Waseca's Wendlands to appear on Family Feud

The Wendlands — Brad, Monica, Matthew, Olivia and Laurie (Wendland) Griffith — had the chance to appear on “Family Feud” last year, in an episode which will be airing on Monday, Feb. 6. The opportunity began with Olivia submitting an application, as well as a video montage of the family.

“[Olivia] was home for the holidays, and of course I watched [“Family Feud”] like every single night,” Monica said. “She came in, and she goes, ‘I did a thing, Mom.’ And then she sent me the video, and I’m like, shut the door. You sent this into them. … It was just a fun experience, and then sure enough, they called us to be on.”

Both of the Wendland children, Matthew and Olivia, said the game show was a big part of their childhood, with their parents, Brad and Monica, watching it almost every night.

“We watched a ton of “Family Feud” in our house. There was often a lot of shouting, trying to guess our own answers as the show was going on, and a lot of frustration,” Matthew said.

Olivia had ideas for the other end of the screen.

“I think growing up and watching it, you see the families on there, and you’re like ‘We kind of have a family like that, a little bit chaotic, a little funny, outgoing,’” she said. “And so I was like, ‘I think we have the right personalities to be on the show, and I always had it in the back of my mind.’”

Originally, Olivia said the idea to appear on the popular game show came while she was in high school when “Family Feud” was doing traveling interviews.

However, at that time, the family was just too busy and couldn’t make the interview.

But recently, with “Family Feud” still doing interviews over Zoom instead of in-person as a layover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Olivia saw the chance to get her family in the door. It must have gone well, as the show invited them down to Atlanta, Georgia for filming in spring 2022. Of course, with any venture this big, the Wendlands knew they needed to prepare.

“I was hounding my family, because I watched it all the time,” Monica said. “… I’m like ‘You guys need to practice. I’ve been watching this for 20 years; you guys need to practice,’” Monica said.

“I don’t have cable, so I was watching the celebrity ‘Family Feud’ that I had over streaming, and then I was playing this ‘Family Feud’ app,” Olivia said.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one glued to the app.

“The app was awesome and essential to practice. Wake up in the morning, ‘Family Feud’ app, lunch, ‘Family Feud’ app, go to bed, ‘Family Feud’ app,” Matthew said. “But that’s all you can really do — just keep training your mind for what the show’s going to be like.”

And while all of that preparation can lead to a lot of stress, the Wendlands all agreed that, once they got to set, the show, and specifically host Steve Harvey, did a lot to ease their nerves.

“The most incredible thing about the whole experience was just Steve Harvey being himself. … He’s really good at what he does and being there and being a part of the experience with him was just next level,” Matthew said.

“I have watched for years and years with [Harvey] hosting, and he is so funny, and he has a knack for making fun of people and making them feel relaxed while on set,” Monica said. “He started to pick on one or the other, and everyone would just start laughing, so it kind of got us more relaxed. His charm and appeal with his jokes kind of relaxed us.”

And while the competition and the show was certainly a highlight for the family, all of them were also sure to acknowledge how great it was to spend time with one another, doing something as fun as this.

“Personally, as someone who grew up in Waseca, I just think it’s really cool, because we are such a small town. I’m really excited to have represented Waseca in the show, and hopefully we did Waseca justice, and they’re not too embarrassed of us,” Olivia said. “It was just a really great time to, you know, to be that small town family out in Atlanta with Steve Harvey, just sharing our quirkiness and having a good time.”

Monica added, “I just feel like the best part of the whole experience was spending time with us together in Atlanta, doing a fun family adventure that we wouldn’t have done without my daughter, Olivia, signing us up. So I give the glory to her on getting us on the show.”