On most afternoons, you can find my family cuddled up on the couch yelling answers at the TV. We participate in our own version of the holy trinity: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Family Feud. A few months ago, we were participating in that most cherished tradition when my teenage daughter pointed at the screen and said, “Hey, I know her!”
The Sulphur family that landed themselves on Family Feud have Christopher Portie to thank. Christopher lives and works in St. Louis, but he was born and raised in Sulphur. He works in branding for Purina (yes, the dog food company) and is the creator of the board game “How to Lose a Guy in one DM.” He’s a video game guy who is creative and unique. And he decided that he and his mom, dad, grandmother and sister were the perfect family for Family Feud.
He recruited the group to record an audition video featuring his (sleeping) mother in her pitch-black bedroom. Christopher busts in the room and asks her a Family Feud question. Melissa Padgett, Christopher’s mother, says he had each family member rehearse and film their roles several times before editing the clips together and sending it off. The video was submitted in 2019, and the family heard nothing until late 2021, when they were chosen to move to the next round, a Zoom audition.
“So, Keith, you and Melissa are married,” the producer asked during that audition. “Well … not anymore,” he responded. The producer’s eyebrows went up and his pen flew across the paper. Christopher’s parents had been divorced for several years.
Several months went by before the family heard anything else. “Once we were chosen, we had another Zoom call to go over the particulars,” says Melissa. “There may be 10 families chosen but, depending on the pattern of winning and losing, only seven of them will actually get to play.” The Portie family flew out to Atlanta to participate, but not before grandmother, Linda Breaux Burns, tried to duck out.
“She was nervous, but once you’re chosen you can’t swap out family members,” says Melissa. “I don’t think she thought we’d ever actually get chosen. When we explained that it was either all of us or none of us, she agreed.”
What’s It Like?
When you arrive on the Family Feud set, the first half of the day is dress rehearsal. “It’s a dry run with a guest host named Rubin, and he does the whole Steve Harvey bit. It’s a mock show, essentially,” Melissa says. Around noon the actual show begins.
According to the Portie family, the show does an excellent job of selecting the families. “They were all so dynamic and fun. There was one family from Houston, a father and his four sons. They were military. They were cutting up and so, so much fun to hang with.”
Melissa says the most surprising part of the whole experience was how much she laughed. “What you don’t see is that those 30 minutes of television take 90 minutes to tape. One of the contestants will say something, and Steve will come to the audience and do a whole comedy show. He was super friendly, down to earth and absolutely hilarious. There are two commercial breaks and during those breaks, he takes questions from the audience and gives very sound advice.”
On their second day in Atlanta, the Portie family was finally up. “My son had all of these brain games to warm us up, and producers would participate with us,” says Melissa. “My poor mother had a nervous stomach all week. At night we would go to dinner together, but she stayed in her room because she was so nervous. Stage fright is a real thing, we learned, and because of that some of her answers were the … dumbest things.”
So, why — even when the answer is not even close to a “good answer” — can you find the families cheering? “They script all of that. They want you to be a happy, nice family and show that you can compete and stay supportive. That’s where the ‘good answer, good answer’ cheer comes from.”
Despite the fact that Melissa’s ex-husband, Keith Portie, had forgotten to bring his hearing aid to the taping, the Portie family won.
“The family members’ placement is strategic. My son Christopher figured out that the second person is the player who can’t really hurt you. So we put my mom there. My ex-husband is a pilot and really a clutch player, so we put him fifth.” One of the game show’s rules prevents family members from speaking to each other, so none of his family members could repeat the questions to Keith.
On their second try, the family wasn’t so lucky. “I could tell Keith was listening and processing, but the other family beat him by a split second.” The Portie family left Atlanta the following day. They’d won $20,000. Melissa says, “The lagniappe
The Winnings
The Portie family knew what they were going to do with the money long before they made it to Atlanta. “My Dad, Clifton (T-Boy) Breaux, passed away in early 2019, and we wanted to do something in his honor.”
Breaux grew up very poor in Sulphur, and he loved sports. One day, when he showed up for baseball tryouts without shoes, the coach told him if he didn’t have shoes and a glove he couldn’t play. Juliette Benglis, a Sulphur resident who was SPAR director for many years, had a big heart for kids, Melissa says, including her dad.
“She let him borrow a glove and shoes from the lost and found.” Breaux would go on to pay that good deed forward when, many years later, he volunteered his time as baseball umpire and basketball referee. The two had a special bond, and Benglis took care of Breaux throughout the years.
“You know, people talk about work-life balance now, but my dad lived a work-life balance before it was even a thing,” says Melissa. Breaux worked at OLIN for 40 years, but his passion was sports. “Growing up we traveled around and played basketball, softball and volleyball,” Melissa says. “My dad was a very gifted athlete. Had he grown up today, he likely would’ve been a collegiate athlete. He played to win, none of that ‘participation trophy’ stuff. He was ultra-competitive, and he passed that down to me.” Padgett plays on five different tennis teams and describes herself as “step on your neck” competitive.
When Breaux passed away, his family felt a huge outpouring of love from the Sulphur community. He was well known and well liked. “I love talking about my dad,” says Melissa. “He was the most consistent male figure in my older kids’ lives. He was a stand-in-the-gap kind of man for me. I worked, so if my kids forgot something, he was the one who drove it to school for them. He was my person. We had a habit of watching the same basketball game from our respective houses and we’d always end up on the phone ‘Can you believe that play?”
In his honor, the Portie family donated $20,000 to the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana and directed the funds to the Big Brothers, Big Sisters’ summer sports program.
“My dad was meek and quiet. He enjoyed life,” says Melissa. “He understood that things don’t matter and that everyone should find something they’re passionate about and do that. He was a badass.”
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