When you hear the term “Family Feud” you kind of think of a Hatfield/McCoy kind of spat don’t you? Well thankfully the show was a lot more civil than that and the hosts have made it a lot of fun over the years too. Starting in the 70’s, the overall format of the game hasn’t really changed much, but there have been six notable hosts that have taken the helm of this show and run with it. Steve Harvey is the current host and there seem to have been good days and bad days when it comes to running the show, but people look as though they’re having a good time even when the host isn’t. The whole point of the game is to rack up points and beat out the other family, but the level of ridiculousness that goes into the game at times when it comes to the answers is kind of fun to watch since it really makes you think of the many different answers that would and should qualify. But then again there are those individuals that seem to misunderstand the question or for some inane reason don’t really get the concept of what they’re supposed to be thinking about. If you watch the clips below you’ll get it. Worse yet, the hosts have to pretend as though the people just made a minor slip when they something really dumb.
How many of us would be able to do that? There’s a reason why the host of this show has to be someone that can pull a straight face after all. With that in mind, here are the hosts of the show ranked from what I believe to be worst to best.
6. John O’Hurley (2006-10)
Okay I’ll amend my words above. There were no really bad hosts on this show, but there were those that were more memorable than others. John had a nice long career up until Family Feud and it kept going after that, but unless you were a big lover of soap operas and other drama-laden shows you might not have known who he was. Again, there’s no really bad hosts on here, there’s just those that have gotten more exposure and those that people don’t know all that well. It’s funny because quite honestly O’Hurley has been in plenty of films and TV shows, so you would think that he’d be a lot better known.
5. Ray Combs (1988-94)
Combs didn’t have a wildly successful career as he played a guest star or an extra on a handful of shows and had his longest run on Family Feud. Unfortunately Combs committed suicide after being admitted to a psychiatric ward and placed on suicide watch in 1996. He’d already had a history of suicidal tendencies and was being cared for, but unfortunately the help he needed came a bit too late.
4. Louie Anderson (1999-02)
Louie Anderson has had a lot of different projects in his life. Anyone remember when he had a cartoon based on his life as a kid? For Family Feud he even went so far as to ask the original host, Richard Dawson, to come on the show and give him his blessing. Unfortunately Dawson turned him down. Anderson wasn’t likely the most popular host to ever make his way onto the show, but his star power at that point was still great enough that he was able to drum up a bit of interest.
3. Steve Harvey (2010-present)
You could make the argument that Steve Harvey should be number one on this list but there’s a reason he’s not and we’ll get to that. At the moment though being third on this list is pretty good since it means that he’s doing something right. In fact the show experienced a huge boost to its ratings when he came on board and has been doing better than ever. Harvey is pretty opinionated however and as you can see from his facial expressions at times he really wonders about the intelligence of the guests. Of course when you hear someone say “a joint” as a response to the question of what gets passed around it might not be the first thing you think of.
2. Richard Karn (2002-06)
After replacing Louie Anderson, Richard took to this job as though he’d been made for it. As you can guess a lot of people were happy to see the guy that played Al from Home Improvement and it was a fun time when he was around, but he would eventually leave in 2006 to pursue other opportunities. It really seems that unless people are axed from this show that they will leave eventually to find something else not out of spite, but just because it’s more of a layover spot. Steve Harvey is probably one of the longest-running hosts on the show as of now.
1. Richard Dawson (1976-85, 1994-95)
Dawson gets the top spot largely because he was the first and one of the most well-loved. He didn’t invent the show but he certainly brought it into the spotlight with his own sense of style. His only downfall was that he liked to kiss the female contestants for luck, and some people had a serious issue with it. Nothing ever came from it, but it’s something you don’t see in this day and age.
Admit it, when you see Dawson you think of this clip:
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