'Family Feud' Host Richard Dawson Had Contestants Take Herpes Tests For The Show, Book Claims

Survey says...we're going to need to see the inside of your mouth to see if you have the herps.

In a new explosive book, "Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars," author Kliph Nesteroff pens that legendary "Family Feud" host Richard Dawson, who died in 2012 at age 79, was protected from herpes by a test every male and female contestant had to go through before appearing on the show.

It was a herpes test where contestants would "undergo a mouth test with a magnifying glass from medical distaff." According to PEOPLE, Nesteroff writes that a production assistant would tell contestants, "OK, everybody line up for your herpes tests."

Dawson hosted the game show from 1976 to 1985.

Host Richard Dawson speaks to the cast of the television series, 'Eight Is Enough' as they compete on the game show, 'Family Feud,' April 1978. (Photo by ABC Television/Fotos International/Getty Images)

Nesteroff doesn't pinpoint exactly when the testing began, but he points to a letter in the Philadelphia Daily News from a reader accusing Dawson of "promiscuous kissing" and noted that the risk of the herps was "too loathsome to recount."

Herpes and Dawson were being mentioned in newspapers going back to at least 1981 and 1982.

"He has fashioned an original signature to his work by insisting on kissing every female contestant. Sometimes twice, sometimes more," syndicated columnist Jim Bishop wrote in 1981. "It must be difficult for this man to get insurance against herpes simplex."

In 1983, syndicated columnist Lewis Grizzard wrote on Dawson and his kissing prowess.

"That idiot on 'Family Feud' gets me crazy, too. What's his name? Richard Dawson, that's it. Can you get herpes from kissing show contestants? I hope so," Grizzard wrote.

That Grizzard column was syndicated into papers all across the United States.

The Dawson and herpes theme persisted into 1984 when syndicated Hollywood columnist Dick Kleiner was asked about it.

"Dear Dick: Why isn't Richard Dawson afraid of herpes, mono and other related diseases he could get from kissing all those women?" a reader asked.

So Kleiner asked the host.

"That has just never crossed my mind," Dawson allegedly told Kleiner.

One of Dawson's "associates" went on to explain that Dawson "makes two million a year, and two million buys a lot of salve."

A herpes expert told Kleiner that Dawson should have been in the clear if "he washes well after each show."

Now, if Nesteroff's book is to be believed, we know that herpes was on Dawson's mind and there were precautions taking place to keep the hornball in the clear.

By 1985, Dawson's run with the "Feud" was over.

"The best kisser on television is out of work," the newspapers read on February 1, 1985. Between sagging ratings, audiences that were losing interest, and "Dawson's expanding waistline," the show with the Kissing Bandit had run its course.