Bert's Family Feud

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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 13th, 2006.

Contents

1 History of ''Family Feud'' in Australia
2 Cast
3 Show format

3.1 Main Game
3.2 Bonus Round

4 Bert's Family Feud Celebrity Showdown
5 Mad Monday
6 Winners
7 Trivia
8 Crazy Answers
9 A ratings booster
10 References
11 See also
12 External links

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 1989 - 1996 hosted by Rob Brough and John Deeks.

Cast

Bert Newton - host
Paul Khoury - announcer
Mandy Ritchie - co-hostess
Kathryn Trapani - co-hostess
Pete Smith (announcer) - Warm Up
Michael Pope - Warm Up / Producer

Show format

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

Main Game

At the beginning of each round, one representative from each family steps up to the central podium. 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. (In the unlikely event that neither contestant guesses an answer on the board, a new question is played, with the original question being edited out in the post-production. However, in one episode, two new contestants stepped up and play continued with the original question to the family that buzzed in first.)

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, 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 3 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 & usually 6 answers on the board (sometimes 5 or 7).
Round 3: Double points & usually 4 answers on the board (sometimes 3 or 5).
Round 4: Triple points & the top 2 answers on the board. (Only played if no teams have reached 200 points by the end of round 3.)

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.

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. 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.

Bert's Family Feud Celebrity Showdown

Bert's Family Feud Celebrity Showdown commenced on the 3rd of April 2006 and ending 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.

All the money won by the celebrities was donated to charities of the celebrities' choice.

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.

(Friday May 12): Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne vs Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide
May 22: Australia vs Greece (Soccer Teams)
May 29: Teachers vs Students (from Ringwood Secondary College)
June 5: Car Salespeople vs Real Estate Agents
June 12: Opals vs Boomers (basketball) (Australian Basketball teams)
June 19: Holden vs Ford (V8 Supercar drivers)
June 26: Melbourne University vs Sydney University
July 3: Blues (New South Wales) vs Maroons (Queensland) (National Rugby League State of Origin Teams)
July 10: Ice Queens vs Ice Men (Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice Contestants)
(Tuesday) July 11: Ice Queens vs Ice Masters (Torvill and Dean with two judges)

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 in her round to win $100,000.

The Massa family became the second family to win $100,000 on 30th June.

So far, only four families have won 5 nights:
* The Johnson family - $40,000
* The Watt family - $55,000
* The Amey family - $16,500
* The Wysman family - $31,500

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.

Trivia

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 47 to 200 points exactly in the sudden death question with a survey of 51 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 closest 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 Falke 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 (the highest score ever accumulated during regular game-play) 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 occured and it was announced again during the introduction of the following episode. This was not the case; it had actually occured for the first time on 10th July (see above for details).
As of today, the Pezzulich family currently has the highest winnings of $115,500 which includes a Bert's Bonus.

Crazy Answers

In a show format like this, there are bound to be moments of madness with crazy answers given by the contestants. Listed below are some of the crazy answers:

A place with alarms installed.
* "Channel 9" (13th February 2006)
Name something an author needs to write a book.
* "Brain" (4th April 2006)
Name a party game suitable for adults.
* "Sing and Skull"
* "Pin the [*beep*] on the man" (both on 16th June 2006)
Name a gift that's hard to return.
* "Vibrator" (30th June 2006)
Name something you take to bed with you.
* "Vibrator" (13th July 2006)
Name a famous American building.
* "Eiffel Tower" (13th July 2006)
Name a green vegetable.
* "Apples" (14th July 2006)

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 regulary 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 228,000http://pbl.com.au/media/pdf/2006/2006%20Aust%20Television%20Ratings%20-%20Week%2017.pdf Nine Network ratings report: Week 17, 2006.

References

External links

[Bert's Family Feud] official site - (ninemsn)

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