Power Ranking the Family Feud Hosts

[Jeremy Nelson]

Now that we've had nearly 15 years(!) since anyone not named Steve Harvey has hosted Family Feud, how would you power rank the hosts? Has your opinion changed on how any of them hosted?

1. Richard Dawson- I just don't know how not to give him #1. Kissing aside, he was top notch at contestant interactions and knew how to spin a good wrong answer.

2. Ray Combs- Call me partial because he was the host I grew up on. But he's the one guy who struck a nice balance between being funny and lending the show tension when the game started to pick up.

3. Steve Harvey- I could make the argument that Seasons 1-2 of Steve's run were some of the best comedic work done on a game show. But when the show took off and the writers started feeding him questions designed to elicit a response (versus letting Steve just be funny) the quality suffered. He still has some great moments though.

4. Louie Anderson- Really wish that Louie didn't have his demons during this stage of his life cause when he was good, man he could be really good. Would have loved to see Baskets-era Louie Anderson host the show.

5. Richard Karn- In retrospect, I think Karn was a decent host. Didn't care for his catchphrases, but now that there's a lot of distance between him and this job, I can look objectively and say he had a good time and interacted well with his constestants. He's just not higher because the people above him were iconic.

6. John O Hurley- He was such a breath of fresh air versus Karn, but his hosting style always made me feel like he thought he was above hosting the show.

7. Al Roker- I didn't think he was bad, but the sample set is too small to say whether he was better than anyone else.

[Stackertosh]

Ray Combs: He was a lot of fun and was great with the contestant interactions, and I loved when he did the fake fast money.

Richard Dawson was a great host and was also funny, and he wanted the contestants to win. I hated the kissing part.

Louie Anderson: His version was the first time I watched the show, and I thought he was great for his first season and half, and after the second season, he looked like he was getting bored hosting the show and the whole blackmail thing was getting to him.

John O Hurley: I thought he did a great job as host and had some funny moments.

Steve Harvey I thought in the beginning he was funny and the show lacked a funny host for a while. Steve hosting got tiring after a while with his same lines and the show just feels rushed. (The same 20 second theme piece,No proper family introductions.) I just really think the show is stale.

Richard Karn: He wasn't a bad host. He did a good job moving the show along and did a great job interacting with the families. Richard wasn't a comedian, so when a funny moment happened, he tried to be funny, or he missed the mark.

Al Roker: I tied him with Richard Karn, He wasn't a bad host; he kept the show moving and did a great job interacting with the families; he was just corny, and there were moments he tried to be funny or missed the mark.

[BrandonFG]

1. Dawson, the OG. The kissing to me is only a bit creepy because he did it so much, but I can look at it thru the lens of it being a different era, and he had to get consent from contestants before the show. Even with the ego, he knew to let the contestants be the star and went to bat for them frequently.

2. Combs. This was the era I grew up on, and knowing he had big shoes to fill he knew to make the show its own. Really hate that depression led to him leaving this earth far too soon, because he was an underrated talent who deserved another shot outside of “Family Challenge”.

3. Harvey. Not a fan of the pointed questions designed to make a good YouTube clip because I’ve been a fan of Steve long before “Feud”. The few bloopers that seem to happen organically he handles it like a pro, which is why I don’t understand why the producers try to force moments to happen. This is the one show notorious for contestant bloopers.

4. Karn. The tosses to break were uninspired but he was the right host for the show at a time when it simply existed. In the mid-2000s, it was very much a thing on TV, which kinda says more about the state of television 20 years ago than it does his hosting style.

5. Anderson. I always liked him as a comedian but I felt like he was bored on some days.

6. O’Hurley. Ever since I read someone called it “Feud in the Park” I couldn’t unsee it. I liked the changes the show made like bringing back Bullseye and the traditional intros, but everything else about that era was mostly forgettable.

7. Roker. The NBC “Celebrity Feud” didn’t know what it wanted to be, so I don’t think I ever sat through a complete episode.

[BillCullen1]

Here's my take

1 Dawson - the original is the best in this case. He set the standard and for the first few years was at his best. Later in the run his ego became huge and he started arguing the judging of producer Howard Felscher. The scoring was changed to 400 points to win so Dawson would keep it moving and stop joking and chatting with contestants. The kissing seems creepy now, but overall he was a good host.

2 Combs - he inherited the task of taking a show made popular by someone else and putting his own stamp on it. He managed to do that successfully. Unfortunately, personal problems and his inner demons overtook him, and sadly he took his own life. Shame, but he did a decent job as host.

3 Harvey - he's had the job longer than anyone else. He gave a shot of adrenaline to the show the first couple of years. But how many times can you act shocked when someone says penis or vagina. The emphasis seems to be more on "Youtube moments" than the game itself. I rarely watch now.

4 O'Hurley - an improvement over Karn, whom he replaced. The "shocked look" at hearing the buzzer grew old, but he mostly kept the game moving and was a decent host.

5 Karn - an improvement over Anderson, whom he replaced. He was robotic and repeated the same phrases. But at least he acted like he wanted to be there. I thought he was okay as a host.

6 Anderson - oy vey! Originally my thought was "A comic who's use to being in front of an audience and thinking on his feet. This will work out great." Clearly it didn't. At times he looked disinterested like he would rather be elsewhere. During his first season, I sometimes couldn't understand him when he was reading a question. i also heard that during breaks and stopdowns, he would go offstage and not bother talking to the audience. That was left to announcer Burton Richardson. Even Dawson with his inflated ego talked to the audience.

I don't remember FF shows with Al Roker, so I can't comment on him.