Most TV game show fans would be content to simply match wits with contestants from the comfort of their own living rooms.
But the Jonassens are not like most fans.
One day in 2024, Ashley Jonassen thought she’d like to get an audition for her family to appear on the long-running hit “Family Feud.” She and sister Mari often watched the show from the home they shared in Alpharetta, Georgia. So, she made a video featuring relatives and sent it in.
On Dec. 6, the phone rang at the Ponte Vedra Beach home of her dad, Leif Jonassen. At first, he let it go to voicemail, but then heard the caller say, “This is ‘Family Feud.’” He knew his eldest daughter was the primary contact for the show’s producers, but he was the backup in case they couldn’t reach her.
“I was freaking out!” he admitted. “Then, I’m trying to call Ashley; she doesn’t answer. Mari doesn’t answer. My sister doesn’t. My son — like, the first time in my life, my kids don’t answer their phones!”
Eventually, he did reach each of them and returned the initial call. “Family Feud” invited them to come up to Atlanta on Feb. 6 for the audition.
That left just two months to prepare.
“We watched the show a lot,” said Leif Jonassen. “And we did a lot of practicing. We got out the game board and practiced with our family.”
Even at the law office where Ashley Jonassen was in charge of team activities, she set up a “Family Feud” game for the entire staff.
When the big day arrived, Leif, Ashley and Mari were joined in Atlanta by Leif’s son, also named Leif Jonassen, and his sister, Mari Davenport. They taped the show on Feb. 6 and 7.
But, in a twist, this wasn’t the first time the Jonassen family had competed on the show.
Forty-three years ago, when Richard Dawson was the original host, Leif Jonassen’s mother, father, older sister, cousin and his cousin’s wife appeared as contestants. Mari Davenport, then a child, was in the studio audience. Much was made of this during the Jonassens’ recent appearance.
Leif’s daughter Mari Jonassen called the experience “really cool,” though she admitted being nervous.
“When we got up there, that’s when I really started getting nervous!” she said. “But once we started playing and just hanging out with the family, it just turned out to be really fun. You forget all about the lights and cameras and all that.”
The family found host Steve Harvey to be, in Ashley Jonassen’s words, “hilarious.”
“Watching the show, you wouldn’t know, but he really interacts with you a lot while you’re playing — both families,” she said. “He really gets to know you.”
Mari Jonassen appreciated Harvey taking time to fully explain the Fast Money round.
“He’s super supportive,” she said. “He actually cares about the contestants winning the money.”
The family is not allowed to disclose the results of their competition, but local viewers can find out when the show airs at the end of October on Jacksonville’s CBS47.
“It was really a good experience, and it should be fun for people to watch,” Leif Jonassen said.
