Entertainment NOW

2 • July 9 - 15, 2023 Entertainment Now By Jay Bobbin TV Media L et the games begin … again. ABC has gone very heavy on primetime contests in recent summers, many of them updates of shows that were popu- lar in earlier incarnations. Already, such series as "Press Your Luck," "The Chase," "Generation Gap" and "Claim to Fame" have made their returns for these warm- weather months. That parade of participants and prizes continues as "Celebrity Family Feud" and "The $100,000 Pyramid" begin new rounds on ABC Sunday, July 9. Host Steve Harvey starts his tenth season of pitting teams of stars and their relatives or work colleagues against each other on "Celeb- rity Family Feud," while Michael Strahan presides over Season 7 of the latest "Pyramid" incarnation, in which personalities and their teammates use words and phras- es to guess categories (or vice versa) to get to the winner's circle and a shot or two at big money. Early Season 10 players on "Celebrity Family Feud" include Gayle King ("CBS Mornings"), Sophia Bush Hughes ("One Tree Hill") and cast members of Showtime's "Yellowjackets." Season 9 saw contests between the casts of "Abbott Elementary" and "Hacks," stars of "Bel-Air" and the revival of "Saved by the Bell," Kristin Chenoweth ("Schmigadoon!") and Kathy Na- jimy ("Hocus Pocus," 1993), and Kal Penn ("Designated Survivor") and Erika Christensen (before she returned to ABC full-time as a star of the series "Will Trent"). Music's Boyz II Men and the hosts of CBS' daytime show "The Talk" also got chances for "Feud"-ing last season. "Celebrity Family Feud" was tried earlier, with "Today's" Al Ro- ker guiding it during a brief NBC run in the summer of 2008. ABC actually was the home network of the original "Family Feud" when Richard Dawson hosted it from 1976 to 1985, with several others filling that role since its current syndication run began in 1999. Harvey became the host in 2010, and its rise in ratings not only have kept him there since, it paved the way for another run at the "Celebrity" spinoff. Though Harvey has done other programs including the talk show "Steve" and ABC's current "Judge Steve Harvey" – plus his sitcom "The Steve Harvey Show," he has enjoyed particular success with "Celebrity Family Feud" and its syndicated weekday parent "Family Feud." He expresses gratitude for his television career overall, which took him out of the realm of stand-up comedy and has brought him a wide and steady audience. "It turned out to be the best thing that happened to me," Harvey reflects. "If I had tried to continue as a stand-up, there's no way I could maintain the TV career because of the political cor- rectness that has killed comedy. Every joke you tell now, it hurts somebody's feelings. What people don't understand about comedians is that the joke has got to be about something. It has to be about somebody. We can't write jokes about puppies all the time. Some of these jokes are going to have to be about people." This season on "The $100,000 Pyramid," the celebrity play- ers include such returnees as Cedric the Entertainer ("The Neighborhood"), Yvette Nicole Brown ("Community"), RuPaul ("RuPaul's Drag Race") and Mario Cantone ("Sex and the City"). Among others on board are "Jeopardy's!" Ken Jennings, Amanda Kloots ("The Talk"), "Shark Tank's" Robert Herjavec, Ross Mathews ("RuPaul's Drag Race") and several veterans of "The Goldbergs": Wendi McLendon-Covey (who also has played the game before), Sean Giambrone and Troy Gentile. Also an executive producer of the pro- gram, Strahan is happy with the outcome. "This could be the best season that we've done," the NFL vet- eran, "Good Morning America" co-anchor, Fox Sports personality and one-time astronaut main- tains. "And even if not, it has some of the best shows that we've done. There's a lot of fun, a lot of surprises and a lot of good match- ups. The energy is just great." Strahan attributes that in part to the long history the show has, dating back to the first version, which was "The $10,000 Pyra- mid" with host Dick Clark. "I think everybody knows what they're getting into," reasons Strahan. "Everyone is competitive, and they want to win their partner a lot of money. It's important to match up the right combination of someone against someone else, and I think we did a good job of that." Resulting humor can be an indicator of that, and Strahan is satisfied with his progress as "Pyramid" host: "The more I've done it, the more I've become comfortable with it. I always say that the game is the star. I'm just there to keep it moving, and every once in a while, I get a chance to laugh or inject or have a reaction that I know is natural to me. I fig- ure that people at home are prob- ably having the same reaction, so I take that moment." Indeed, Strahan notes, "There are times when you can't figure out how someone derives the answer from the clues they were given. It's just mind-blowing. There's a lot of winning, but there's also just a lot of good fun. And it's a lot easier for me just to be standing there than being someone who's sitting in the seat playing." Catch the newest seasons of "Celebrity Family Feud" and "The $100,000 Pyramid" when they begin new rounds Sunday, July 9, on ABC. Cover Story Michael Strahan hosts "The $100,000 Pyramid" Play on: Game time continues on ABC as two favorites return Farmers Insurance 2 x 2 Letters & Numbers Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row,every column, and every 4x4 box contains the digits 1 through 9 AND the letters A-F. Solution on page 12.

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