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Power Ranking the Family Feud Hosts

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JasonA1:

--- Quote from: Kevin Prather on September 26, 2024, 06:44:50 PM ---3. Richard Dawson - Being the OG always lends itself to a positive bias, but let's face it. He was in the right place at the right time. He did a great job, don't get me wrong, but this format probably would have gone to #1 at that time with just about anyone with any sort of comedic timing at the helm. Probably not Joe Namath.

(Note I said "at that time." Don't be pointing to later hosts as a counterexample.)

--- End quote ---

I'd be pointing to a later host as an example, then, rather than a counterexample. I think it's clear Steve Harvey has an "it" factor with the audience that took the show to new heights after years of passable, but not exceptional performance. And I think Richard Dawson had something unique and undeniable that turned Feud from a good game show into a bonafide TV classic. Had one of the "regular" hosts of the '70s started with Feud instead, I'd be skeptical of it rising to the place it has in American culture. The other 1999-present hosts gave me lots of evidence that the format's strength alone probably wasn't enough.

For as much as we've stressed "the game is the star" and highlighting contestants, Dawson, and people like Gene Rayburn and Bob Barker, all respected their games and contestants, while also making themselves irreplaceable ingredients in the mix, IMO. And I think that also speaks to why the show took off with Steve Harvey.

Just to clarify, it's not the ranking I'm responding to -- it's the idea that Richard was "lucky."

-Jason

TLEberle:
I had made the point privately that Feud starring Jack Narz would be a very different show and unlikely to become a juggernaut. I don't see a host playing up "we are going to put to the test the ability of our families to think like the average American of which we polled one hundred, and the family that does so best gets to play for $10,000 in Fast Money."  While of course we care about an intriguing game (and the steal ending carries a lot of that implication) the host has to inject his personality to be the driving force. For as much as I loathe Richard post 1984 or so, he shouldered the burden like a trained mule.

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