Ratings up for ‘Family Lewd,’ er, ‘Feud’

Steve Harvey, host of "Family Feud," reacting to a contestant saying he practiced kissing with his sister.
Steve Harvey, host of "Family Feud," reacting to a contestant saying he practiced kissing with his sister.
Posted: September 28, 2012

Content advisory: The following story contains sexual and drug-related innuendo that some readers may find offensive.

Top three answers are on the board.

Name a new title for Family Feud with a word that rhymes with feud:

Family Lewd. (Good answer!)

Family Crude. (Good answer!)

Family Rude. (Good answer!)

Certainly not Prude, or Subdued.

The new season of the syndicated quiz show is off to hot start, and not just because of its highest Nielsen ratings in two decades.

The show's had varying suggestiveness since debuting with Richard Dawson in 1976, but over the last few seasons, with comedian Steve Harvey hosting, the survey questions have become more leading, and the answers often frank.

Just this week on the back-to-back shows from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on CW57 were questions about what a bored stripper might do during a lap dance, where would you get naked if everyone else did, and what kind of animal would fit in a man's underwear.

Also, as to what you hope a friend wouldn't do if you shared a hotel room were such responses as "Have a fart party," "sleep naked," and "Make love/to self."

Harvey, for his part, often feigns shock or outrage, as if all of this "nasty" talk is somehow accidental.

Responding to the idea of a kitten in a man's drawers with horror, Harvey ranted that no way anything's going in there with claws.

You don't get laughs like that on Jeopardy!

And that's not to mention references to plenty of other indelicate behaviors. A question along the lines of "Name something you put down when you see a police car" elicited both beer and marijuana.

Online, such "classic" moments have also proven quite popular.

A clip of a preacher's daughter headlined "Don't Swallow" has gotten more than 2 million views on YouTube. When her graphic answer wasn't on the board - and we won't say what it was here- Harvey rejoiced, grateful the show could stay on the air.

"You'd Do What for Sex?" got almost a million. (100 men said Pay, Kill, Beg, Die and Lie.)

Others have gotten hundreds of thousands of views apiece.

Often, the suggestive answers are toned down, or cutesified, with the likes of "weenie beanie" appearing instead of condom, and "His trouser snake" for an answer to "Name something that can never be long enough."

Apparently, the show's found a formula for success, since it's been renewed through 2015.


Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-85404342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.

 

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