¿Qué Dice la Gente?

In 2006, Telefutura took "100 Mexicanos Dijeron", their hit game show to a broader Latino audience, broadening the concept to include those of other Latino persuasions - Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Argentinians, Ecuadorians, and other Spanish-speaking groups than just Mexicans. The result is "Que Dice La Gente?", literally, "What Are People Saying?", the newest incarnation of the Goodson-Todman 1976 classic, "Family Feud". Once again, Marco Antonio Regil hosts and the show lasts a full hour, enough for two full games.

In the first half of the show, two new families compete in a race to 300 points. At the start of each round, Regil asks a survey question previously asked to 100 people (e.g., "Name an occupation that requires you to be clean"). One player from each family sounds in and gives an answer. The player giving the highest (most popular) answer in the survey automatically gains control of the question for his/her family. This differs from the American version in which the family decides on whether to play the question or pass to their opponents, hoping they can steal it back later.

One by one, each member of the five-person family team gives answers they think will appear in the list of answers from the survey. The more popular the answer, the more points - 55 responses equal 55 points. An answer must have been given by at least two people to make the list of answers, so in most rounds the number of points does not equal 100 exactly.

If an answer does not appear on this list, it's a strike (signified by a buzzer offstage); if a family gets three strikes the opposing family can claim the points in the bank by giving one unrevealed answer not mentioned by the first family. Unlike the American version of the game, the value of this final answer is added to the bank if given; on the American version of the show, the value of the bank is effectively frozen after a third strike. This occasionally led to some meager banks (imagine a 6-part question where the bottom two answers were given for a total of 18 points) and a team giving a #1 answer couldn't improve the bank.

The first three rounds are played for points at face value, with the fourth round played for double points and the fifth round, if necessary, played for triple points. If no family has reached 300 points by the end of the fifth round, then a sixth and final round is played, "Subita Muerta" or sudden death, also for triple points (to ensure a winner). This is the only round of the game where a pass or play option is present, but it is also the only round where one strike is allowed (similar to the 2000 production of "Family Feud"). Often the sudden death round has only three answers so the pass/play strategy makes sense: does a family risk playing in order to give two correct answers, or pass to their opponents hoping they can get one final chance?

The winning family goes on to play "Dinero Rapido" (literally, "Fast Money") for a chance to win up to $5,000 in the first half of the program or up to $10,000 in the second half (as compared to "100 Mexicanos Dijeron" in which the prize was slightly less than $10,000). As in the American version of the show, two players answer the same five survey questions in 15 seconds (first player) and 20 seconds (second player), with a total of 200 combined points resulting in the big prize. A failure to produce 200 points meant the family received a consolation prize of $500. (This is not substantially different from the 1976 version of "Family Feud", in which winning families received between $300 and $600 for winning a game.) The winning family from the second match has the chance to return to defend their championship title on the next show.

Before the "Dinero Rapido" round is played on the second half of the show, the first player pulls a ribbon from a table decorated with large, colored, transparent, acrylic question marks (the same as in the show's title logotype). Certain ribbons are marked $500 (a bonus prize if the family earns 200 points), certain ribbons are marked "Extra Puntos" (extra points, a random number of points added to the score if the family fails to earn 200, kind of a second-chance way to win), and still others are marked "Doble" (double, which doubles the possible prize from $5,000 to $10,000). The rest of the non-winning ribbons are simply labeled "Buena Suerte" (good luck).

"Que Dice La Gente", like "100 Mexicanos Dijeron", is funny and entertaining and Regil's million-dollar smile and cordial nature are a pleasure to view. As with the previous show, there are "V.I.P." specials featuring celebrities familiar to Latinos.

"Que Dice La Gente", at the time of this writing, aired on the Univision/Telefutura television networks, in prime time, at 7pm Eastern and 6pm Central.