We asked 100 people...

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Mar 19 2005, 01:47 AM\']

Poll #0227/000030: "We asked 100 bartenders: 'Members of what occupation seem to talk the most?'" The top 5 answers were on the board:
Salespeople (25), Construction (16), Other Bartenders (10), Factory Workers ( and Business Executives (6)

Those responses add up to only 65 points. The remaining 35 points are split among no less than 21 other answers, some of which received 4 responses in the poll (secretaries and truck drivers). Others received 3 or 2 responses but were not included for editorial reasons. Indeed, only "the top 5 answers were on the board".

[snapback]78661[/snapback]

[/quote]

Doesn't this practice of cutting the less popular answers from the surveys have another purpose: Making a win in three rounds less likely so that certain hosts who will remain nameless don't have to do as much stretching.

[Particleman]

You know, I think they probably take the open-endedness of question into consideration when they make the decision to cut unpopular responses.  I say this because my two techs and I conducted a survey for a Family Feud Christmas party (the birth of my software) and if we were to leave all the responses in, even if two people said them, the question was so open-ended that we knew no one would have a shot at even getting close to guessing those responses.  So we just cut them out.  I think we asked something like, "Name a popular movie people always watch at Christmas time."  Two people actually gave a response about some kind of a shoot-em-up movie.  Plus, I made a 12-answer board and all the 2 people responses wouldn't fit.  (And perhaps that's another reason they trim the responses down, too many answers given by two people)

A question such as "Name an occupation that requires people to work on Sundays" isn't quite as open-ended (at least not in the 70's).  They put a total of 10 responses on the board.

Forgive me if this seems like a rambling response.

[The Pyramids]

[quote name=\'Monarx\' date=\'Mar 18 2005, 12:29 PM\']I wonder if there were more than 7 responses for questions like "What is your least favorite day of the week?".  I'd love to see some of FF's questions' full answer lists.  Anyway, very cool, Randy.

[snapback]78571[/snapback]

[/quote]

I wonder if when 'Feud' was in development 30 years ago it became obvious that too many one point replies were dragging down the scores en route to 200 points.

Or I wonder if too many one-point replies were creating 15 and 16 culmative replies on the board. Reading all of the one point ones at the end of a round would have taken to much time and not have been very interesting.

[Ian Wallis]

A few times you saw a team get only 199 points in Fast Money.  If they had a "0" in there somewhere, but said an answer that got 1 response, I wonder if anyone would have taken notice of it.  Technically maybe the should have won the money if someone actually said the answer...but I guess since the rules say it must have at least 2 to count, they wouldn't be entitled to it.

[Ian Wallis]

I also seem to remember hearing somewhere that they actually surveyed 200 people for 'Feud', because not everyone would put an answer for each question. Then it would be easier to actually get 100 responses in line for the survey.

While I certainly understand the fact that some people just wouldn't answer certain questions, if more than 100 actually did answer how would they determine which 100 to use in the survey?  It would definately have an effect on the totals.  The first 100 to reach them; earliest postmark date; ... ?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Particleman\' date=\'Mar 19 2005, 06:44 AM\']I think we asked something like, "Name a popular movie people always watch at Christmas time."  Two people actually gave a response about some kind of a shoot-em-up movie.

[snapback]78676[/snapback]

[/quote]
"Die Hard" is a perfectly legitimate response to that question. I watch it every Christmas, at least.