January 14, 2017
Wongus Family/Courtesy
The Wongus family's episode of "Family Feud" will air at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
When the Wongus family sent in an audition tape to appear on the game show, "Family Feud," where teams try their hand at guessing the answers to nationwide surveys, there wasn't a doubt in their minds that they'd get a call back.
"I just knew that the Wongus family was going to get chosen," said Inez Mansaray, 41 of Lansdowne. "We're just such a dynamite crowd. I was just sitting there waiting for the call."
Mansaray is one member of the five-person team tied together by the group's uncle, Tim Wongus, 41 of Philadelphia. And, her confidence absolutely paid off. The Wongus family submitted the tape last January and heard back from the show's producers within a few days.
For the weeks leading up to their departure to Atlanta this past August where the family would eventually film the episode, Mansaray, Wongus along with Rachel Robinson and Sherra Sowell who also live in Philly and Dee Charles of Havertown, practiced multiple times a week in their uncle's home.
"It's almost like you can practice by knowing the rules to the game but if you don't know the answers, then you're just not going to know the answers," Charles said.
Come Tuesday, the world will be able to see just how much their practice paid off when their episode of the show airs.
It wasn't all fun and games, however.
The Wongus' said that taping the show was a process. Producers were filming about five episodes a day and each family's turn was mostly random. They weren't picked until the final hour of the second day, Charles said. The entire process to film the 30-minute episode took less than an hour, however.
So how did they do? The Wongus family can't exactly say.
"I'll tell you this," Charles said. "I thought all my answers were great. I thought I was up there killing it, but I guess I wasn't. But it was fun though."
And for a celebration, there won't be any big viewing parties for this family. They're planning on keeping the event low key.
"I'm not paying hundreds of dollars for all this food for 20-something minutes," Mansaray joked.
The family's episode will air at 7:30 p.m. on PHL17. Regardless if they win or not, Robinson said that she's proud of her family and all the effort they put in for the show.
"I would say that we represented Philly well and everyone will be proud of us, the way we presented ourselves," Robinson said. "For the Wongus family, and for Philadelphia."
