The Keogak-Etitiq family represented the NWT and Nunavut well on Family Feud Canada, defeating a family from Newfoundland on the popular game show.
“It was very exciting,” said Yellowknife resident Cheryl Melanson, one of five extended family members on the Keogak-Etitiq team. “We had a lot of fun. We really enjoyed our time together.”
Team Keogak-Etitiq was comprised Melanson, Irniq Lecompte, Heather Tucker, Paani Zizman, and Nicole Etitiq. Lecompte, Tucker, Zizman and Melanson are all originally from Sachs Harbour while Etitiq is from Iqaluit. Because Etitiq took the lead in applying for the show, the family agreed to represent her home city against the opposing Walsh family, from Newfoundland.
The Keogak-Etitiq’s episode of Family Feud was filmed last year, but just aired on the evening of Jan. 10 on CBC television and the streaming service CBC Gem.
On each episode of the show, family members take turns answering questions from host Gerry Dee – but they are not conventional trivia questions. Instead, the same questions are posed to a 100-person survey panel, and contestants must guess the most popular answers.
Team Keogak-Etitiq got off to a very strong start during their appearance on the show. They were ahead by a 203-0 margin by the beginning of the third and final round, but the Walsh family mounted a late comeback, forcing a one-question “sudden death” round to decide the winner.
The Keogak-Etitiq family selected Melanson as their representative for that high-stakes moment, and she came through.
The question was, “Name something you need when it rains.” Melanson, who was faster hitting the buzzer than her opponent from Newfoundland, guessed the most popular answer: an umbrella.
“It was intense,” she said of the sudden death round. “I was just hoping I’d be very fast. I was looking over at the fellow who was up against me, and I was thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope he’s not quick.’”
Melanson’s successful answer positioned the Keogak-Etitiq team to participate in the final and most important segment of the show: Fast Money.
During Fast Money, two family members from the winning team are asked five identical questions, and must come up with separate answers to each one. The answers provided are scored based on their popularity with the 100-person survey panel, and if the family members can score 200 points, they win $10,000 for their team.
Etitiq and Lecompte stepped up to represent the team during Fast Money, and while they came close to their target with 146 points, they unfortunately came up short, and missed out on the big prize.
“I wish maybe we’d done a bit more preparing and practising, but it was a good time,” Melanson said.
The good news is that the The Keogak-Etitiq family’s victory over the Walsh family set them up for a second appearance on Family Feud.
“The pressure was still on [after the first episode] – we were all wondering how we’d do, and if the questions would be hard,” Melanson said. “It was such a whirlwind.”
The team’s second appearance on the show aired on Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Things didn’t go their way. They put up a valiant effort against the McKenney family from Saskatchewan, but were ultimately defeated in the sudden death round, as Melanson wasn’t quite quick enough on the buzzer, and her opponent guessed the top answer.
“I should have practised harder,” she said, laughing.