Aya Lawd, a spin-off of the popular game show “Family Feud,” had its premier at the Royal Caribbean Conference Center on December 26th, Boxing Day.
The event pitted four local families contesting against each other testing their knowledge of Anguillian culture. The contestants included: The Ritchie’s family, the Webster’s family, the Banks’ family and the Carter’s family.
Each family had five players on its team, and two families competed at a time. The winner of each round then proceeded to show off against the next family.
Csaesare J. Wattley, also known as Chez, owner of Transpharm Headquarters, came up with the brilliant idea. “I had this idea for a few years now just by watching “Family Feud.” I had always liked “Family Feud.” I felt like an Anguilla version of that show would be quite entertaining and funny to me, and everyone else.”
Chez was right! The Boxing Day event was met with great praise. Energy was high and seats were filled. The crowd played along with the game and created an inmate vibe.
Chez said that he would have probably seen a turnout more people if it wasn’t for the covid pandemic, as attendance was limited to persons who were vaccinated only.” Online tickets also exceeded expectations.
Aya Lawd came at an opportune time. The “Thrilla” boxing match he had previously arranged was scheduled for the same day, but it fell through due to complications.
Local entertainer, Omari Banks, hosted the show and practiced by watching episodes of “Family Feud.” He said that he had the opportunity to practice three times before the live event.
Some of the questions the families answered were to name a popular phrase in Anguilla; name a reason Anguillians go to St. Maarten; and name the most favourite holiday in Anguilla. There were up to eight different answers on the board as options for the families to select from.
Chez reported “I sent out a survey with one hundred questions to one hundred people. That was the hardest part – getting people to sit down and answer the questions. So, the answers are local answers. I didn’t use any of the American-oriented stuff.”
The family that reigned supreme in Aya Lawd was the Ritchie family.
In “Family Feud” there are opportunities for families to score double in points thus gaining the upper hand on their opponent, but in Aya Lawd, the families received points based on how many answers on the survey were the same.
Chez explained, “Let’s say 85 people came up with the same answer on the survey, then those (85) are the points Those are the points that are associated with that question.”
Chez asked Comtech, run by developers Jharik Richardson and Jibri Klaren, to program me the new show.
He discovered that he needed a programme to display the names and surveys on screen and so he asked the gentleman at Comtech if they could build something with “Family Feud” vibes. The two developers built the program from scratch. Within a month and a half, it was completed – just in time for the day of the show. Jibri said, “The Aya Lawd system had a whole extensive control panel back end which was what allowed us to make the noises, beeps and boops.”
The Comtech developers cooperated with Titanium Audio Visual’s lighting system so that the lights changed color and the sounds and screen turned on and off at the appropriate, designated times.
Chez would like to take the show regionally. The developers hope that the show happens regularly and plan to update the Aya Lawd configuration so that guests can connect to the system via wifi and participate in the games. As one of their favourite pastime activities.
