Bert’s Family Feud
Bert’s Family Feud was the third Australian version of the game show Family Feud. The series was produced by Grundy Television in conjunction with FremantleMedia. It was broadcast on the Nine Network and hosted by Bert Newton. The show intended to feature celebrities and their families as contestants.
A principal motivation for establishing the show was that the Nine Network had the highest-rating Australian television news service for many years, but has seen its viewing audience abandon the network in favour of the Seven Network’s Seven News and Today Tonight. This is not only due to Seven’s increasing ratings for its news programming, but also due to their highly successful game show Deal or No Deal which airs in the 5:30pm timeslot, leading into the news. Leading up to the program’s February 2006 launch there was speculation that the network may delay the program until mid-year and instead show reruns of Friends in the 5:30pm timeslot. Network executives are hoping that Friends reruns will reignite the timeslot and allow Bert’s Family Feud to premiere to a solid audience.
It debuted 13 February 2006. It was cancelled in 2007 due to low ratings. The final episode was taped on 23 May 2007 in the GTV studios in Melbourne and aired on 1 June 2007. 274 episodes were recorded, with the Castricum family being the final contestants, winning $85,000 in total. After the demise, ‘the best-of’ episodes continued to air on Mondays to fulfil the show’s commercial obligations.
