Harvard Students Ready To Lock Horns on Family Feud

What game show involves a series of polls, John O’Hurley, and a team of five Harvard students? Survey says Family Feud.

A team of Harvard undergraduates has been selected to compete on the show’s college edition, which will air in mid-November.

On Oct. 17, the team, composed of Alexander B. Cohn ’10, Michael T. Henderson ’11, Tana Jambaldorj ’11, Nicholas A. Noyer ’09 and Michelle M. Parilo ’10, will fly to Los Angeles to tape up to three episodes of the show the next day.

“I’ve watched the show since I was a kid,” Parilo said Wednesday. “I thought it would be fun to have my family on Family Feud. This is a little twisted, but still fun.”

The Harvard team will compete against seven other universities for a minimum prize of $120,000. USC, UCLA, Caltech, The Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, University of Michigan and The University of Texas at Austin are also fielding teams.

While the team has plenty of enthusiasm, they’re just getting to know each other—they met as a team for the first time Wednesday night, when they sat down to watch a couple of episodes and plan out a strategy. Their only previous connection to each other had been through a mutual friend, Jon T. Staff V ’10.

Staff had originally planned to compete himself, and sent out an e-mail hoping to find some teammates to join him. But he is studying abroad in Amsterdam and was not able to be flown to Los Angeles for the show.

“John and I had talked last year about going to L.A. to be on The Price is Right, but then we found out that Bob Barker wasn’t interested anymore,” Parilo said.

In order to apply for the game show, participants each had to submit a three-to-five-minute audition tape.

Each member of the team took a different angle with his or her video.

Cohn, who is also a Crimson news writer, showed the casting directors his skills at guessing what common items are found in a woman’s purse.

Jambaldorj, who is also on The Crimson’s business board, highlighted her Mongolian heritage and her bubbly personality. And Henderson, an Oklahoma native, put on an accent and a cowboy hat.

Family Feud’s casting coordinator, Bridget Goodbody, said that the show was looking for a team that represented Harvard well.

“All of our team members have wonderful personalities that really stood out in their videos,” she said.

The team will spend the next two weeks watching several episodes of the show, studying the Family Feud database, which contains previously used questions, and, perhaps most importantly, picking uniforms.

Some of the team’s members expressed concern for how little they know about Family Feud.

“I applied totally on a whim. I can’t honestly say I’ve watch Family Feud much ever. But I know what it is. I’ve seen some episodes,” Jambaldorj said. Parilo said she felt a bit more prepared because she used to play the Family Feud board game with her family.

Members of the team also said they were excited to bond with their other teammates and to represent Harvard in an unconventional setting.

And even though their preparation is just beginning, their confidence shows.

“We’re going to win for sure,” Parilo said. “We have to win.”

The seven episodes of the show will be broadcasted November 10 to 18 on Channel 18 at 5 p.m. and will be repeated December 22 to 30 at 5:30 p.m.