Family No.1 belongs to the game show genre. Mr. Gajendra Singh directed it, and it was sponsored by the famous toothpaste brand, Pepsodent. DD National broadcasted it from 5 October 2013. It used to come every week on Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 pm. It was an hour-long game show. Its tagline was ‘Rahein Saath Khelein Saath’ which means ‘Stay Together, Play Together.’ The main intention of the show was to bring the families together so that they can have some good time and fun together. Rajiv Thakur and Afshaa Musani hosted the show, and they brought out a great combination of fun and comic elements.
Each family team consists of 3 members, primarily parents, and child. Two families participated in every episode of the show. It had four rounds. In the first round, Ek Se Badhkar Ek, any one member from each team participated, in the second round, Do Do Haath, two members participated, in the third round, Hum Saath Saath Hain, all the members participated, and the fourth round, Aakhri Daav, was an open round. The first two rounds were of 4 points each, third round fetches 8 points, and the last round was of 16 points.
The games were very interesting, exciting, and innovative like breaking matkas (earthen pots) being blindfolded, with your hands’ tied, find coins from the cake, bursting balloons without using hands, etc.
The games were played with the elements that are easily available in anyone’s home. Each game was 90 seconds long. Points earned in each round was used to kill the germs on their ‘Pepsodent Germ-o-meter. There were two mascots, Keeto, germ in our gums and Germ-o-meter, and Pepso, the hero who kills the germ.
Whenever team won a point, Pepso used to enter the stage from behind the germ-o-meter and kill a germ, using his sword. The episodic winners got a full year supply of Pepsodent. The final winner got a family car, while the first and the second runner up got a trip to Disneyland and bike, respectively. The participants were selected through field auditions that were conducted in various cities like Mumbai, Patna, Ludhiana, Varanasi, Indore, etc.
A total of 48 families participated in the show over a span of six months.
The show was a complete family entertainer. It illuminated the basic building blocks of a happy family, which are values like togetherness, bonding, trust, coordination, care, affection and love. It was one of its kind shows. It also created awareness about oral health, using entertainment as a hook. Sandeep Mahavir and Sandip Soparrkar came on the show to promote the show, Bharat Ki Shaan- Rum Jhum, along with their top 2 contestants. The episode started with a group dance of the top two contestants of both teams. They participated in the show. The third round was a ball game, while the fourth round was to burst the balloons by sitting on them. In the end, Sandip Soparrkar with his non-Indian team won the Family No.1 title.