and 4 were double points rounds 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 triple points was still played, presumably so that the show would finish on time and not earlier than expected.


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.) (One time, because there is a change in order of play due to two contestants failed to give an answer on the board in the lectern, the second member of each family played that round.)

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 in the original U.S. version, Two members of the family are chosen by themselves to participate in the bonus round. One stays in the center with the host while the other remains in a sound proof booth 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 center. 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 the score of 200 is reached. Unlike the U.S. version, the bonus round is an all-or-nothing proposition. 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.

From Early 2007, after the answers are shown on the board, any top answers said by both contestants gets revealed by highlighting them in orange. Unfortunately, on Monday the 29th of January 2007 (first episode in 2007), one of the answers should have been revealed as the top answer since Bert said that it was the top answer but not highlighted.

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 April 3, 2006 and ended on the April 7, 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 Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (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 $5,000 in the bonus round. The first question is worth $500, the second question is worth $1,000, the third question is worth $1,500 and the final question is worth $2,000.

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:

July 28, 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

August 4, 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

August 11, 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

August 18, 2006 AFL vs NRL

AFL

NRL

August 25, 2006 Athletics vs Swimming

Trackstars (Athletics)

Fast Lane (Swimming)

September 1, 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.

[edit] 2006

[edit] 2007

[edit] Winners

  • On the June 9, 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 also became the highest winning family in the show's history, with $115,500 in total.
  • The Massa family became the second family to win $100,000 on June 30.
  • In total, ten families did win the maximum 5 nights:
    • The Johnson family - $20,000 (February 16–February 22, 2006)
    • The Watt family - $55,000 (February 27–March 3, 2006)
    • The Amey family - $16,500 (May 3–May 9, 2006)
    • The Wysman family - $31,500 (May 18–May 25, 2006)
    • The McLean family - $1,500 (August 11–August 18, 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 (August 29–September 5, 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 (September 6–September 13, 2006).
    • The Mooney family - $40,500 (October 12–October 19, 2006). This money was won on their first two nights.
    • The Barbaro family - $17,000 (March 1–March 8, 2007). After winning $2,000 from four Bert's Bonuses over five nights, the Barbaro family finally won a bonus round on their final night - $15,000.
    • The Castricum family - $85,000 (May 25–June 1, 2007). The Castricums were one of the last successful families to ever appear on the show - the third highest winning family in the shows 1.5 year history (behind the Pezzulich family - $115,500, and the Massa family - $100,000).
  • 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] Memorable Occurrences

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The highest possible losing score of 199 was achieved by the Falcke family on February 15, 2006. They lost by 1 point (the closest possible winning/losing margin) to the Grime family on 200 in the Sudden Death round.
  • The lowest score to win the game was achieved by the Grime family on February 15, 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 February 24, 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. First up, Julie scored only 53 points (including three 0s and one top answer). On his turn, Martin scored a total of only 4 points (including four 0s). Neither of them passed on any question.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The first time the Bert's Bonus was introduced, it wasn't distinguished and had the same colors like other answers. The next episode, instead of the blue background and white text, the Bert's Bonus was shown with a yellow background and blue text to distinguish the Bert's Bonus.
  • 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 July 10, 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 have been at least nine 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), November 1 and March 16, 2007.
  • On Friday Night All Stars on August 4, 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. "BAH BOW!!" was first used on the PBS game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? to indicate a wrong answer.
  • On Friday Night All Stars on August 4, 2006, Jason Akermanis became the first ever contestant playing second to name all five top answers in the bonus round. Despite Brendan Fevola, the first player, failing to score a top answer, their team won $9,500.
  • On August 9, 2006 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 August 17, 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 August 18, 2006, the McLean family became the first family to win five nights without winning any money in the bonus round. Their winnings totalled just $1,500 from Bert's Bonus. On their 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 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.
  • On September 19, 2006, during the bonus round, a representative from the Young family achieved a total of 199, one point short of the winning requirement of 200 points. This was the first time that this happened.
  • 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 October 25, 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.
  • Out of the nine families that have won five episodes, the Wysman family was the only one to have had a special segment that featured highlights from their time at the show.
  • Not all surveys have to be by 100 people. On June 1, 2007, "What do women like to spend their money on?" was surveyed by 100 men.
  • Much like the "September" and "Turkey" controversies from the American and British versions of Family Feud, respectively, Bert's Family Feud also had one very memorable dumb answer to this question during the Double Points round-- "Name a gift that's hard to return." Christine of the Massa family (who had won $100,000 in this episode) said "Vibrator".

[edit] Board Game

A Bert's Family Feud Board Game is available, 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] International broadcasters

The show began screening in New Zealand on TV2, Monday, January 8, 2007.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Casey, Marcus: Bert's Family Feud axed, The Daily Telegraph, 9 May 2007.

[edit] See also