Image Credit: @FamilyFeud via YouTube
Family Feud has been running on American television since 1976, and in nearly fifty years of airing, almost nothing has been allowed to change the format. Then the Kardashians showed up. The celebrity spin-off, hosted by Steve Harvey since 2015, has seen plenty of dramatic episodes, but the 2018 appearance by Kim Kardashian’s family is the only time in the show’s history that a fundamental rule was bent entirely out of shape, live on stage, because one person in the backstage chaos simply refused to move aside.
Family Feud Has Run Since 1976 Without Changing Its Core Rules
The original Family Feud premiered on ABC in 1976 and has run with minor interruptions ever since, making it one of American television’s most durable formats. The rules are simple and have barely changed: two teams of five, one stage, one buzzer. That five-person limit was absolute, until it was not.
Steve Harvey Changed the Energy of the Show
Harvey took over Celebrity Family Feud in 2015 and turned it into something closer to a live stand-up performance than a quiz show. His reactions to wrong answers and his ability to find humour in family tension made him the ideal host for a format built on exactly those two ingredients. He had seen a lot of chaotic celebrity episodes by 2018. Nothing quite prepared him for what came next.
The Kardashians Had Done This Before and Still Lost
This was not the family’s debut on the show. Kim and her sisters had appeared together on an earlier version of the series back in 2008, where they lost to Deion Sanders and his family. A decade on, Kim was determined to return. When the originally planned rival team, Paris Hilton’s family, pulled out at the last minute, Kim pulled in her then-husband Kanye West’s family from Chicago to face her side on stage.
Behind the Scenes, Things Were Already Unravelling
The episode was documented on Season 15 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which gave viewers an edited behind-the-scenes version of events. What it showed was a Kim trying to manage her family on one side of the stage and Kanye’s on the other, with the whole thing framed in that signature Kardashian way: chaotic but ultimately fine. Steve Harvey’s later account suggested the reality was rather less tidy.
The Problem: One Grandmother, One Best Friend, and Only Five Slots
Kim’s grandmother MJ had been looking forward to appearing on stage with her family. Kim had also personally asked her close friend Jonathan Cheban to fly in for the filming. The trouble was that Family Feud allows five players per team, and both MJ and Cheban wanted to be on that team. Someone needed to step aside. Cheban declined to do so.
Harvey Made an Announcement That Had Never Been Made Before
Faced with a backstage standoff that was threatening to delay filming, Harvey did something the show had never done in its entire history: he announced that for this episode, and this episode alone, the Kardashian team would be allowed six members on stage. The reason was to ensure MJ could join her family, because the alternative option, Cheban leaving gracefully, was apparently not on the table.
Harvey Was Not Happy About It and Said So Publicly
In a later appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Harvey was asked about the episode and was candid about his frustration. He referred to Cheban as the dude at the end and described him as the extra, saying plainly that he was a lot. The implication was clear enough: the obvious solution had been right there, and the fact that it did not happen said something specific about the dynamics at work that day.
Then Came the Cheating Allegation
The rule break over team size was not the only violation of the day. The opposing team, Kanye’s side, caught the Kardashians huddling together to consult on an answer before giving it, which is explicitly against the show’s rules. A game built on split-second individual responses had been turned into a group strategy session, and the other team noticed.
The Keeping Up Edit Smoothed Everything Over
As with most things involving the Kardashians on camera, the version shown on their own reality series was considerably tidier than the version described by people who were there. The KUWTK episode presented the backstage chaos as a familiar, warm family mess that resolved itself comfortably. Harvey’s public comments afterward suggested that the smoothing had been applied with a fairly heavy hand.
It Fits a Broader Pattern
The Cheban situation is a small example of something the Kardashians have generated commentary about for years: the tendency for the rules of a given space to flex whenever the family arrives. Whether it is shaping which version of events appears on their own show, managing their public image with unusual thoroughness, or, in this case, the basic logistics of a television game show, the expectation that accommodation will be made seems to travel with them.
The Show Itself Kept Going Without Looking Back
Family Feud has never allowed a six-person team again. The episode remains the only exception to a rule that had held firm for more than forty years of television. New episodes of Family Feud continue to air on ABC. Celebrity Family Feud is available to stream on Hulu. And Harvey, for his part, has never stopped telling the story.
About the Author
