Is There a Family Feud Curse?

Richard Dawson

In its first run, "Family Feud" seemed to have a charmed life. When "Feud" premiered in 1976, host Richard Dawson was known for being the most popular panelist on the then-most popular daytime game show in television history, "Match Game." By 1977, Family Feud's ratings surpassed "Match Game." The nighttime syndicated version was so successful that it became the first American game show to air ten nightly episodes each week.

Not everyone, however, was in love with Richard Dawson and Family Feud. Some critics didn't appreciate Dawson's trademark act of kissing every female contestant on the show.

In 1985, the ratings faded, and the daytime and nighttime shows were cancelled.

Ray Combs

In 1988, three years after Feud's first run, the show was revived with a new host, stand up comic Ray Combs. While Combs didn't have the personal magnetism of Richard Dawson, his version of Family Feud had a fairly successful five year run. For better or worse, the network even expanded the daytime version into a full hour.

"The Family Feud Curse"

Some critics believe that Feud's ratings decline coincided with the death of legendary producer and show creator Mark Goodson at the end of 1992.

In 1993, the daytime and nighttime versions of the show were cancelled. At the end of the last episode of the syndicated nighttime version, host Ray Combs simply walked off the set without a word of farewell. And, with Combs' exit came the beginning of what some have dubbed "the Family Feud curse."

Two years later, after experiencing marital woes and devastating financial losses, Ray Combs committed suicide in the psychiatric ward of the Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

The Second Coming of Richard Dawson

In 1994, the show's producers brought back original host Richard Dawson to replace Ray Combs, but it wasn't the same. At age 62, Dawson had packed on weight since the show's first run, and he just didn't have the same level of energy. A very private man, it was obvious that Dawson had only reluctantly returned to the spotlight. This version only lasted a year.

Louie Anderson