Former Family Feud host Rob Brough on his surprise axing from popular show

Former Family Feud host Rob Brough has opened up about his surprise axing from the popular show more than 20 years later.

Rob Brough remembers it like it was yesterday, going into the Channel 7 studios in Brisbane to record his last ever episode of Family Feud after five years of success and high ratings.

From 1990 to 1995, Family Feud, with Brough as host, was a huge success for Seven, one of the only national television shows to film out of Brisbane.

With no warning, Brough was axed by Seven and replaced with John Deeks at the end of 1995.

It was one of those cloak and dagger TV sackings that were common in the industry at the time, brutal and unfair.

The show would only last for a few months with Deeks as host.

Brough recalls getting called into the office to be told he was no longer required as host of the show after five successful years.

“It was this time of the year, we had already recorded episodes for the new year,” he said.

“They called me into Seven, nobody knew what was going on. Then management just said ‘we’re going to make a change’, and they didn’t tell me who was going to do it (host the show).”

Brough was able to record one last episode to tell the audience he was handing over to Deeks — and the emotion is still really raw when Brough, 62, is talking about that final show.

“I remember getting changed and packing up my stuff and walking through the studio.

“Half of it had been pulled down and everyone involved in the show just stayed and stood up and clapped,” he said after his last ever recording.

It was an emotional time, for the cast and crew of this little show that took on the giants and has a place as one of the most successful game shows in Australian television history.

Rob Brough, presenter of TV game show ‘Family Feud’ at the Seven Network studios in Brisbane in the 1990s.

Rewind five years early, and Brough was working as a sports presenter with Channel 9 in Brisbane when he got the call from Grundy to audition to host the show.

He had a very established career as a sports presenter and journalist.

“There was nothing wrong with the job I had at Nine or the people I was working with at Nine,” Brough told news.com.au.

“They were tremendous. But I had this instinct telling me this was an opportunity that I should take.

“It was purely instinct, I had no idea what I was getting into and I didn’t really know anything about it.”

A lot of TV critics, including the then very influential radio broadcaster John Laws thought he was mad when the show debuted in 1990 on Seven.

“I remember John Laws writing in TV Week magazine, I’ll never forget it because I cut it out, he wrote ‘Rob Brough leaving a cushy job in sport on the Nine Network and going to a lemon with Family Feud’, I think that was the exact quote,” Brough says.

“But it didn’t turn out that way at all. It was a small group of people working on a show out of Brisbane putting something together that we were very proud of, and I think that showed.”

TV host Robert Rob Brough in 1990.

The show turned him into an overnight national celebrity, but growing up with humble beginnings, he says he always was very grounded.

“When we were growing up we lived in a little fibro house in the bush,” he said.

“Someone at Seven said, ‘This show will change your life and everyone is going to know you across the country’, but I remember thinking that nothing was going to change my life.

“I still loved my rugby league and my passions for golf and surfing and playing with the kids and nothing changed.”

One thing did change, however.

Brough’s hairstyle, his thick, blonde curls, became somewhat of a national obsession.

But he is putting the record straight, his hairstyle was completely natural and a product of the style of the time, not an artificial perm in a hairdressers as many suspected.

“The weird thing is that many people used to think I permed my hair,” he said.

“I always had curly hair as a kid and that was that. It was so strange. I remember going to a hairdresser in Brisbane and a lady telling me that people were coming in and asking to have their hair like mine.

“I thought to myself, are you serious?”

Family Feud struck a chord with viewers, and Brough put it down to the fact it was light hearted and fun.

“It was just a simplistic kind of show that was fun and it I think we were genuine in how we approached it,” he said.

“For whatever reason it worked.”

Brough in particular is proud of the fact the show was a hit with a wide range of Australians, including new migrants learning English.

“I was quite astonished at the people who would watch from such diverse backgrounds,” he said.

“I had people telling me they were migrants who were just coming into the country, and they wanted to learn about the language, which is amazing.”

There have been a number of Family Feud remakes using popular hosts, including Bert Newton and most recently Grant Denyer on Channel 10.

That version, with Denyer as host, was axed last year and like Brough, Denyer cannot speak highly enough of hosting the show.

However for Brough, he never watched those versions as he wanted to keep his memories the way they were.

“It is not out of spite or anything like that, but I want to remember the way we did it,” he said. “It’s absolutely nothing to do with Grant of anything else, I’m please he had a lot of success with the show again, but I just had the memories of what it was and I wanted to leave it as that.”

Grant Denyer, former presenter of Family Feud, poses with his Gold Logie awards at the 2018 Logie Awards at The Star Casino. Pictures: Dan Peled

Grant Denyer with the stars of Bachelor in Paradise on All Star Family Feud.

He does however have think if he had the chance again, he could walk on set again without a problem and slip back into the routine.

“If you asked me to walk back into Family Feud tomorrow I reckon I could go through the door and do it without hesitation and enjoy it,” Brough said.

“But at the same time I don’t look back and wish for things to be different, because I was very, very, fortunate that I had the opportunity and it was such a fantastic time.”

So where is Brough now?

He lives on the Sunshine Coast with his family, including three grandchildren who he adores.

Brough is also one of the most watched men on television in Queensland, fronting seven regional news bulletins across Queensland including regional hubs in Mackay, Gladstone, Rockhampton and the Sunshine Coast, which he reads live.

Rob Brough today fronts seven regional news bulletins across Queensland.

He has been doing the news gig for 23 years for Seven, and loves every minute of it.

“What I like about our bulletins is that they are all about the local community,” he said.

“If we do a story it impacts on people right in their own back yard. The bulletins have local significance.

“The ratings success is just mind blowing, which I think points to the fact that people like to know about their area. The local bulletins are their forum, where they can voice their opinions.”

Many tourists from the southern states of Australia watch Brough read the news while on holiday in sunny Queensland and are reminded of those earlier days of Family Feud and perhaps what was more an innocent time in Australia when things seemed much simpler.

He still gets people approach him who recognised him from the show.

Probably fitting, Brough talks about a rugby league analogy when talking about his time on Family Feud.

“I coached a lot of rugby league and with football teams now and again you would get a period where something special happens,” he said.

“For whatever reason you get the right players, you get the right group and you get the right connections and you think, ‘Wow, this probably won’t happen again’.

“I sort of felt a little bit like that with Family Feud.

“It was a just a nice moment in time that we all enjoyed.”

— Luke Dennehy is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Twitter @LukeDennehy