A day in the life of Family Feud host Grant Denyer

GRANT Denyer flies from his home in NSW to Melbourne each week to record 10 episodes of Family Feud in two days. Here’s what a typical filming day is like.

GRANT Denyer may only film episodes of Family Feud two days a week, but it takes him at least three days to recover from the gruelling schedule.

The 37-year-old, who travels from his home in Bathurst to tape 10 episodes in two days in Melbourne, gave news.com.au an insight into a typical filming day:

8am — Wake up:

“Because they’re such long days, I try not to get up too early,” said Denyer who stays at the Crown Casino when filming in Melbourne.

“Then I’ll order room service, usually get bacon and eggs and spinach. After that I tend to go down to the gym and I put in about 45 minutes in there. Nothing too crazy because I’m on my feet for the entire day. It’s actually quite physically draining punching five episodes out in a day so I just do a light session to get the blood flowing.”

10am — Chill out:

“I usually go for a walk on the Yarra with my headphones on and I just try to tune out a bit and relax,” said Denyer.

“I spend about eight hours talking flat out when I’m filming so I try not to talk too much at the start of the day. I like to just put on a DJ mix, sometimes Girl Talk.”

After the walk, Denyer heads back to his hotel room and has a lie down for an hour before a car picks him up at 12:20 to take him to the studio which is just a few blocks away.

12.30pm — Arrive at the studio:

“When I walk in, the first thing I do is say hello to the production crew,” said Denyer.

“They’re really sweet people so I’ll spend a while with them just having some laughs.”

1pm — Time to get pretty:

“I disappear into makeup and get a haircut while I’m in there. I spend about an hour doing hair and makeup.”

1.50pm — Prep:

“I disappear into my dressing room where I get briefed on all of the upcoming contestants,” said Denyer.

“I go through information on each family member, their backstory, some of their funny stories that I can share on the set ... Just little ways to bring out their personalities. The more you know about your contestants the more you can play with them and you can have more fun.

“Then I get dressed in one of my five suit combinations for that night (so that it looks like the episodes are filmed on different days) and I head out to get introduced to the audience and crack a few jokes.”

2.30pm — Show time:

“From then on it’s just flat out,” said Denyer.

“We crank out five episodes between then and 10 o’clock at night. We’ll probably record a half-hour TV episode in about 40 minutes. We pretty much do it as live.

“We’ll stop after each episode and we’ll take about 10-15 minutes to turn around our contestants. Like me, the champion family needs to get changed as well into different outfits for the next episode and I’ll quickly get re-briefed on the next family that’s coming up.

“Then we’ll repeat the process.”

10pm — Filming finishes:

“By that point I’m absolutely spent,” said Denyer.

“From there, it’s really about trying to wind down because after you’ve done a lot of television you’re quite amped. You’re wired and tired. So you try and wind down so that you’ll be able to get some sleep later.

“I get changed back into casual clothes and then I head straight into the makeup room where the ladies take my makeup off and give me a head massage. That’s what I look forward to the most. It really kind of winds me down.

10.45pm — Relax:

“I head back to the hotel and I channel surf for a bit to try and slow my mind down a bit more,” said Denyer.

“I usually can’t help devouring some packets of chips from the mini bar. I’ll smash one or two of those. Sweet chilli and sour cream is my favourite. After that it usually takes me an hour to get to sleep.”

Family Feud airs weekdays on Channel 10 at 6pm.