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Steve Harvey Says ‘?Family Feud’? ?Contestant And Mother Shelia Patterson?? Gave The ‘Worst Answer’

By Stephen Jordan
Published on: 10:57 PST, Feb 10, 2016

Steve Harvey caught some heat, as well as an endless stream of memes on social media, for giving the wrong answer when he accidentally announced the wrong winner of the Miss Universe Pageant. This week, on Family Feud, host Steve Harvey was dumbfounded by an answer given by contestant Shelia Patterson. When the Patterson family was tasked with providing a synonym for “mother,” Shelia was humorously labeled the show’s “worst” contestant, as her epic fail went viral on Tuesday.

Steve Harvey got the entire audience in on the joke, as it took Shelia Patterson nearly a half an hour to come up with a suitable answer. First, the words “momma,” “mommy,” and “mom” were already up on the Family Feud board as suitable synonyms, and one of Shelia’s teammates, Cecilia, gave “nana” as her answer. Shelia, however, must have forgotten the fact that those answers were all taken, because she gives “nana” as well as “mommy” as her answers. Steve pointed out the fact that Cecilia had already said “nan,” but Shelia was pronouncing it in a slightly different way or changing her inflection, trying to justify it as an acceptable answer. And she did the same thing with the word “mommy.”

Steve Harvey Says '?Family Feud'? ?Contestant And Mother Shelia Patterson?? Gave The 'Worst Answer'
[Image via youTube/Family Feud]
“Let me ask y’all something,” Harvey asked the Patterson family, holding back a smile. “Y’all crazy?” The audience exploded in laughter. Harvey told the audience a couple of times not to laugh, but the situation kept going as such and only got funnier and funnier. Harvey was interacting with the audience, giving examples of different ways he could say the word “mommy,” with everyone, even the Patterson family, laughing. After Shelia said “nana” a few times, Steve walked towards the audience and said, “this **it can’t be happening, is it?,” and joked that for the sake of the kids watching at home, they would cut the show down to just two or one “nana’s”.

Behind the scenes, Steve Harvey says things were not as humourous.

“The producers were mortified,” Harvey said, according to the Wrap. “It was scary at first, but once you hand me that jewel of information, I had that audience — it was like being at a Richard Pryor concert — I had the audience running around in that theater screaming, laughing, man. It was one of the great moments of TV.”

On Wednesday, the Patterson family appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America to discuss their “Family Feud fumble” that went viral. When asked what was going through her mind every time Steve Harvey asked to give another word for “mother,” Shelia said that she just got incredibly nervous. “I had a moment there, and I really think my nerves got the best of me,” Shelia said, adding that she “cracked under the pressure of being in front of a live audience.”

Sam Patterson said that the entire time, he was hoping Steve Harvey wouldn’t direct the question to him because he had no answers to give. “I was hoping it didn’t come to me,” Sam said.

Shelia Patterson recently told TMZ that she has been receiving constant phone calls regarding the Family Feud episode, and insisted that she is, in fact, not the worst Family Feud contestant. “The greatest television I’ve ever had that won’t be seen, but I have a copy of it,” Steve Harvey said.

And audiences at home won’t be able to judge this until February 23, when the episode of Family Feud finally airs. Steve Harvey claims that the Family Feud producers will be cutting the episode down for television; however, Harvey will upload the full 25-minute show to his website once it airs.

[Image Via YouTube/Family Feud]

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