Family Feud's John O'Hurley says he left show after it became 'kind of a penis joke'
Family Feud's John O'Hurley says he left show after it became 'kind of a penis joke'
Connor McCrory Mon, July 13, 2026 at 2:22 AM UTC
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John O'Hurley has revealed why he walked away from Family Feud (Image: Family Feud)
John O'Hurley has revealed why he walked away from Family Feud, admitting the show had become "kind of a penis joke."
The actor hosted the long-running game show from 2006 until 2010, before Steve Harvey's Hollywood career took over and he landed the hosting role.
John enjoyed his time on the show, but a move from Los Angeles to Florida made the job increasingly difficult to manage alongside his family life and Broadway career.
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"It was a tough decision, but they were moving the show from shooting in L.A. to shooting down at Universal, down in Florida, and I wasn't really pleased about that because it was tough enough to coordinate the filming of the show with all the other demands that I had, not the least of which was the fact that I was doing quite a bit of Broadway at the time," John explained to People.
John said he already had to set aside 14 weekends each year for filming. Traveling across the country would have meant spending even more time away from home.
"My family didn't want to do it."
"So I said, 'This is the time, probably, when you should pass it on to somebody else. I've had my fun with it, and that's it, time to move on now,'" he explained.
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The filming schedule was not the only reason John decided to leave.
He also admitted he had become unhappy with the increasingly suggestive questions being used on the show.
"I was getting a lot of... you know, they blame the host for whatever the show is. Truth-wise, I had very little to do with the content of the show, except to put my hand up and say, 'I won't do that,' because, as I said, and I meant it when I said it, the show had become kind of a penis joke," he explained.
John said viewers had started writing to him because they no longer felt comfortable watching the once family-friendly show with their children.
John claimed it didn't still have the "family orientation" that he felt it once had and instead everything seemed to become a "sexual double entendre." He added that he believed it was also "getting a little too demonstrative."
Although John could reject questions, he said he regularly had to push back against material he believed crossed the line.
He remembered feeling that he had to "stand by [his] values or find somebody else to do it."
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
