Family Feud

July 26, 2018

Family Feud

So most of you must know by now, I was on Family Feud! (What a crazy, out of this world, dream come true that somehow happened for my family). So, if you're curious. I'll tell you all about the journey.

It all started with my step mom's passion for watching Family Feud 24/7...

With that knowledge and facebook as a great advertising site, I saw an ad for Family Feud Auditions taking place in Northeast Ohio. I eagerly sent the link to my dad via Facebook because I knew he would just be thrilled and would entertain the idea of actually trying out.

I wasn't sure if my family would actually follow through with this idea but my mom sent in the application. A couple days later she received an email asking if we would send in a video or pictures of our family that accurately described who we were as a family. My mom would not let up on me to put together a video, so we rallied the troops. Here is what we got..

Watch Video Here

The video seemed far from perfect since we only did a couple takes before everyone was annoyed and wanted to go back inside. Despite all the odds or at least the odds we thought we had we were invited to auditions at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky Ohio.

This was only the beginning to what seemed like a long run of luck for my family. On the car ride to Sandusky we played practice games of Family Feud to pump us up for whatever was to come. We also stopped and grabbed some Iced coffees ( a sibling favorite) to help pump up our enthusiasm. When we arrived at the resort there were around 500-600 families ( just a guesstimate). Chances then, seemed even dimmer for the fam. Everyone there was rocking their own family style. Some families color coordinated and some wore matching t-shirts they made. My family of course all rocked their own style (since we are all very different from one another) which at that time, I couldn't tell if it would work against us or for us. All I knew was there was no way possible we would get picked.

They had about 6 conference rooms that the families were sorted into. We waited for our names to be called to go up in front of the room to do a Family Feud mock game and face off with another family; for our shot at being the real deal. My sister Maggie, an ex Cavaliers Cheerleader eager to show off her skills and personality, was practicing back tucks in the hallways before our debut. One thing the producers stressed throughout this whole process was for us to be as loud and energetic as we possibly could, so coming from a family of gymnasts it only seemed right to do some stunts. So we did exactly that. When our names were called we ran up shouting and screaming like we were actually on tv. Maggie introduced herself with a back tuck which, definitely grabbed the crowds attention.

We had the loud and energetic part down to a T but, it was hard to focus on the actual game (you know the questions). The question we had to answer was: Name a southern state that is known for southern accents...

we were off to strong start with the answers but got two X's in a row when my dad said, wait for it..............North Carolina. NORTH Carolina?! North??? Despite how much this made me laugh we had to constantly answer with "Good Answer" (insert eye roll and sass) Maggie followed up with South Carolina for another X and Tracy with West Virginia with the third haunting X.

We lost vs. the other family. We sucked. Like really sucked. So, I was not sure if we would get an actual chance to make it to LA. As we were walking out of the conference room we were handed a sheet and told to stick around. We were then brought into another conference room that had a video camera and some producers that wanted us to each individually talk about ourself and stress how much my family rules. They thanked us, told us how awesome we were for making it to auditions and my mom thanked them for really making one of her dreams come true. Even to just get to audition was such an experience.

We were told to wait for a post card in the mail that we would receive in about a month if we were chosen.

The wait..

We waited and waited and checked email after email. We were sure we weren't picked.

Then one day. When I came home for work, my dad told me to check what was on the kitchen counter. To my amazement...

There it was! The postcard.

The postcard led to lots more waiting for dates and booking but at this point it was settling in at just how real this all was. We were chosen to be on Family Feud.

To get ready for the real deal we were advised to watch as much Family Feud as possible to prepare for the show. This was easy since my mom watches it religiously. Although my nerves felt like nothing really could prepare me for this life event. The whole plane ride there and the night before at the hotel all I could think was, this isn't real. Why us?

Although we made it through all the trials up until the real deal we still were not promised or guaranteed a spot on the show. We had to yet again prove ourselves the next day in rehearsal to show we weren't camera shy or completely awful. They invited 6 families to LA and told us that morning only 4 would get the chance to go.

We had the whole order picked out for when we went up behind the podiums. My step mom, me, my sister Maggie, my brother Alec, and my dad. during rehearsal you are put on the Family Feud stage (which was surreal), and were asked questions as if you were really on the show the only difference was the questions weren't asked by Steve Harvey. With adrenaline pumping through our veins we (or most of us) were completely nervous wrecks. My mom was the captain and seemed to have a nervousness about her tone while introducing us. When it came to me I was also a nervous wreck and could not for the life of me get my words out coherently. Maggie was smooth as always and Alec was just missing a smile which we weren't surprised by because this whole journey he had seemed less than enthused about. My dad (who we all thought would bomb it) totally surprised us and became a great public speaker. We were told that if we got picked they wanted to change the order around.

My dad, My sister Maggie, Me, My Step mom then my brother.

This upset my step mom because she thought we must have blew it because how nervous we were, but in reality there were a lot of nervous families.

As the day went on the chances of us getting picked seemed like they were slimming. To not get our hopes up my Sister and I just talked about how we would just go to the pool if we did not get picked and enjoy the sunshine. I mean, we were in LA and had a free trip, so we tried not to add on the pressure. After two families had gone and it was time for lunch we were notified that we were going to get our shot at stardom and we would be facing the last family of the day. We waited in the family trailer for our turn. Mind you, at this point it was a very long day and it felt like all my makeup had run off and I needed a nap from all the yelling.

It was finally our turn. They called out our name, THE DROWNS FAMILY FROM CLEVELAND, OHIO.