Stream It Or Skip It: ‘We Are Family’ On Fox, A Game Show Where Audience Members Guess The Famous Relative Of An Unknown Singer

We Are Family, hosted by Anthony Anderson with an assist from his mother, Doris Bowman, is a game show where the 100 people in the audience can win money by guessing the famous relative of an unknown singer who takes the stage. Like its fellow Fox show The Masked Singer, the kind of celebrity who would do a show like this is pretty specific, despite the magical thinking of the people who are guessing the celeb’s identity.

WE ARE FAMILY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes from the first season of We Are Family.

The Gist: Anderson introduces the audience to the singer, who describes his or her life and interests, then starts singing. While that person sings, with his or her famous relative shown in silhouette behind a bubble-like curtain, clues appear behind the singer that indicate who the famous relative is. The audience members lock in their guesses. Then the singer duets another song with their famous relative, who is still obscured; more clues show up on the curtain behind the singer. The audience members then lock in their guesses again.

When the guesses are locked in, the celebrity is revealed. Those in the audience who guessed right split the prize for that round — $20,000 in the first round, $30,000 in the second round.

After the second round, the “star player,” who logged their guesses in the fastest, is selected, and plays the third round by themselves. In that round, the singer and their famous relative, who is again behind the curtain, duet as five visual clues pop up behind the unknown singer. If the star player locks in their guess after the first guess and they’re right, they win an additional $100,000. The bonus money goes down the later they lock in their guess; if they need all five clues, the money available to win is $10,000.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Masked Singer meets Claim To Fame.

Our Take: Anderson is one of the executive producers of We Are Family, along with Jamie Foxx (who was scheduled to host the show with his daughter Corinne before his health issues caused him to drop out), and his presence as host, along with the always-funny Mama Doris, elevates what could be a drag of a format. Given that there are only three singers in any given episode, Anderson and his mother need to keep things moving to make it seem like there are things going on between songs. It’s the most evident when he goes to the audience members and asks them who their guesses are after each song.

Of course, the most infuriating part of the show is what drove us nuts about The Masked Singer: The guesses some of these audience members make are utterly ridiculous. One of the factors that everyone who guesses should keep in mind is the type of celebrity who would actually do this kind of show. Even though Anderson says, “It could be anybody!”, it really isn’t true.

Even if you have an inkling that Beyoncé or Bill Murray is behind that curtain, like some of the audience members thought during the first episode, the notion that they would never be caught dead on a show like this should enter the mind before locking in that guess. Others didn’t even use the celebrity’s singing voice or silhouette as clues, guessing men when the person behind the curtain was a woman, and vice versa.

Other audience members had more realistic guesses, and by the time all the clues came out, the mystery celebrity became relatively easy to guess. Still, it’s fun to play along if you’re watching with someone else. We just wish some of the people in the audience used a little more common sense.

Sex and Skin: None. You can watch this with the entire family.

Parting Shot: Scenes from the next episode; it seems that the audience members guessing are largely the same as they were in the first episode.

Sleeper Star: Mama Doris, of course, who guessed that one singer’s celebrity was “Mariska Heartattack.”

Most Pilot-y Line: It feels like either both the singer and their celeb relative can sing or they both can’t. We’d like to see one who can sing and one who can’t, just to hear a painful duet.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We Are Family doesn’t have a ton of exciting game play, but the guessing game is fun to play along with. It’s the kind of show you would watch if you’re in the mood to just react and not think to hard.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.