Matt Cuellar knows his music. It’s no surprise, considering his job as radio DJ “Cuervo” on the popular Springfield Station 92.9 the Beat.
But can he figure out the identity of a celebrity based on the singing of their non-famous family member?
That's the question posed by the new game show, “We Are Family”, which premiered on the FOX network on Jan. 3 — and of which Cuellar is one of 100 contestants. If he can correctly guess which celebrity the performer is related to before their identity is revealed, he has a chance to win up to $150,000.
While the show has been on the air for almost two months now, the end is quickly approaching. The 2-hour finale is scheduled to air Feb. 28, the culmination of two and a half weeks of filming that Cuellar looks back on with fondness.
Want to watch?
The two-hour finale of “We Are Family” airs this Wednesday night, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. on FOX. A watch party will be held at local restaurant Georgia Mac’s, and Cuervo invites anyone interested to join him there to watch the finale together.
On the eve of the finale, Cuellar took some time out of his busy schedule to recap his journey. It began when he was told about an open casting call for a new FOX game show from an old friend who had moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Cuellar applied online to be a contestant, and around a month later, he was on a Zoom call with producers hammering out the details. Not long after that, he was on a plane to Atlanta, Georgia to begin filming the show, which was still shrouded in mystery at the time.
Nervous energy on the set
Cuellar recalls the initial feeling of unease he experienced when he first set foot in the hotel lobby.
“It felt like camp or that first year of college,” Cuellar said. “You don't know anybody. You have no idea who the rest of the cast is. Everyone just kept looking at each other. Eventually, everybody starts mingling.”
The sense of wonder continued as the contestants made their way into the massive studio where the show would be filmed. Even Cuellar, who was no stranger to visiting massive productions and concert venues as part of his radio career, was blown away by what he saw.
“It was crazy,” he says. “You're kind of prepared, but this… this was like a movie set. It was so huge. I was taken aback by it.”
How ‘We Are Family' is played
In “We Are Family,” co-hosted by Anthony Anderson and his mother, Doris, family members of celebrities take turns performing several songs for the 100 contestants. Accompanying their performances are several images displayed on a large sphere behind them, acting as clues to their celebrity family member’s identity. Occasionally, flashes of the celebrity in question appear in silhouette within the sphere. Even something as seemingly unimportant as the earrings or shoes the singer might be wearing could provide a valuable clue — or mean absolutely nothing at all.
Determining what was a valid clue and what wasn’t was one of the biggest challenges Cuellar had to face.
“You really start overthinking,” Cueller says. “You play against others, and you play against yourself.”
Once the individual contestants are confident that they know who the famous relative is, they type in the answer on a tablet at their desks and lock in the answer. Every contestant who gets the correct answer receives a portion of that round’s prize money — $20,000 for round one, $30,000 for round two. Only the player who got the most correct guesses with the fastest times would be eligible for the third and final round of the episode, where they alone get to guess who that round’s mystery celebrity is.
“I thought, oh, I’ve been doing radio for 12 years. I got this,” says Cuellar, though he admits, “It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.”
While Cuellar unfortunately never made it to the third round of any episode, he still enjoyed the experience, whether it was being in the same room as celebrities like Joey Fatone and Andy Grammer, making Anthony Anderson laugh several times off camera, or, more than anything, cultivating new friendships with his fellow contestants.
“I think that's the part I'll remember forever,” he says. “Sometimes I think if they had a camera on us at the hotel, people would enjoy that. Even production said that they've never met a cast like ours where we immediately, within the first night, got along.”
What's next for Cuervo?
On the show, Cuellar is labeled as a food cart owner, which he plans to start up when the weather gets warmer.
“It went national on TV, so I have to do it,” he says with a laugh.
It was appropriate, as he quickly came to be known as “Chef Cuervo” by the other contestants during their hotel stay.
“I was the cook. At the end, I started just grilling for everybody,” Cueller said. “It was a party every day. There were people playing cards, people just talking, listening to music, in the pool… it was a great time.”
In a sense, the show’s title “We Are Family” took on additional meaning.
“We're all in a big group chat together,” Cueller said. “Everyone keeps in touch. There’s been some personal issues with some of their families, and everybody's there for each other. We're all so tightknit. I think that the most memorable part was the camaraderie and the actual relationships that we built in a matter of two and a half weeks.”
Even with his time on the show at an end, Cuellar remains busy, continuing to entertain and inform listeners on the radio, working on setting up his food cart, and working with Springfield’s new arena football team, the Ozark Lunkers, as their on-field host.
Still, if the opportunity to be on another game show ever came up, he says he would jump at the chance.
“I would definitely do it again,” Cueller said. “I would love to do a cooking show with Gordon Ramsay. Like, ‘Next level Chef’ or something. I think that'd be cool.”
