Family Feud Is The Worst Game Show On Television And Here’s Why

Everyone just loves Family Feud, don’t they? From Ray Combs to Steve Harvey to that guy who would make out with every female contestant, it’s always been treasured. I know it’s a cute, funny show, but let’s be honest, you don’t go on a game show to be cute and funny. You go on to win money.

That’s the problem with Family Feud.

I’m not going to waste your time and ramble on with my personal thoughts and opinions. Let’s get down to facts and simply look at the numbers.

If your family defeats the opposing family, you’re the big winner, right? Wrong.

In order to get any sort of prize whatsoever you have to, then, win Fast Money. Fast Money is the part where a family member is asked a series of questions in rapid fire as they try to combine with another family member’s answers to get 200 points. I watched Family Feud for two weeks to get an estimate of how many times a family gets 200 points in Fast Money. In 20 episodes, 200 points was reached 9 times. That means the majority of the time your family isn’t walking away with $20,000. But even if they do get the points and win $20,000, that’s going to be split between the five family members participating. That means that you could win a game show and then go on to win their “grand prize” and walk away with $4,000. Many of the contestants are from out of state, so that means they took time off of work, got a flight, hotel, and encountered normal travel expenses which could easily eclipse $4,000 on a moderate budget. Congratulation, you’re our big winner. You finished in the red for this trip.

But what if you don’t get the 200 points in Fast Money?

This is where Family Feud becomes a complete joke. Let’s say your family finishes with a modest score of 115 points in Fast Money. You’ll hear the host quickly say that the family isn’t walking away empty handed and that they’ll be giving $5 per point for a total of $575. Seems insulting, doesn’t it? It gets worse. That’s not $575 per person, that’s for the whole team. So you and your family just won a game show and you’re each leaving with $115 dollars. That means you probably could have made more money going to work for the day than competing on the show. Theoretically, if both of your family members froze up during Fast Money and got zero points, you would walk away with nothing despite the fact that you won.

This isn’t the 80s. You can win more money by taking a phone survey from the back of your receipt at Taco Bell than you can being on Family Feud. It’s time to catch up with the times and up your prizes. Do it for the children. Do it for former host Richard Karn.