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Assistants (Bert's Family Feud Only)
Mandy Ritchie & Kathryn Trapani
Nine Network: 13 February 2006-1 June 2007
Network Ten: 14 July 2014-present
Packagers
Grundy Organization (1977-2006)
FremantleMedia Australia (2006-2007, 2014-present)
Family Feud (and formerly Bert's Family Feud) is a game show based on the American format of the same name where two families of four members (similar to the 1994 U.S. version hosted by Richard Dawson) try to guess the most popular answers to pre-conducted survey questions that were posed to 100 people.   
Contents
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Representatives of the family are posed questions that have already been answered by 100 people. An answer is considered correct if it is one of the concealed answers on the game board, or judged to be equivalent. More points are given for answers that have been given by more people in the survey (one point per person). Answers must have been given by at least two of the 100 people in order to be included on the board. There are four members on each team.
Examples of questions might be "Name a famous George", "Tell me a popular family vacation spot", "Name something you do at school", or "Name a slang name for policemen". At least two people among the survey respondents must give an answer for it to appear as one of the possibilities.
The participants are not asked questions about what is true or how things really are. Instead, they are asked questions about what other people think is true. As such, a perfectly logical answer may be considered incorrect because it failed to make the survey (e.g.: for the question about Georges, George Jones was a popular country singer, but if his name was not given by at least two people it would be considered wrong).
Basics
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Two opposing family members "face off" to see which family will gain control of that particular question. Sometimes, the host will read the question only once in the entire round if time is short. Traditionally, they greet each other with a handshake before the question is read. Whoever guesses the more popular answer in the survey has the option to play the question or pass it to the other family. If neither player gives a valid answer, the next member of each family gets a chance to answer, with control again going to the family giving the more popular answer. If both answers are worth the same amount of points, control goes to the player that buzzed in first.
The family in control can keep the question in which the family attempts to give all the remaining answers on the board, or pass to the other family. Starting with the next family member in line, each gets a chance to give one answer. Family members may not confer with one another while in control of the board. The family gets a "strike" if a player gives an answer that is not on the board or fails to respond. There is no firm time limit, but the host has the discretion to impose a three second count if time is short or the contestant appears to be stalling. Three strikes cause the family to relinquish control of the board, giving the other family one chance to steal the points in the bank by correctly guessing one of the remaining answers.
In the 1977–1984 version, the entire family could confer before the answer was given. In the 1989–1996 & 2006 versions, each family member gave his or her answer one at a time. The head of household could then either select one of those three or give his or her own. If the family guesses a remaining answer correctly, they receive the points accumulated by the other family.
On Bert's Family Feud, "Bert's Bonus" was a new feature launched on 3 April 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.
After determining who takes the bank for a round, any remaining answers are then revealed. Per tradition, the audience yells each unrevealed answer in a choral response.
The first family to reach a set number of points (200 from 1977 to 2007 and 300 today) wins the game.
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): Double points (or triple on Bert's version with only two top answers) (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 (or one on the current version).
On Friday Night All Stars on 4 August 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 11 August 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.
Major/Bonus Round
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The winning family chooses two family members to play the round. One family member leaves the stage and is placed in an isolation booth, while the other is given 15 seconds (20 in the 2000's series) to answer five questions. The clock begins counting down after the host finishes reading the first question. If he or she cannot think up an answer to a question, he or she may pass. A contestant may revisit a passed question at the end if time permits. If time runs out and all the questions have not been asked yet, they will still be in play as long as they have not been passed. The number of people giving each answer is revealed once all five answers are given or time has expired, whichever comes first. The player earns one point for each person that gave the same answer; at least two people must have given that answer for it to score. When revealing the number of people giving the same response, it is most commonly revealed with the phrase, "(Our) Survey said!"
Once all the points for the first player are tallied, the second family member comes back on stage with the first contestant's answers covered and is given 20 seconds (25 in the 2000's series) to answer the same five questions. If the second player gives the same answer as the first player on a question, a double buzzer will sound, and the host will ask for another response.
If one or both family members accumulate a total of 200 points or more, the family wins the top prize:
1977-1984: Prize package worth $8,000.
1989-1996: Prize package worth over $7,000 & a cash jackpot starting at $2,000 and increasing by $1,000 until won.
2006-2007: Up to $100,000 depending on how many top answers given in the Bonus Round (first format) or in Bullseye round (Friday Night All-Stars), losing families get a $1,000 gift voucher.
2014-present: $10,000 in cash
On the current version, less then 200 points earns the family $10 times their final score, up to $1990.
Bert's Bonus Round
On Bert's Family Feud, the top prize is based on how many top answers are given.
Regular Episodes
John Michael Howson
Deborah Lovely
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.
Friday Night All Stars
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"Friday Night All Stars" was a special one-hour format of "Bert's Family Feud" on Fridays at 7.30pm, which premiered on 28 July 2006 and finished on 1 September. 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).
Additional rounds
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"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 (28 July), a special guest appeared as a substitute for Round 3 and regular round rules applied. The other exception was on the third episode (11 August), 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
The contestants that were featured on the series were:
28 July 2006 AFL vs NRL
AFL
Peter Everitt (Hawthorn Hawks) with Sheree Orchard
Brodie Holland (Collingwood Magpies) with Sarita Stella
NRL
Billy Slater (Melbourne Storm) with Nicole Rose
Ben Ross (Cronulla Sharks) with Kirsten Ross
4 August 2006 AFL vs NRL
AFL
Jason Akermanis (Brisbane Lions) with Megan Akermanis
Brendan Fevola (Carlton Blues) with Alex Fevola
NRL
Jason Stevens (Cronulla Sharks) with Angie Stevens
Sam Harris (Wests Tigers) with Hannah Els
11 August 2006 AFL vs NRL
AFL
Billy Brownless (formerly Geelong Football Club) with Nicky Brownless
Brian Taylor (formerly Collingwood Magpies) with Tania Taylor
NRL
Mario Fenech (formerly South Sydney Rabbitohs) with Rebecca French
Bradley Clyde (formerly Canberra Raiders and Canterbury Bulldogs) with Tony Clyde
18 August 2006 AFL vs NRL
AFL
Doug Hawkins (formerly Western Bulldogs) with Raelene Hawkins
Nathan Buckley (Collingwood Magpies) with Tania Buckley
NRL
Wayne Pearce (formerly Balmain Tigers) with Tatum Pearce
Shaun Timmins (St George Illawarra Dragons) with Larissa Evans
25 August 2006 Athletics vs Swimming
Trackstars (Athletics)
Steve Moneghetti with Tanya Moneghetti
John Steffensen with Zoe Balbi
Fast Lane (Swimming)
Nicole Livingstone with Gary Livingstone
Sam Riley with Lin Riley
1 September 2006 Basketball vs Rowing
Boomers (Basketball)
Andrew Gaze with Melinda Gaze
Mark Bradtke with Nicole Bradtke
Oarsome Foursome (Rowing)
James Tomkins with Bridget Tomkins
Nick Green with Taimi Green
Mad Monday
On Monday, 22 May 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.
2006
4 September: St John Ambulance featuring Metropolitan Ambulance Service
11 September: Scouts featuring Guides
18 September: Bayside Bowls Club featuring Wycheproof Bowls Club
25 September: Animals (horse-mounted police officers) featuring Search & Rescue (police officers)
2 October: Golden Girls featuring Golden Guys (past prominent television personalities)
9 October: Road Rescue featuring Flood & Storm (different sectors of the S.E.S.
16 October: The Players featuring The Coaches (people from the Australian Baseball League)
23 October: MFB featuring CFA
30 October: University of Sydney Arts students featuring University of Melbourne Science students
6 November: Star Wars fans featuring Star Trek fans
13 November: Nurses featuring Doctors
20 November: Cricketers featuring Cricket Commentators
2007
29 January: Top Girls featuring Top Guys (Top VCE achievers)
5 February: NSW featuring VIC Surf Livesavers
12 February: Melbourne Zoo featuring Melbourne Aquarium
19 February: Fonteyns featuring Nureyevs (Female & Male Ballet Dancers)
26 February: Samsons featuring Delilahs (Male & Female Bodybuilders)
5 March: Leather vs Lace (Male featuring Female Fashion Designers)
12 March: Golden Girls featuring Deadly Medley (Female & Male Swimmers)
19 March: Naude family featuring Tambassis family (Two Sets of Quadruplets)
26 March: Merry Men featuring Funny Girls (Male & Female Comedians)
Winners
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On the 9 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 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 30 June.
In total, ten families did win the maximum 5 nights:
The Johnson family - $20,000 (16 February–22 February 2006)
The Watt family - $55,000 (27 February–3 March 2006)
The Amey family - $16,500 (3 May–9 May 2006)
The Wysman family - $31,500 (18 May–25 May 2006)
The McLean family - $1,500 (11 August–18 August 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 (29 August–5 September 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 (6 September–13 September 2006).
The Mooney family - $40,500 (12 October–19 October 2006). This money was won on their first two nights.
The Barbaro family - $17,000 (1 March–8 March 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 (25 May–1 June 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, 12 July 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.
Memorable Occurrences
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The highest possible losing score of 199 was achieved by the Falcke family on 15 February 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 15 February 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 24 February 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 1 November 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 6 September 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 8 May to 12 May 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 11 May, the Siggins family had 3 male contestants, so they dressed up as females! 12 May's episode featured two groups of nurses playing for their hospitals (see above in "Mad Monday").
On 10 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 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: 10 July, 12 July (100th episode), 11 September, 4 October, 19 October, 23 October, 30 October (where for the first time neither player could identify an answer on the board), 1 November and 16 March 2007.
On Friday Night All Stars on 4 August 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 (as a higher-pitched sound) on the PBS game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? to indicate a wrong answer.
On Friday Night All Stars on 4 August 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 9 August 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 17 August 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 18 August 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 11 September 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 11 September 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 19 September 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 25 October 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 1 June 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".
All Star Family Feud (2016)
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All Star Family Feud is a one-hour celebrity version which occasionally airs at 7:30pm on selected nights (initially Monday nights only) on Network Ten, and is also occasionally repeated at least once or twice during the week. The current celebrity version premiered on 14 March 2016.
Unlike the nightly 6pm version and previous celebrity versions, there is no set high score for the main game. Six rounds are played during the main game:
Rounds 1, 2 and 3 played for normal points
Rounds 4 and 5 played for Double Points
Round 6 played for Triple Points
The team with the highest overall score wins $20,000 for their charity (the losing team also scoring $10,000 for their charity), and plays the Bonus Round. As with the 6pm version, a combined score of at least 200 points nets an additional $10,000; 199 points or less again earns the team $10 per point scored.
Participating Teams
14 March: NRL (National Rugby League) Stars vs. AFL (Australian Football League) Stars
21 March: MasterChef - Judges vs. Contestants
28 March: Anh Do (and family) vs. James O'Neill (and family)
4 April: Neighbours (Australian soap opera) vs. The Project (news magazine program)
11 April: Shark Tank vs. Bondi Rescue
18 April: Joel Creasey (and family) vs. Chrissie Swan (and family)
25 April: Ryan "Fitzy" FitzGerald (and family) vs. Michael "Wippa" Wipfli (and family)
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ADDITIONAL NOTE:
The 1988-96 Australian version of Feud never used or emulated the 1988-94 Combs era set from America at the time.
Crown & Andrews era (2006)
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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.
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Powered by Beamly, you can play along with the show weeknights at 6. A new question will launch in each ad break during the episode and you have until the end of the break to play. Questions are based on survey results of 100 people and you will have to try to guess the four top answers as you must be quick, as you only have 20 seconds to submit your answer and three strikes to get it right. In addition, you can login from the leaderboard screen to have your scores counted on the daily and weekly leaderboard. A daily leaderboard will display for each timezone who are participating during the live broadcast. See below for the link.
(additional note: A new leaderboard starts each Monday)
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