Family Feud

Louie Anderson was an OK host, but the "new" "Family Feud" with Richard Karn takes the cake. After fumbling and bumbling with "Family Feud" for three years, Fremantle Media has gotten it right in season four. Richard Karn is an excellent host. The new set is awesome. The music has been tweaked to make it good, (although no "Family Feud" theme will compare to the original) The new changes reminds me of when Ray Combs took over as host back in 1988.

If you haven't seen the many preview clips of O'Hurley on Feud, go there now! The new set is basically 21st century Richard Dawson. The family poses and intro are now intact. The format and music remain the same.

O'Hurley brings in a welcoming breath of fresh air. He's exactly what the show's been needing for the last 6 seasons, a host with a quick wit that listens to the contestants and makes them feel at ease. He brings enough variety to keep the shows fresh and exciting.

Louie Anderson was funny, but his hosting style was inconsistent. Sometimes he was good, and other times he looks lost, and sometimes, tired. His voice was also grating to many, and the scoring format was a little unfair. It was 3 single rounds and one triple round. On quite a few occasions, a single family racked up a lot of points in the 3 rounds, and the strategy is to deliberately strike out and the other team couldn't possibly catch up no matter what answer they say. The set also had a "cold" feel with all the silver and blue. People I know have seen tapings of Louie's version of Feud and say that Louie makes a LOT of mistakes during a taping.

Richard Karn was... likable. Unlike Louie, Karn was VERY consistent and ran Feud like a well oiled machine. How can you NOT like Karn? Very nice, and a great smile. The set was also revamped with warmer earth tone colors. Unfortunately, just being likable doesn't cut it as a host for Family Feud. Truth be told, Richard Karn was never a quick witted guy, and while he had his moments, wasn't really that funny. He missed MANY opportunities for quick one liners when a BAD answer was given. If you watch especially the last season, it's easy to see that Karn has gotten stale. A good host can make every show different, and give people a reason to keep watching. With Karn, it seemed each show was pretty much the same. The set for Karn's final season was also all wrong. The set was overhauled with more lights, and a new backdrop that changed colors.

After watching the Family Fued, I've come to the conclusion that the future of the show is finding a host who has the light touch of a Richard Dawson. Richard kept it light with the guests and connected with people. E Channel's story of the "Family Fued" was wonderful and after watching it the viewer see's that Dawson's touch was the most potent for the show. Sadly, you can't bring Richard back as too much time has passed since his era ended but any future host of the Fued needs the "people skills" he had to succeed.

Louie Anderson came off very well in the E Channel story about the Family Fued. He seems like a good and decent man. It's just that with Louie now gone as the host the new host will have to be more comfortable with people than Louie had been for the show to succeed. It appeared that Louie never was confortable with the silly banter between the host and guests that is neccessary for the show to succeed.

I'm sitting and patiently waiting for someone to realize this show sucks and pull it off the air. It's an insult to the late Mark Goodson and Bill Todman (who created the original), Richard Dawson (the greatest Feud host of all time), Gene Wood (a great announcer), and the late Ray Combs (an good replacement), and everything they did to make this show a classic among game shows.

Family Feud used to be a good time for the whole family, but I'm not sure that I'd let my kids (if I had any) watch this. The questions are ridiculous and the answers have more sexual overtones than an episode of The Newlywed Game.

Louie looks like he'd rather be doing anything but hosting this game, which is another reason this version doesn't work. This show relies on a strong, personable host and Louie is neither. A few times I've seen him resort to name dropping Richard's name in an effort to make himself look better. It's not working Louie.

Thank God GSN shows the good Richard Dawson and Ray Combs versions of this show, because if it weren't for them...well, survey would say...no way!!!

Its good and worth PVRing to have a few on hand. Harvey is normally good except when he rambles on and on and over-hams it which happens at least once an episode.

The questions suck!!!! Either about canibals, cheating, or steve harvey himself.

Also the final $20k questions are either softballs or killer hard, never right in the middle.