Steve Harvey and “Family Feud” producers are being blasted online for appearing to have cheated a show contestant out of a high-stakes win during a recent episode. The backlash centers on claims that the host and producers are selectively lenient with answers and should have given one player Rachel Webb more grace with her answer.
During the episode, the Webb family went up against the Arrowood family, with Webb going head to head with Haley Arrowood. Steve asked each contestant to “name something you’d like to give your mother-in-law.”
Arrowood hit her buzzer first, but it didn’t register. However, Webb’s buzzer did, and she was given the opportunity to answer the question.
She said, “A fist,” and gestured as if to punch the matriarch in the face. The answer did not appear on the board. Harvey turned to Haley to give her an opportunity, but she didn’t come up with anything.
As usual with the game, the next Webb family member, Angie, was given a chance to answer. She said, “flowers,” which registered in the ninth place. The turn went back to Arrowood’s family because eight other spaces could have won them a chance to play. Silas from the Arrowood family said “chocolate” which earned him an “X” buzzer — leaving the round to the Webbs and they chose to play versus pass.
Harvey proceeded to go down the line, soliciting answers from each contestant, until it was Webb’s turn again. She prefaced her response by expressing how much she loved her mother-in-law before spitting out her second answer, “a piece of my mind.”
“Well, damn,” Harvey said, instantly with a deadpan expression. “The only thing that would make this right is if that answer is up there. Then it is OK.”
This too resulted in “X,” the third strike which threw the round over the Arrowood family to steal the game.
When it got back to Haley, her family joked that they would give the mother-in-law “her daughter back.” The producers gave the Arrowoods the win, saying that the answer, while not exact, matched their board answer of “my wife.”
The clip was posted to the show’s YouTube page, and some fans took exception to the rulings on Rachel’s answers. Many people thought that both of her responses should have been considered the same as “the finger.”
One person wrote, “I think The Finger could be considered giving her a piece of your mind.”
Another added, “Shouldn’t ‘a piece of your mind’ and ‘your finger’ be considered in the same category?”
Multiple comments online addressed how crazy it is that people don’t like their in-laws and how normalized it is in pop culture.
“Why is hating one’s in-laws so normalized in western culture (on Family Feud)? We should love our in-laws as our own,” a comment read.
Mother-in-law questions on the show seem to cause a lot of tension.
An X user posted, “Mother in law in town and watching family feud. Why one of the questions ‘we asked 100 married men how long can your MIL stay before it’s too long?’”
Mother in law in town and watching family feud. Why one of the questions “we asked 100 married men how long can your MIL stay before it’s too long?”
— Warren Yancey Jr. (@DubbYa86) February 11, 2024
Over here like not saying a word 🤐 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/qQ3DFpxxiJ
The person continued, “Over here like not saying a word.” One final commentator said, “I watched that show. Rachel and her family lost but she certainly is a doll baby. Even Steve wanted them to win. When they still had a chance, Steve said, I hope you get this.”
Harvey nor the “Family Feud” show creators have addressed the controversy.
