The first ever spin-off of Family Feud, a game show which itself was originally a spin-off, premiered last night on NBC. Very few changes to the standard show format, along with celebrities and much larger cash prizes helped NBC pull down promising ratings for this summer show.

Feud first began airing in 1976 with host Richard Dawson at the helm. His charm, slightly chiding nature and constant kissing quickly cemented him as one of TV’s best-loved hosts. In those early days, ABC owned the show, which was canceled by the network in 1985.

The show was born again on CBS in 1988, this time with petite Ray Combs holding center stage. This version was officially canceled in 1993, but continued as a syndicated version (amid some host troubles) until 1995. The show would not return again until 1999 on FOX as a daytime syndicated spot. Nine years of set changes and host changes have kept Feud on FOX ever since, with re-runs always available on GSN.

ABC, CBS and FOX all had their shot at Feud - now, it’s NBC’s turn. Celebrity Family Feud premiered last night to grab ratings of 5.8 million viewers - hardly a network success in May, but great for late June. With Al Roker at the helm (incidentally the first African-American to ever host the show and the sixth in a long line of Feud hosts), this hour-long version pits real celebrity families against each other. So far, the results are good.

Those who watched this celebrity version found the format of Feud highly unchanged. The show still pits teams of five against each other, each trying to find the most popular answers to random questions (“name something you have to refrigerate,” for instance). The first round of the first show pit rapper/TV star Ice T’s family against the Joan Rivers clan (which included a niece, nephew and family friend). Joan’s family won by scoring over 300 points, and then quickly cleared the way for the families of round 2. This lot was made up of Raven-Symone’s real and TV families against the Wayne Newton brood. Raven’s family won, only to square off against the winners of the first round (the Rivers group).

After this third round of play, it was finally time for the Fast Money round where contestants get the chance to win $50,000 for charity. Joan and Melissa Rivers managed to score over 200 points in this final round, cementing victory for their chosen charity - guide dogs for the blind. Second-place Raven, et al., collected $10,000 for the American Red Cross.

Those are the facts…but what about all the rest? Honestly, no version of Family Feud will ever become as well-liked at the original show. Why’s that? You already know the answer - Richard Dawson. Al Roker is affable enough and humorous as well, but his somewhat rushed style made questions a little hard to understand (especially during the last round of the game) and truly poor editing gave the entire show a somewhat glitchy, out-of-sync look and feel. Also, the show hasn’t been dumbed down at all for this celebrity version - a mistake most other game show don’t make. I’m not saying celebs are stupid, I’m just saying that most game shows have the sense to ask very easy questions of their famous faces. The questions themselves were highly uninspired to the point of utterly boring, leaving me to wonder where they even managed to find audiences to answer them. With only a single fast money round and two to three truly recognizable faces on each celeb side, this version of Feud is probably doomed to failure. For one, it’s on NBC - this bodes ill for almost any show.

But if you’re interested, the celebrity stylings will continue for the next few weeks. Upcoming celebs schedule to appear include Vivica A. Fox, the Girls Next Door, Kathy Lee Gifford, Dog the Bounty Hunter, the cast of The Office, some of the cast of The America Gladiators, Larry the cable Guy, the Kardashians and Ed McMahon (one I’m looking forward to immensely).

The original Feud, currently hosted by former Seinfeld regular John O’Hurley, is still airing on FOX.