Central New York family competes on ‘Family Feud’: ‘We just had a lot of fun’

A Central New York family is headed to one of television’s most iconic game shows.

The O’Gorman family from Oswego will appear on “Family Feud” on Wednesday, Nov. 16, for a chance to win cash and prizes from host Steve Harvey. Retired firefighter Sean O’Gorman, his wife Jill O’Gorman, and their children Kyra O’Gorman, Hannah Clark, and Huck Fitzgerald will compete together, attempting to guess popular answers to survey questions while “feuding” with another family.

Kyra O’Gorman, an accountant who now lives in Rochester, told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard that she applied for the show in the fall of 2021 after seeing a link on Facebook for contestants to apply. She said her parents, Jill and Sean, and her siblings are casual fans of the show and didn’t take it seriously until producers responded, inviting them to audition.

“We watched it just probably like a normal family does,” Kyra said. “It’s always on, I feel like, but we definitely weren’t… ‘Family Feud’ crazy fanatics.”

“When they asked us for a video, we were like ‘Oh, that would be fun,’” Jill said. “Because we were all kind of hanging out in Covid times, we weren’t doing much so we had a blast putting together a video.”

The O’Gorman family from Oswego, N.Y., competes on “Family Feud.” (Provided photo)

The process ended up taking months due to the pandemic, but they finally got to film an episode in Atlanta earlier this year. Despite plenty of advance notice, Hannah said the family did not come to a strategy together beforehand.

“We thought we did (have a strategy) and then we got there and were… maybe star-stuck, not really sure,” recalled Hannah, who’s currently getting her doctorate in clinical and school psychology at Roberts Wesleyan University. “We kind of were like deer in headlights but then we got ourselves together and we just knew we needed to be ourselves. And that means we were loud, which we are… lots of cheering and then we just had a lot of fun.”

Huck, who works at Novelis in Oswego, credited Harvey with making the contestants all feel comfortable on the set, making them feel like there wasn’t too much pressure even with prizes at stake. Harvey has hosted the show since 2010 and frequently appears in clips on social media with funny reactions to contestants’ answers.

The family couldn’t say how they did on the show until the episode airs, but Kyra did offer some advice for future contestants.

“Have fun with it,” Kyra said. “The actual game and that type of thing is so cool and it’s such a unique experience but what I enjoyed the most was… we got to spend the whole weekend in Atlanta and do all sorts of fun things together.”

“We got to have so much fun joking around with each other and making fun of each other and supporting each other and all those things,” she added. “It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day if you win or if you lose. It was just such a cool memory.”

“It’s a fun, silly game and I hope that what comes through is how much we love each other and how much fun it is to be with your family and to do silly fun things,” Jill agreed.

If they did win money, though, they agreed to “share the wealth.” Jill said they have three more kids that didn’t compete on the show, and would want to take the family on another vacation somewhere. For now, though, they have plans to watch their episode together and enjoy the experience all over again.

“Family Feud” airs weeknights at 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Syracuse area on CBS (WTVH); episodes can also be streamed with fuboTV, Paramount+, Hulu + Live TV, DirecTV Stream, or YouTube TV. The O’Gorman family’s episode will air Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.

Families interested in auditioning for the show can apply at familyfeud.com/audition.