Tommy Shroeder and his daughters rallied to win two games, then shined in the final competition for ‘Big Money’
The Schroeder family of Camas ended up playing three games on the Family Feud, winning their first two before being knocked out as champions.
Touchdown Tommy Schroeder just had to laugh about the scheduling of the local television market, though.
The two victories for the Shroeder family? They were shown on Portland TV at 3 and 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
The family’s one loss? Oh, that was shown at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Thanks a lot, right?
Oh well. The Schroeders can laugh all the way to the bank.
No one got rich, but they have rich tales to tell the rest of their lives.
Tommy and his daughters Tenielle, Tatum, Teague, and Tyra will split $40,000. They also got their travel, their hotel rooms, and food for their six-day stay in Atlanta.
“It was just surreal,” Tommy said Tuesday morning.
He and his daughters were not allowed to discuss how they did until after their episodes aired. They filmed their games back in August.
“Now that we’re watching it, we were like, ‘Wow, we were really there,’” he said.
They trailed in the first game, rallied, and won. They trailed big time in the second game, rallied and won.
And on both nights, the patriarch of the family came through with 160 points in the first round of the Big Money part of the Feud. Two members of the family must score a total of 200 points to earn $20,000. Teague ended up pushing the family over the 200-point total on both nights.
“Looking back, the questions that I answered (in those moments) were pretty easy,” Tommy Schroeder said, trying to stay humble.
He noted that while viewers saw some of what host Steve Harvey would joke about, viewers missed most of his routine.
Teague was asked to name an animal that started with the letter G. She answered jaguar.
Yep.
To be fair, when she realized the miscue, she said she thought she heard J. Harvey said she said “giguar.” Apparently, though, he made fun of Teague for a lot longer than just that one brief moment that made it to air.
He did the same to other contestants throughout filming, making the experience that much more enjoyable, Tommy said.
As far as Team Schroeder, every single player had at least one big moment that helped the team to its two victories. Tyra earned the team a victory in “sudden death.”
They had a rough performance in their loss, though. Tommy said he read some of the online comments from fans of the show, critiquing their play.
“Easy to say when you’re sitting in your chair at home,” he said, noting that when the bright lights are on and you’ve only got a few seconds to respond, things happen.
Still, two wins, and two wins for Big Money are special moments.
When they were watching, they also noted a celebration from Tyra. It looked familiar to Tommy. Sure enough, he found a photo of Tyra that Clark County Today photographer Mike Schultz took during her senior year at King’s Way Christian.
When it was all over, naturally, the family thought of ways it could have done even better.
“We were all ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda,’ but we walked away with 40 grand,” Tommy Schroeder said.
The family recorded their episodes and hope to have a viewing party in the future for those who did not watch at 3 in the morning.
No matter when it aired, though, the Schroeders will always get to say they were two-time champions on the Family Feud.
(Note: To read our story on how the family made it to the game show, go here: https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/people/game-show-family-feud-to-feature-camas-clan/
