TVSquad

We've seen changes to The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune and a big change to the Jeopardy set. Now Family Feud has changed things too.

The show no longer has a set-in-stone jackpot in the final "Fast Money" game that the winning family plays. Instead, at the start of the show, each family starts with $15,000 in their "Jackpot" and then there are five quick "Bullseye" rounds where the familes have to guess the number one answer to a question. Question one gives you $1000, question two gives you $2000, and so on. Whatever you win is added to the bank and that's the amount you play for. It's great if you get a few questions right, but not so great if you don't (this is actually something they had on the show in the 90s and have brought back).

If you go by all of the various stories in the media, it would seem that TV viewers just aren't into award shows anymore. The ratings are often down year to year, and if people are tuning in it seems to be more for the fashions, the red carpet, and maybe to see a particular category/performance by someone on the show.

So it's interesting that there are so many new genre award shows popping up. TV Land has had their own awards (The TV Land Awards) for a number of years now (the latest airs next week with Neil Patrick Harris hosting), and Bravo has The A-List Awards, whatever they are (it aired earlier this week). Now GSN is getting into the game (no pun intended) with The Game Show Awards, a show dedicated to giving awards to game shows, game show hosts, even game show sponsors!

Ah, another day, another list. This one is from PopCrunch, and it lists the 25 Best Game Shows of All-Time. And yes, it will provoke discussion and hair-pulling.

It's not a bad list actually, as these things go. It's a little predictable (and I certainly wouldn't have included Love Connection, Deal or No Deal, or Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?), but there are some good choices here. Press Your Luck was a great show (though it should be higher on the list), and it's hard to argue with how high shows like Jeopardy and The Price is Right are. I also like that they included The Mole (the first two Anderson Cooper-hosted seasons) and Remote Control.

He's an actor, a pin-up hunk, he's tried Dancing With the Stars, and now he'll see what it's like to be a Jim Lange or Wink Martindale. Cameron Mathison has been tapped to host TLC's new game show Your Place or Mine? Looking at those eyes, I'd let him redecorate my abode!

"I'm thrilled to be a part of TLC's first game show, and extremely excited about the fun concept," said Mathison. "I think both men and women, of all ages, are really going to enjoy the show because there's a little something in it for everyone." Yeah, TLC is pitching this as a family show. Hmm...we'll see. If it can capture the Trading Spaces vibe, they may be on the right track.

Al Roker is in final negotiations to host the NBC celebrity edition of Family Feud, the one that we wrote about recently as a summer series on the Peacock.

Roker, currently the main weatherman and easy-going interviewer on Today (the first three hours at least!), would seem a perfect fit for this job. He's friendly, funny, personable and has a high recognizability/likability rating. He's also busy on the dial with Food Network shows, both producing and hosting. In fact, in 2006 his production company put out Celebrity Food Fights, about competing celebs -- not unlike Family Feud concept -- for Food Network.

The summer schedule on NBC won't be filled with just reruns, apparently. The network wants to up their game quotient. That said, American Idol's producer, FremantleMedia North America and NBC are planning a celebrity version of Family Feud. Although there have been multiple variations of the Feud -- daytime, syndication, board game, internet edition, et. al -- this will be the very first time the game show will air as a regularly-scheduled primetime network show. John O'Hurley, who is the current host on the syndicated Family Feud, could be anchoring NBC's primetime celeb affair, but that has not been announced as yet.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow:

• The All-New Super Friends Hour - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Between the Lions - Season 1
• Clifford The Big Red Dog - Playtime with Clifford
• Family Feud - All Star Family Feud with Richard Dawson
• Gunsmoke - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Lovejoy - Season 2
• MI-5 - Vol. 5
• The Naked Brothers Band - Season 1
• The Riches - Season 1
• Two and a Half Men - Season 2
• The Waltons - Season 6
• What's New Scooby-Doo? - Season 3

CBS is on a good run, being the most watched network for the last five years, but they have taken a bit of heat for the formulaic way they have gone about doing it. Not arguing with success, the whole family of CSIs, and their crime based cousins, will be back, but the network is trying to branch out with some edgier programming. Most notably, Swingtown, Viva Laughlin, and Moonlight.

Returning: The Amazing Race, Cold Case, 60 Minutes, How I Met Your Mother, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Unit, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY, Survivor, CSI, Shark, Without A Trace, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, 48 Hours Mystery.

New: Viva Laughlin, Swingtown, Moonlight, Cane, Big Bang Theory, Power of 10, Kid Nation

Out: King of Queens, Jericho, The Class, Close To Home

Moving: Without A Trace moves back to Thursday at 10. Shark heads to Sunday at 10.

We told you recently that the search for the new host for CBS' The Price Is Right was down to three people: Mario Lopez, George Hamilton, and Entertainment Tonight host Mark Steines. Now it looks like another celeb has become the front-runner.

John O'Hurley, Mr. Peterman on Seinfeld and current host of Family Feud, supposedly wowed producers with his audition and just might get the gig. Of course, this could all be just talk from publicists -- who knows -- but since he did audition and currently hosts another game show, it's not out of the question. Sources say that Hamilton is no longer in the running but Todd Newton might be.

I like O'Hurley, and I think I've only seen about 12 seconds of his hosting Family Feud so I don't know how he'd do. Readers?

There is an interesting post over at YesButNoButYes on ten infamous game show moments. There are a couple good ones, like the guy who lost on the first question of Millionaire, and a couple classic Family Feud and Newlywed Game answers.

Unfortunately, it's more a good idea for a list than an actual good list, because their definition of "Game Show" is insane. I just don't get the reasoning behind adding moments from The Bachelorette, Big Brother, and Top Chef. Especially when there are so many great moments from actual game shows that could have been added.

Some non-reality show contenders for such a list: From The Price Is Right, recently there was a guy who kept bidding 420 (video after the jump). Going back in the TPIR archive there was the time when a rather buxom woman was so excited to be comin' on down that she didn't realize her boobs had bounced right out of her tube top.

Here's a bit of levity for your Sunday. This clip is from an old episode of The Family Feud from back in the good ol' days when Richard Dawson was host, and, if you were lucky enough to a contestant, he'd make out with both your wife and daughter right in front of you. I don't think there's ever been a game show host as amorous as Dawson, though if memory serves Chuck Woolery used to do that "tongue between two fingers" gesture to close every episode of Scrabble. The Family Feud clip features a woman whose mouth gets ahead of her brain during the "Fast Money" round, and Dawson is unable to keep his composure. Funny stuff.

(S01E07) In my opinion, it's pretty hard to mess up a game like Family Feud. Sure, you could have a bad host like Ray Combs or Louie Anderson, but that usually doesn't deter from the game play of the families who participate on the show. So it's no surprise that Game Show Marathon chose this particular classic to be the Championship Game. That, and the fact that it could easily be played in an hour and not feel awkward like some of the other games that were played during the series.

Oh, and it certainly didn't hurt that both finalists, Kathy Najimy and Brande Roderick, had actually been on Feud in the past:  Najimy back in 1981 with host Richard Dawson, and Roderick back in the late 90's with host Louie Anderson. Pretty convenient, don't you think?

A writer named Thomas Elia has posted a very funny article listing the worst answers he and others have ever heard on Family Feud. Well, this is a brilliant idea. Families get all riled up when they play that game and sometimes really, really stupid things come out of their mouths. Some of them are boneheaded:

Question: Name a former President that most people would say is honest.
#1 Answer: Lincoln
Worst Answer: Nixon

But most of them are downright random:

Queston: Name something you do in front of your husband that you probably never did when you were dating.
#1 Answer: Undress
Worst Answer: Make out

Click on over to read the full list and then come back and tell me if he missed any classic Family Feud answers.

[Via Dooce]

(S01E01) When you think of game shows that Hollywood stars play in to win money for their charities, you think of shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Family Feud. You normally don't think of a show like The Price is Right as a platform for this type of event. In fact, as TPIR afficionados Joel Keller and Bob Sassone would probably attest to, The Price is Right should only be played by college students, senior citizens, and women who fall out of their halter tops. The reason? Well, let me get to that later.

In the meantime, let me pontificate a bit on the premiere of CBS's Game Show Marathon. I found it to be an interesting experiment. Here's how it works: six celebrities compete in a series of classic game shows to win one million dollars for their charity. Four semi-finalists are selected, then they play until two remain. The two finalists appear with their families on an episode of Family Feud (complete with classic sets) to vie for the million dollars.

I wouldn't have picked Rikki Lake as the host of the program, but she did show a lot of spirit in hosting The Price is Right episode of the show. Heck, many people have tried but failed to match the success that Bob Barker has had for over 30 years as TPIR's host. Hopefully she'll loosen up a bit more as the show progresses. I have a feeling she'll do a bit better in the Let's Make a Deal segment, which airs on Thursday.

I also wouldn't have chosen TPIR as the game to start the series with, despite is popularity and long network run. If you'd like to know the reason jump ahead by clicking the link.

 

Yeah, OK, I know his name is John O'Hurley, but he was freakin' funny as hell on Seinfeld, so...

O'Hurley will take over Family Feud hosting duties from Richard Karn, who took over from Louie Anderson, who took over from Ray Combs, who took over from Richard Dawson. (Did I miss anyone? I think Dawson came back for a short time in there somewhere?) I guess I should announce right now that I will be taking over hosting duties from O'Hurley in 2009.