Fuller family of Pike Road will debut on 'Family Feud' on Feb. 22

When Della Fuller’s coworkers heard she and her children had been on the TV game show, “Family Feud,” they were thrilled.

“They kept asking, ‘When are you going to be on?” said Fuller, a nurse practitioner at OBGYN Associates of Montgomery.

For several months, she didn’t have an answer. The Pike Road resident thinks her staff began to doubt that the episode, shot in the summer of 2022, would ever air.

“I think for a minute they probably thought that maybe we had got cut,” Fuller said.

Not so. Her episode of “Family Feud” will premiere on Feb. 22. In Montgomery, it’ll be shown that Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. on ABC 32.

Della Fuller's family team includes her son, Mike Fuller, a technology sales rep in Alabama; his wife, Amanda Fuller, a teacher at Pike Road High School; Della’s daughter, Stacey Courson, a nurse recruiter for Baptist Health, and Courson's husband, David Courson, an executive staff member with the Alabama Department of Corrections.

David Courson said a memorandum about his “Family Feud” appearance was going out to ADC staff. Like Della Fuller, people have been asking him for months when the show will air. “We’re getting a lot of calls about it,” he said.

Going from fans to players

The Fuller family members are longtime “Family Feud” fans. They even have the show’s official card game, and used it to practice. That was hardly enough when faced with a real-life shot at up to $100,000 and a new car.

On “Family Feud," celebrity host Steve Harvey asks contestants to give the most popular answers to various questions. These answers come from surveys the show conducts, and some are outrageous.

“Steve Harvey did say that in his 13 years of doing the show, that we were No. 1 at something,” David Courson said, though he couldn't reveal what that something is.

“That’s a cliffhanger,” Della Fuller said. “You’re gonna have to watch.”

Every round brings someone from each family up to Harvey for a first shot at the most popular answer. Quick reflexes to hit the buzzer first are a must. Courson said he didn’t have them.

“When I was up there, I didn’t know he was finished asking the question,” he said. “The other guy hit the button, and I looked like I had the reflexes of a turtle.”

From the calm of a home living room, many of the show’s answers might seem obvious. Throw in a stage, audience, TV cameras, lights, and of course the hilarious Harvey, and you never know what someone’s going to blurt out.

“When you’re in the moment and you’re trying to beat the clock and beat the other person you’re competing against, the first thing that comes to your mind is what you say,” Stacey Courson said. “That’s where some of the funny outtakes answers come from.”

Della Fuller’s were minimal, she said. “They bet that I was going to be the wildcard. I was definitely not the wildcard, thank goodness.”

Clips from the show often make the rounds on social media, and the Fuller family may be among them soon.

“The producer told us that there were a couple of moments on our show in particular that they thought would go viral because they were so funny,” Della Fuller said.

Episode clips are posted on familyfeud.com, where people can also apply to bring their families on the show.

From Pike Road, to 'this is happening' with Steve Harvey

This is the first time any of the Fuller family have been on a game show. The journey to that stage would be years in the making.

Back in the summer of 2019, Mike Fuller read where “Family Feud” auditions were coming to Montgomery. He filled out an application. Then came COVID-19 in 2020, and the whole process switched to virtual. After being approved to go on, they finally made it to the show in the summer of 2022.

The Fuller family sat in the audience for a couple of other tapings before it was their turn to take the stage. That’s when Mike Fuller said he finally started getting nervous.

When Harvey walked on stage, that’s when Fuller said he knew, “This is real. This is happening.”

Though the longest serving host on “Family Feud” is always hilarious, the Fuller family said their episode with Harvey was particularly funny.

“I was really struck by how engaged he was with the studio audience,” said Stacey Courson, who was impressed with how genuine Harvey is and how he joked during the commercial breaks.

“He was hilarious,” Amanda Fuller said. “My stomach and my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.”

“He’s more funny in person than on TV,” Mike Fuller said. “My new favorite celebrity, no doubt about it.”

The one bittersweet part about the experience was that their immediate family was back home in Pike Road, instead of being in the audience. Pandemic protocols wouldn’t allow them to be there when the show was filmed.

Though the others are going to watch their episode of “Family Feud” on Feb. 22, Mike Fuller said he'll be on a flight when it airs.

“To me, the most exciting part is to see the whole family together, and just bringing back the memories of the great experience we had and how awesome Steve Harvey was,” Della Fuller said.

So if they had the chance to do “Family Feud” again, would they do it?

“Yes, one hundred percent,” Mike Fuller said.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Fuller family of Pike Road will debut on 'Family Feud' on Feb. 22