Who Was The Best Host of 'Family Feud' NOT Named Richard Dawson?

[TMC]

In honor of the relaunch of our brand new site at www.gameshowgarbage.com, Robert Q. Seidelman and Jim Williams decided to do the unenviable task of ranking and listing all of the US Family Feud Hosts. How does our list stack against yours?

[EccentricGenius]

Undoubtedly the late, great Ray Combs. 'Nuff said.

[Yong Fang]

Ray Combs was much better than Richard Dawson. Dawson was an old geezer who creepily kissed strange women. I didnt hate him perse, and I watched the original show throughout my childhood and Dawson could be humourous and I think he geniunely liked people.

Combs was younger and more enthusiatic and brought more energy into the production. Combs was a tragic figure, he really was, he was a sitcom actor and comedian first. Dawson was also a sitcom actor but did Match Game after Hogan's Heroes and rightfully thought he would make a good game show host (and mostly he was).

Combs was such a tragic figure and I honestly believe Family Fued sort of ruined his career in many ways. He turned into a "game show host", was fired from Family Fued for low ratings and it was hard for him to get new jobs, since by then as well as now, there is really only Family Fued, Wheel of (Mis)Fortune and Jeoprady and the latter two jobs were locked up. Did some supermarket game show on a low rated channel and then his life turned horribly.

Then there were three other dudes who came and went who werent "game show host" material, and apparently Steve Harvey fit the right formula because he has been there for twenty years.

[EccentricGenius]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

Ray Combs was much better than Richard Dawson. Dawson was an old geezer who creepily kissed strange women. I didn't hate him per se, and I watched the original show throughout my childhood and Dawson could be humorous and I think he genuinely liked people.

Combs was younger and more enthusiastic and brought more energy into the production. Combs was a tragic figure, he really was, he was a sitcom actor and comedian first. Dawson was also a sitcom actor but did Match Game after Hogan's Heroes and rightfully thought he would make a good game show host (and mostly he was).

Combs was such a tragic figure and I honestly believe Family Feud sort of ruined his career in many ways. He turned into a "game show host", was fired from Family Feud for low ratings and it was hard for him to get new jobs, since by then as well as now, there is really only Family Feud, Wheel of (Mis)Fortune and Jeopardy! and the latter two jobs were locked up. Did some supermarket game show on a low rated channel and then his life turned horribly.

Then there were three other dudes who came and went who weren't "game show host" material, and apparently Steve Harvey fit the right formula because he has been there for twenty years.

Interesting point, Yong Fang. It seems like the odds were already stacked against Ray Combs before he even videotaped his debut episode, let alone a test pilot, of Family Feud. Upon his hiring, critics and viewers alike had already started comparing Combs to his predecessor, a factor that stuck to Combs throughout his six-year tenure. Despite all the criticism and scrutiny, Combs managed to make Feud his own.

I believe the turning (and breaking) point arrived in the summer of '92 when CBS expanded the daytime incarnation of Feud from thirty minutes to a full hour by not only introducing the infamous Bullseye Round at the beginning of each episode but also by changing the title altogether (The Family Feud Challenge) in an ultimately futile attempt to improve its sagging daytime and nighttime ratings; Mark Goodson Productions also incorporated the Bullseye Round into the first-run syndicated nighttime episode as well (the first-run syndicated nighttime incarnation was simply retitled The New Family Feud) to avoid confusion with the daily CBS daytime edition).

Less than six months later, in December of '92, Mark Goodson succumbed to pancreatic cancer, a loss that destroyed Combs on both a professional and personal level...Goodson was one of the few people that had believed in and saw potential in Combs. Almost immediately after Goodson's death, his son Jonathan became the CEO of his father's company, and Jonathan Goodson was now saddled with improving Feud's rapidly dwindling ratings, which had slumped to an all-time low.

CBS yanked The Family Feud Challenge from its daytime schedule in the autumn of '93 due to declining viewership; CBS had actually been airing repeat episodes for several months prior to its eventual cancellation (some of CBS' affiliates had already removed it from their schedules altogether and began airing either syndicated or local programming in its timeslot). As a result, CBS subsequently returned the timeslot previously occupied by The Family Feud Challenge to its affiliates. By the time CBS had pulled The Family Feud Challenge from its daytime lineup, the daytime television landscape had become oversaturated with first-run syndicated talk shows, court shows, and tabloid newsmagazines.

The bad news continued for Combs when the first-run syndicated nighttime incarnation of Feud was cancelled in the late spring of '94. Upon examining Feud's lackluster ratings, Jonathan Goodson had made the difficult decision to relive Combs of his emceeing duties and replace him with the very emcee Combs had succeeded in the first place, the one and only Richard Dawson. Dawson reluctantly agreed to return to host the first-run syndicated incarnation of Feud that autumn with a revamped and slightly updated look, though the Bullseye Round was retitled the "Bankroll Round."

Despite Dawson's efforts (as well as a brief ratings spike that had occurred upon his return), the revamped Feud was unable to compete with not only daytime talk show titans such as Oprah, Geraldo, Sally Jessy Raphael, Ricki Lake, and Montel Williams, but also because of the O.J. Simpson trial (which had begun in January of '95). The O.J. Simpson trial had preempted Feud--as well as many other daytime programs (talk shows and soap operas in particular)--in many major markets nationwide, and Dawson's second Feud tenure was completely swallowed up by the O.J. Simpson trial. Due to mediocre ratings and low clearances in several major markets, the first-run syndicated edition of Feud was canceled in September of '95.

Meanwhile, Combs' life was in a complete shambles, both on a professional and personal level. Combs' wife (and mother of his six children), Debbie, had filed for divorce in 1995, and a year prior to that, Combs had suffered a near-fatal automobile accident shortly after Jonathan Goodson had terminated him and replaced him with Dawson; due to his auto accident, Combs was placed on prescribed painkillers, which quickly altered his daily life. Combs had also filed for bankruptcy and was also severely typecast in the entertainment industry mainly because of his six-year stint as Feud host. Though Combs appeared in interstitials for the newly-formed Game Show Network throughout 1995 and even returned to his emceeing roots by hosting the Feud-inspired The Family Challenge on The Family Channel (now known as Freeform) in early 1996, those endeavors did very little to improve his personal life or his dire financial situation.

In June of 1996, Combs contacted his estranged wife Debbie and revealed to her that he was suicidal. Debbie quickly dialed 911 and Combs was placed in the psychiatric ward at the local hospital. That night, Combs hung himself in the closet of his hospital room. He was forty years old.

[AMackII]

Actually, it was Ray Combs (1988 to 1994)