WHAT will the Diebold family of Tamworth be doing tonight at 6pm?
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Survey says they’ll be crowding around the TV, watching themselves on the Channel Ten game show Family Feud.
Team captain Aimee Diebold said they were sworn to secrecy about the result until it aired, but all would be revealed in the episode – reportedly one of the funniest in the modern series.
“We are a large family – seven kids and Mum and Dad – and we used to always sit down and watch it while having dinner or just before,” Ms Diebold said.
“We also played the board game at home a lot, so one day my sister and I were sitting thinking, ‘Let’s just apply’.”
They entered two teams and secured an audition late last year, although some family members couldn’t make it because it clashed with an overseas trip.
Ms Diebold, her sister Laura Diebold, their brother Luke Diebold and another sister’s husband Cale Penrith were the lucky ones.
To get the producers’ attention, they made sure their fun side shone through by dressing up as The Cat in the Hat characters.
They also went armed with plenty of weird and wonderful family anecdotes – such as how they came to be busted with a butter knife going through customs at a Fiji airport.
“I think they were looking for people who were outgoing … people who were going to be open and be able to strike a conversation with Grant [Denyer, the host],” Ms Diebold said.
“They didn’t want any awkwardness or silences.”
Team Diebold filmed their episode last month at the Channel 10 studios in Sydney.
The show involves two families trying to guess the most popular responses to a survey of the public.
“There was a studio audience and some family came down as well and watched; everyone really gets involved and they make it a lot of fun,” Ms Diebold said.
“It was just so exciting … they really look after you: they put you up in accommodation, they do your hair and makeup, they do a run-down with the producers and then a couple of practices hitting the buzzer just to make sure everything works.
“They did say at the end of it that it was probably the funniest episode they remembered filming, and Grant even said that himself.”
Ms Diebold said the producers and stage crew bent over backwards to make them feel comfortable.
However, she said there was a big difference between playing along at home and actually competing on set.
“When you’re playing at home or watching it on TV, it’s easy: you sit there and say an answer, and you can think and it all comes to your head,” she said.
“But when you’re under spotlights standing there with Grant asking questions, it’s a completely different feeling.
“You don’t think like you normally would ... it’s a lot higher pressure.”