“In my book, it’s not a real burrito unless it has what in it?” Family Feud Host Steve Harvey asked the contestants.
“Beans,” Jay Johnson answered after quickly slamming the buzzer.
Harvey repeated the answer before it flashed across the screen as the survey’s top response.
By that point in the game, the Johnsons were facing the chopping block if the Mandel family, who had racked up a nearly 100-point lead, stole the round’s points.
Troy Johnson, Chet Johnson and Armett Johnson offered “meat,” “cheese” and “guacamole” for the remaining answers, successfully stealing a win away from the Mandels and sending the team into the fast money round.
In the fast money round, Harvey rapidly fires five questions to the two contestants competing. The answers from the first competitor cannot be repeated by the second.
After a quick celebration with high fives, Doran Johnson, assistant police chief of Columbus, and his brother, Jay, stepped up to the plate. All they needed was 200 points to win a $20,000 prize. Jay scored his team 102 points, but Doran could only muster three answers that brought their total to 141 points, falling 59 short of the grand prize.
While the brothers didn’t win $20,000, the team still earned $705 for their efforts.
But for them, being on the show wasn’t about earning prize money, Doran said. The five brothers just wanted a chance to spend more time together, he said, and the show was a perfect excuse for that.
“(We did not go) on there, trying to win all the money, but we would have liked to have won some big money,” Doran said. “But (it was) an opportunity for us as five brothers to kind of hang out and to do something together, (and do) something memorable together.”
With each of the five brothers living in a different state, Doran said the siblings don’t often see each other during the year. But when they were all together in Columbus in the spring of 2023, Chet pitched his idea to submit an audition for the TV game show.
With the family being big fans of Family Feud, he thought it would be a great way to bond with his brothers.
“I’m 8 years older than the next brother, so the four had an opportunity to grow up together and play sports together, but I was out of college before the next brother was even in high school,” Chet said. “I never had the fellowship with (my) brothers, … and so the Family Feud was a second opportunity for me to experience that real strength in the bond that we have.”
Later that same year, the brothers attended a virtual interview for the show, during which they were told they were entered into the show’s portal. Families in the portal can be pulled and selected for the show at any point over a three-year period, Chet said.
The next year came and went, and Chet wasn’t sure if the brothers would get their chance. But in January 2025, they finally got the call. The next April, the siblings flew out to Atlanta, Georgia, where the show is filmed, along with several other families who had made it through the interview process.
“We don’t get the opportunity to gel and bond like that (often),” Chet said. “So that was probably one of the greatest and most exciting experiences, even if we had not won (because) we were able to bond while taping as well as in preparation leading up to it.”
Doran said it was exciting to be on the show with his brothers, see the behind the scenes of the show, and, of course, speak with Harvey.
“It’s an awesome experience,” Doran said. “A lot of people don’t realize, they just see the show, but it’s a whole big process behind the scenes. … The show is taped and that’s what you see, but (Harvey) does a lot of things with the audience, and a lot of personal stuff, (including) talking to the audience.”
The second episode featuring the Johnson brothers aired Friday evening after press time.
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