‘Celebrity Family Feud’ premiere: Did Steve Harvey, Anthony Anderson, Monica Potter keep show great?

We’ve made it no secret over time that we’re big fans of game shows, especially the idea of taking one that is iconic, and then finding a twist to send it into primetime. This is precisely what we had with “Celebrity Family Feud” Sunday night. You had Steve Harvey and a very familiar format, but at the same time you did a little bit to shake things up by adding a few famous people.

One thing we’ll praise the show for right away is for not padding it just because you had stars in the building. The assumption was smartly made that everyone already knew the game, and there was no dawdling around waiting for the rules to be explained. We dived right in with Anthony Anderson vs. Toni Braxton, and later on in the show we had Monica Potter vs. Curtis Stone. Each had their isolated funny moments, accentuated mostly by Harvey’s banter. Sure, we cannot really look at him without thinking about Kenan Thompson’s “Saturday Night Live” parody, but we will not hold that against him.

This is not going to be the sort of show that you go insane waiting to watch, but it’s fun, lighthearted summer entertainment that adds a different component to the original show. You likely know going in what you are getting into.

If there was something we would change on the show (and we may be in the minority on this), it would be shifting the format slightly so that we had TV families as opposed to actual families. It’s nothing personal, but sometimes a famous person’s mother or brother just is not compelling television. Our preference would be to feature, for example, the cast of Potter’s “Parenthood,” or getting to see the “black-ish” gang compete. For Curtis, how about the “Top Chef” judges?

In the end, we feel like this is still solid viewing, and if you’re craving TV at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday nights (and don’t like “Big Brother”), maybe this will be appointment viewing for you.

What did you think of the premiere? Share below, and head over here to get some other TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)