Submitted Photo Silver Creek teacher Kristen Kline, second from left, stands with her family during the trip to Atlanta.

As Silver Creek teacher Kristen Kline winds down her first year in the district, her students, coworkers, and all of the United States will soon be able to see her in a whole new light. On Tuesday, Kline, her mother, Mary Anne, her brother, George, and her sisters, Courtney and Kailey, will make their long-awaited debut on “Family Feud.”

Kline and her family spent a handful of days in Atlanta, Georgia in June 2021, where they got to compete on the long-running game show. Finally, almost a year later, they’ll be able to see their episode run.

The opportunity they received came from Kline’s dad, who is the one who saw the link on Facebook, where Family Feud was looking for a family from Buffalo. Kline, from West Seneca, originally suspected the link might not be real, but didn’t want to let the opportunity slip away if it was in fact real.

“He sent me and my siblings the link saying they’re looking for families from Buffalo,” said Kline. “At first I thought it was a scam, but we sent in a video introducing and talking about ourselves.”

While they didn’t want to get their hopes up, a few weeks later, Kline and her family were contacted and a Zoom interview was scheduled where they acted out the show and did practice questions. Kline’s mother decorated their living room with Bills and Sabres apparel to show their Buffalo spirit, and they were told they’d be contacted if they were needed for filming. And just a few weeks after that, the call came.

“We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but we thought it would be upsetting if we didn’t get the call,” Kline said. “In June, we got the call from the producers that they wanted to fly us down and film the episode. It felt unreal and it still doesn’t feel real. It was the craziest experience ever.”

Kline and her whole family were flown to Atlanta for a few days, where they were able to tour several different studios, and interact with different families from different cities all around the country who were also competing on the show. While at first, she said it was intimidating to see the competing families, interacting with people was one of the more enjoyable parts of the experience.

“The first couple days, we went around the city and went to the aquarium and walked around the hotel and saw all the families,” said Kline. “Once you get to know the families, it’s super cool. We had a lot of down time and we’d talk to people from out of town. People would cheer each other on and be supportive.”

Because their filming process took place last year, there was no audience or family members allowed in attendance, with paid actors serving as the audience. And every time they stopped filming; they were required to put on masks. While that was cumbersome, being on the stage and seeing current host Steve Harvey walk out put all nerves and adversity at rest.

“When you’re on the stage, it doesn’t feel real,” said Kline. “When Steve (Harvey) walks out, the nerves kick in, but once he starts to talk, it calms you down. It was cool getting to talk to him. It was an out of body experience honestly.”

Kline also got a special surprise the morning of filming the show, as it was the day she officially accepted her role as a second-grade teacher at Silver Creek.

“The day I found out I got a job at Silver Creek is the day we filmed this episode,” said Kline. “I talked to the superintendent and principal the morning of, and when we were on one of our breaks from filming, I had to call Todd Crandall to talk to him about getting the job.”

While having to wait almost a year for the episode to air has been a test of patience, Kline said it’s been nice to watch the episodes featuring the families they were there with. While they haven’t kept in touch with the families, watching them now has brought the memories back.

To find out how Kline and her family do on Tuesday night, tune into WUTV in Buffalo at 7:30 p.m.