'Family Feud' Contestants Had to Take Herpes Tests When Richard Dawson Was Host, Book Claims

A new book claims that in Richard Dawson's tenure as host, Family Feud contestants had to undergo herpes tests. A recent book by Kliph Nesteroff, Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, reports the long-running game show implemented a policy that stated contestants would "undergo a mouth test with a magnifying glass from medical staff."

 Because Dawson was known for kissing contestants on the mouth when greeting them, contestants had to undergo this procedure. "A contestant revealed that before her appearance, a Family Feud production assistant entered the dressing room with a magnifying glass and a cotton swab and said, 'Okay, everybody line up for your herpes test,'" Nesteroff writes in the book, per Entertainment Weekly.

Concerns expressed by viewers and physicians prompted the move. "Several game show fans were repulsed," Nesteroff writes. "One viewer complained, 'Richard Dawson spreads more bugs every week than a flu epidemic.'"

Moreover, he recounts a letter sent to Philadelphia Daily News at the time: "As a physician, I have wondered about the risks Richard Dawson takes in kissing every female contestant on Family Feud, The diseases that could be transmitted by promiscuous kissing are too long and too loathsome to recount here. Does Dawson or the producers take any caution to prevent infection? Are none of them informed?"

Dawson, who died in 2012 at the age of 79 from esophageal cancer complications, was the original host of the popular game show, who emceed it between 1976 and 1985 as well as from 1994 to 1995. During a 2010 interview with the Television Academy, Dawson explained he created the tradition as a way to calm contestants' nerves, citing a woman who had difficulty naming a green vegetable because she was so nervous.

"I said, 'I'm gonna do something that my mom would do to me whenever I had a problem of any kind," he recalled. "And I kissed her on the cheek, and I said, 'That's for luck.' And she said, 'Asparagus.'" Although ABC requested he stop kissing, Dawson said that thousands of letters supported his actions.

Outrageous explores the controversies of show business and attempts at censorship, which date back to the Vaudeville age of the late 1800s and early 1900s up until the present day. In its 25th season, Family Feud is hosted by Steve Harvey, who has emceed the show since 2010.