The Waites family of Festus will have their 15 minutes (and more) of fame when an upcoming episode of the “Family Feud” TV game show airs.
Bryan and Stephanie Waites and three of their five children traveled to Atlanta in May to tape an appearance on the show. The results are under wraps until the episode airs, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, on KDNL (Channel 30).
The family is planning a watch party at the Festus-Crystal City Elks for family and friends. “The entire community has been rooting for us,” Bryan said. “(The show’s producers) wanted to know if we wanted to represent St. Louis, and we said absolutely not. We wanted to be the first family on the show from Festus.”
Surprise, guys!
Back in 2020, daughter Ali Waites was scrolling through Facebook and saw an application for St. Louis-area families to apply for the show.
“I thought I’d go ahead and apply and not say anything until I see if anything comes of it,” she said.
It was a bit awkward, then, when she heard back from the show’s producers asking her to move forward with the application process.
“On Thanksgiving, we were all in the kitchen,” she said. “And I said, ‘Uh, guys, I have something to tell you…’”
The first step was to decide which five members would play if the family was selected.
Bryan, 53, and Stephanie, 46, were married in 2009. In addition to Ali, 23, their family includes Logan Waites, 27; Kelsie Wilkerson, 22; Collin Wilkerson, 21; and Annie Waites, 20.
“Kelsie immediately said, ‘I’m out,’” Stephanie said. “She did not want to be on TV. Heck, she’s nervous for the watch party.”
Logan, a junior project manager with Thomas Equipment and Management in Pevely, feared he might be unable to coordinate his work schedule with the show’s demands.
The other five settled in for what would prove to be a long process.
“We told Ali to see it through, since it was her idea,” Stephanie said. “All the contact was through her.”
Step-by-step process
The next step was submitting a video so producers could get to know them a little. Being a sports-loving family, the Waites clan decided to go with a “teams in Missouri” theme.
“I had the Mizzou Tigers and Steph had the Kansas City Chiefs,” Bryan said. “Collin was the Blues, Ali the Cardinals, and Annie was kind enough to take the Rams.”
In the video, the family played the question: What is Missouri’s favorite sports team?
“We showed them we understood how to play the game,” Ali said. “We tried to show how we’d be supportive if one family member did an answer that wasn’t great.”
After an email saying producers “loved their video,” the family’s next hurdle was a Zoom call in January 2021 during which they played a mock game.
“We had to dress up like we would for the show,” Stephanie said. “We thought it went great. We had a good time.”
In late January, Ali got an email saying producers were definitely interested in having the family on the show.
“We were all freaking out,” she laughed. “They gave us a list of taping dates and we had to pick the ones we could do.”
The biggest challenge was coordinating five busy schedules.
Producers cautioned the family not to put their lives on hold waiting for word.
“They said even if you don’t hear from us, you’ll stay on our list for two or three years,” Ali said.
Then came silence. Months went by and the family heard nothing.
“We couldn’t go to dinner, couldn’t go anywhere without people asking us if we had any news,” Bryan said.
“It’s absolutely typical for it to be a year and a half to two years between application and air date,” said Natalie Wilson of the PR firm that handles the show.
The family took an “Oh, well, we had fun anyway” attitude toward the process.
“They get as many as 15,000 families in the pool for something like 150 shows a year,” Bryan said. “So, it’s a needle in the haystack.”
“We realized that the whole way through and were OK with it,” Stephanie said. “We are empty nesters, so the process was nice, even if we had never made it onto the show. We got to spend a lot of time as a family, and we had so much fun being together.”
Scrambling
Finally, in April 2022, the family was notified of taping dates – but they were just a few weeks away.
“That’s when we started scrambling,” Bryan said wryly.
Bryan is self-employed. Collin had just finished his year at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Ali had just finished work on a master’s degree, so they were all good. But Stephanie, a counselor at Crystal City Elementary, was worried.
“At first, I said, ‘I can’t go; it’s the last week of school,’” she said. “But I went to the administration and they said, ‘To represent our community on national TV? Uh, yeah.’”
Annie was to start classes in the EMT program at Mineral Area College that week, but professors generously allowed her to postpone a few days. Emails flew back and forth during the lead-up to the taping.
“Non-disclosure agreements, travel arrangements, COVID testing, trying to figure out what everybody was going to wear,” Stephanie said. “So many emails!”
The family finally headed to Atlanta for a multi-show taping session. Their air and hotel expenses were covered by the show.
Families at the sessions don’t find out for sure whether they’ll actually take part in a show until the last minute.
“You’re in a trailer with other families and they go over the rules,” Stephanie said. “They have you rehearse onstage with another family, so they can see what your energy is like.”
The Waites family was selected to sit in the front row of the audience for a taping.
“It was an amazing experience,” Stephanie said. “At that point, you still don’t know whether you’ll get to be on the show. They’re very honest with you all along the way. So, we thought this could be it for us, and we were OK with that.”
When taping for the day wrapped, the family was sent back to their hotel to await word on whether they should come back.
Ali got the call and shared the good news with roommate Annie, but the girls decided to prank their family.
“So, we mosey on down to dinner, all mopey, and say they called and we have to go home,” Ali said. “Dad and Steph were so supportive and said, ‘Well, it’s OK,’ and then we burst out laughing.”
The following day the family went through hair and makeup sessions, then sat to watch the first taping.
“Steve Harvey was so funny,” Bryan said. “The crew laughs and has a good time, too. When that ended, they came over and said, ‘You ready?’ and had us get name tags on. That’s when you know it’s real.”
The Waites team squared off against a family from Florida with a surprising Missouri connection.
“We were talking to one of the sons,” Bryan said. “And we found out his wife is from Farmington. They were married at Chaumette Winery, just two weeks after us.”
The family is contractually prohibited from divulging how they did on the show or what they may have won until after the air date.
But they are eager to talk about how positive the experience was for them.
“It strengthened our family,” Stephanie said. “We are all so busy, and we were able to come together and make these great memories.”