Al Roker Settles The Feud About His New, Old Game Show

By Julie Zied
Fancast.com

Tomorrow night TV’s favorite, jovial weatherman Al Roker helps makes it rain for celebrities’ favorite charities as host on NBC’s new take on the classic game show. Fancast sat down with Roker to find out if this truly is a family show, what sort of antics to anticipate, and whether this will be his new calling. Some of the personalities expected to be buzzing in? Survey says: the casts of The Office, My Name is Earl, and American Gladiators as well as celebrities like Kathy Gifford, alongside their real life families. [Watch a preview clip with Kim Kardashian right here]

What was the toughest part from changing from the weather man role that you do on The Today Show to the game show host on Celebrity Family Feud?
It’s not that much different than what I do on The Today Show. I kind of go down the line talking to people…trying to elicit some kind of fun something out of them. I’m kind of like a catalyst to get people to say some funny stuff or interesting stuff. And so it really wasn’t that hard a transition.

So will you be kissing Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho and all the female celebrities like Richard Dawson used to do?
Actually, I’m changing it up. I just go off to Dog the Bounty Hunter, Vincent Pastore and Tiki Barber. Oh, you never know. It’s one of those things - I’m going to start with a good, firm, hearty handshake and we’ll see where we go from there.

Are you worried about starting any celebrity feuds then while you’re hosting?
Well that’s the whole point of the show. I mean, we don’t want any fisticuffs, obviously, but we do want good, high spirited fun and a lot of these folks, even though they’re - you know, they can be very gentle, fun people on camera, they’re very competitive and they want to win because they’re playing for $50,000 for their favorite charity.

Were there any actual fights?
I mean, there were no fistfights, thankfully. But there were - there was a lot of taunting, a lot of verbal abuse, you know, a lot of trash talk.

Did any of the celebrity teams surprise you, either with how well they did or if you expected them to do very well and they just didn’t?
I think they all did [well], and I think there are some surprises. I’m not going to give them away. But there were some teams that I think people — that we thought might not do as well, and did pretty well.

If you could pick any celebrity family… who would you put on the show?
I would love to have the Trumps.

Some of the questions seem to sort of wander into more risqué territory. For example, name something an older woman buys for her boy toy. Is it still a family fun type show?
You know, interestingly enough I spent a lot of time…watching the Game Show Network, including Family Feud and Match Game. These are shows from the Seventies and the early Eighties. And if you watch them, these were shows that also were family shows, but there was a little wink-wink, nod-nod, talk to your uncle. We’re not going to do anything that’s going to make anybody embarrassed because - well I’ve got kids and I hope they’re going to be sitting down watching the show. So we’re going to - we’re very careful about it.

If Family Feud is successful - do you get to go on with it from here or will you be off for a while and come back later?
I think we all feel like we’ve got a really great show, but we have to see what America says. And if they say, yeah, we want more, well I suppose there’ll be more.