On July 12, 1976, Richard Dawson walked onto an ABC daytime stage, asked a family to name something people do at the beach, and kissed his way into television history. Fifty years later, Family Feud is still asking 100 people, and this fall the show is throwing itself a party. The 50th anniversary season begins in syndication on Monday, September 28, with Steve Harvey hosting and the biggest Fast Money in the show's history on the line.

What's Different This Season

  • A $50,000 Fast Money. Across ten special anniversary episodes, the Fast Money jackpot rises from the usual $20,000 to $50,000, in partnership with BetMGM. Two hundred points has never been worth more.
  • Legacy families return. Fan-favorite families from past seasons come back to compete again, a first for a show that has always cycled quickly through contestants.
  • Steve Harvey's 3,000th episode. Harvey took over in 2010 and will pass 3,000 episodes as host this season, a milestone no other Feud host came close to.
  • Cake on stage. The premiere features a custom 50th-anniversary ice cream cake from Carvel, which is also selling a Family Feud Birthday Cake Carvelanche in participating stores.

The Party Off Screen

The anniversary is as much a licensing push as a broadcast event. For a limited time starting in September, TGI Fridays restaurants are stocking an official 50th-anniversary Family Feud board game for diners to play at the table. Arkadium has a new browser game, Gameloft has a version headed to Apple Arcade, and a Twitch clip show will round up the viral moments that have made Harvey's reaction shots a permanent fixture of social media. If the show wanted to prove it belongs to the internet as much as to daytime TV, this is how.

Fifty Years, Six Hosts

The Feud's host history is short for a show this old, and every name on it left a mark:

  • Richard Dawson (1976 to 1985, 1994 to 1995): The original, and the reason "Survey says" and the on-camera kiss exist. He returned for one syndicated season in the mid-90s.
  • Ray Combs (1988 to 1994): Revived the show for CBS and syndication and hosted more than 1,500 episodes across six seasons.
  • Louie Anderson (1999 to 2002): The comedian who brought the show back to syndication after a four-year absence.
  • Richard Karn (2002 to 2006): The Home Improvement star who steadied the revival.
  • John O'Hurley (2006 to 2010): Brought a game-show-host polish that bridged to the modern era.
  • Steve Harvey (2010 to present): Turned the show into a ratings juggernaut and a clip machine, and made Celebrity Family Feud a summer staple on ABC.

Our complete host history goes deeper on each era, and Survey Says: Why Family Feud Never Gets Old looks at why the format has outlasted almost everything else from 1976.

Why the 50th Matters for the Show's Future

Anniversary seasons are usually victory laps. This one doubles as a business statement. Family Feud is among the most-watched shows in syndication and one of the most-viewed on YouTube, and the sponsor-funded $50,000 jackpot shows how the show intends to keep growing: bigger prizes underwritten by partners, more short-form content, and a host who is now a brand of his own. With Harvey passing 3,000 episodes, the question fans keep asking is how long he plans to stay. He has given no sign of leaving, and the show has given him every reason not to.

How to Watch and How to Get On

Family Feud airs weeknights in syndication, often in back-to-back episodes, with recent episodes on Peacock and a deep archive of full episodes on the show's YouTube channel. Celebrity Family Feud Season 12 is airing on ABC. Check our how-to-watch guide for your market, and if the legacy-family episodes make you want to get your own family on the board, our contestant guide explains the audition process step by step.

Sources: Yahoo (press announcement), EURweb, BuzzerBlog, Parade