Grant Denyer confirms the end of ‘Family Feud’ as ratings die off

Grant Denyer has confirmed that popular show Family Feud is being pulled off air – and even said he and the whole team were a little guilty of “driving it into the ground a little bit too early.”

The Network Ten show has struggled in the ratings in recent months, having initially been hugely popular with Aussie families right across the country. Now, Denyer has confirmed the news of its impending demise in a chat on his radio show 2DayFM Breakfast with Em, Grant & Ed.

“I’ve got a big announcement guys. Family Feud is wrapping up,” he said on the radio show. Denyer took on the role of Family Feed host in 2014, after leaving Channel Seven’s Sunrise, and credits the family-friendly program with breathing life back into his career.

“I think it came along at a time when I was looking for something new and a fun new challenge and it kind of re-birthed me, if you like,” he added. “So then you have quite a sentimentality towards it, so yeah it’s a bit sad.”

He admitted he only ever expected the show to run for two years, so said the fact it had done so well for double that time was great. But it will now wrap after the 1,200th episode.

“It did good things but we’re probably guilty of, if anything, driving it into the ground a little bit too early,” he admitted. “We gave it a bit too much. It’s six days a week, twice a day, plus All Star episodes – we might have squeezed that lemon a little too much.”

Read more: ‘Family Feud’ host loses it over town with ‘inappropriate’ name

When his fellow radio hosts joked that he was taking a jab at the show as he was leaving, a laughing Denyer clarified: “It obviously reinvigorated that 6pm timeslot, which was dead for [Network 10] for about five years and it increased all the nighttime programming on Ten.

“So it boosted all the shows after it. There were only two things really working for Ten at the time. It was Family Feud and Have You Been Paying Attention?”

However, it’s unlikely to be the end of Denyer’s time on screen, as he confirmed that Channel 10 wanted him to do some “big new projects” which he described as “bright, shiny, new and exciting”. TV Tonight claims one of these could be an Aussie version of popular UK quiz show Pointless.

Are you a fan of Family Feud? Will you be sad to see it come to an end?