Dr. Phil Tried To Bribe Steve Harvey After Losing Family Feud

Celebrity Family Feud has been a big hit for ABC this summer, thanks to a variety of celebrities from various fields who have been willing to come onstage and give the game their all. Earlier this summer, Dr. Phil and his wife competed on the series and did not do all that well against Penny and Garry Marshall. However, Dr. Phil’s wife really, really wanted to play fast money, so the TV personality resorted to trying to bribe host Steve Harvey to get what he wanted. Here’s the story Dr. Phil recounted on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week.

We win every question… and then we lost the game at the end. All she wanted to do was play fast money. I even tried to bribe him. I said, ‘Look, she wants to do fast money’—you were playing for $25,000 for charity—I said, ‘I’ll give you $25,000 just let her play fast money. She can play it in the parking lot, I don’t care, you don’t even have to air it, I’ll just give you the $25,000.’

Unfortunately for Dr. Phil, his fellow daytime rival is immune to all forms of suggestion and totally did not give Dr. Phil the opportunity to play fast money with his wife, citing a lack of time as the issue. Frequently, these types of popular game shows shoot episode after episode in a row, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there really was no time to do an extra segment, no matter how much money Dr. Phil was willing to throw at the problem.

If you caught the episode in question, you should already know that the McGraw family was pretty quick when it came to the initial rounds during the episode, often getting to choose to pass or play. However, during the later portion of the games, they weren’t able to answer competently and earn the most points, eventually losing to their contenders. Dr. Phil himself was not one of the best players.

Obviously, the fast money portion at the end is one of the most fun segments, and I can totally see why Dr. Phil’s wife might be excited about playing, but when you lose you lose. As Dr. Phil learned the hard way, you don’t bribe Steve Harvey.

If you’d like to catch the full Jimmy Kimmel Live! story, you can check out Dr. Phil’s interview on the next page.

In addition, you can watch new episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.