On Wednesday, Nov. 12,  Senior Music Major Daniel Felton appeared with his family on “Family Feud,” a popular American game show where families compete against one another in a contest.

When the Felton family made their appearance on the CW, Felton and his family received a lot of support. For the first episode, Gusties gathered in the Caf to watch it with Felton.

“I think it is amazing that Daniel and his family got the opportunity to be on a TV show like Family Feud. Daniel has a great personality and after seeing the characteristics of his family on the show, I saw where he gets it from,” Junior Computer Science Major Tyler Bishop said.

The Felton family decided to audition for the show last year after Felton’s uncle found out there were auditions in Minneapolis at the Convention Center. They submitted all of the names of those they wanted on the team and later began preparing for the audition.

“Funny thing was, I actually wasn’t one of the original five. It was him, my aunt, my mom, brother and his mom… but she wasn’t able to come so I was picked second. But it was all good. I was able to go on the show anyways,” Felton said.

Upon arriving at the auditions, hundreds of color-coordinated families were preparing.

“It was pretty cool… In each banquet room they had about fifty different families and they paired everyone together. Then they did kind of a mock round of the game with some of the producers. They wanted to see who was lively and able to hold their own on TV,” Felton said.

After the mock round, they chose 15 to 20 families that would participate in a second interview. For the second interview, the Felton family put on a show.

“My mom, aunt and I sang and my brother beat boxed. They loved us after that. They took all the tapes back to LA and said they would let us know. We later found out we were going to be on the show and it was super cool and I let everyone know,” Felton said.

More families audition than are selected to be on the show, including the Felton family. Families are then narrowed down for TV based on the results of the pre-round.

Felton recounts being taken into a back room where the selected families hear they will go on the show.

“It’s really suspenseful… there’s a bunch of families in there and when they announced ‘Felton Family’ we were super excited!” Felton said.

According to Felton, his family then practiced by watching the show. The producers told them to act natural and be themselves since their personalities got them on the show in the first place.

“[Before the show] They put on music… I think it was Michael Jackson and we were dancing. After that we were all loose, we were all good. Then the show started and once Steve came out it was all natural. I was excited and nervous thinking, ‘oh my gosh, I’m about to meet Steve Harvey!’” Felton said.

With Felton on the show, the game then requires representatives from the family to be introduced to questions that have already been answered by a survey of 100 people, sometimes narrowed down to a specific audience such as ‘100 women,’ or ‘100 single men.’ The answer is correct if it is one of the concealed answers on the game board or judged correct.

“As far as how the show went, we were on the fourth and fifth show taped on July third and flew back to film the other three shows since we were the winning family,” Felton said.

Felton claims that one of the most exciting parts of the experience was being able to relive it with some of his closest friends.

“They don’t give the contestants copies of the show so when I was watching it, it was really surreal to see myself on TV and how they filmed it and edited things out. There’s a lot of really funny parts that they cut out when Steve Harvey would just keep talking and joking around. I wish everyone could have been there to see all the funny moments,” Felton said.

Everyone watching with Felton in the Caf seemed to enjoy seeing one of their peers recognized on Family Feud.

“I thought Daniel did a very good job on the show. He gave some really awesome answers under pressure… Steve Harvey also told him to make his dreams bigger and chase after them which is really impressive and a fun fact to share about how he interacted with the show’s host. It’s definitely cool to say that I have a friend who has been on Family Feud!” Senior Psychology Major Samantha Nelson said.

Felton and his family communicated how grateful they were for the positive feedback and support that they have received from friends and family.

“I just want to thank everyone for all the support. It was an amazing experience,” Felton said.

-Haley Bell