Hollywood Squares is an American television game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show originally aired as a pilot on NBC in 1965, and debuted as a regular series in October 1966. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth based on their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.
Though Hollywood Squares was a legitimate game show, the game largely acted as the background for the show's comedy in the form of joke answers (commonly called "zingers" by the production staff), often given by the stars prior to their real answer. The show's writers usually supplied the jokes. In addition, the stars were given the questions' subjects and bluffs before the show. The show was scripted in this sense, but the gameplay was not. The original host Peter Marshall explained at the beginning of the Secret Square game, "the celebrities were briefed before the show to help them with bluff answers, but they are hearing the actual questions for the first time."
Marshall hosted the original version of Hollywood Squares that aired on NBC from 1966 to 1980, as well as a nighttime syndicated version that ran from 1971 to 1981. It then returned to NBC in 1983 as part of a 60-minute hybrid series with Match Game, featuring Jon Bauman hosting the Hollywood Squares portion of that show. Following Marshall's retirement, the show has since been revived twice in syndication: a version hosted by John Davidson from 1986 to 1989, and another hosted by Tom Bergeron from 1998 to 2004. Three revivals were run from 2012 to 2024 with a different title all on Paramount cable channels: Hip Hop Squares, originally on MTV2 with Peter Rosenberg in 2012 and on VH1 with DeRay Davis from 2017 to 2019; Nashville Squares, on CMT with Bob Saget in 2019, and Celebrity Squares on VH1 with John "DC Young Fly" Whitfield from 2023 to 2024.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked it at No. 7 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever. Internationally, there have been multiple versions produced under a variety of names (see International versions below). When combined with two spinoffs of the franchise, the show has been produced for seven different decades.
In May 2024, it was announced that the show would be revived by CBS (which has owned the rights to the program since 2000, when it acquired format owner King World), with Drew Barrymore as a co-executive producer and center square, and Nate Burleson as host. The series premiered on January 16, 2025. On February 24, 2025, the revival was renewed for a second season, which premiered on January 7, 2026.
Gameplay Two contestants compete in every match, with one playing the letter X and the other the letter O (referred to as "circle") in a game of tic-tac-toe. The tic-tac-toe board features nine celebrities, each seated behind a square of a three-by-three grid game board.
Taking turns, each contestant selects a square. The celebrity in that square is asked a question by the host and gives an answer, typically preceded by a comedic response known as a "zinger". The contestant may then choose to agree or disagree with the answer given by the celebrity. Correctly agreeing or disagreeing awards the contestant's symbol, while doing so incorrectly awards the opponent's symbol, unless doing so would result in an automatic win for the opponent. As in the regular game of tic-tac-toe, the objective is to create three in a row of the same symbol vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Should a game develop in such a way that it is impossible to achieve three in a row, the round is won by whichever contestant is able to place their letter in at least five squares (a majority of the board).
1966–1981
Bert Parks hosted the 1965 pilot of Hollywood Squares, which was taped at CBS Television City. A second pilot was taped with comedian Sandy Baron as host. Neither Parks nor Baron were considered to host the series, partly because NBC was "looking for a complete non-entity", and partly because Baron was considered "too New Yorky"."Hollywood Squares". E! True Hollywood Story, created by Ilya Reznikov, Season 7, Episode 21, E! Networks, 2003. NBC acquired the rights to the show, which debuted on October 17, 1966, with Peter Marshall as host, a job he held for 15 years. Marshall agreed to host because he did not want rival Dan Rowan to host. Hollywood Squares was the final addition to a short-lived game show powerhouse block on NBC, which for the next two years also included Concentration, Jeopardy!, You Don't Say!, Let's Make a Deal, Match Game and others. During most of its daytime run, NBC broadcast The Hollywood Squares at 11:30 a.m. Eastern/10:30 a.m. Central; it dominated the ratings until 1976 when it made the first of several time slot moves. During its peak at its timeslot, the show attempted an hour-long trial format for the week of November 3–7, 1975, but it did not last long. The show begin falling apart and declining after the premieres of Stumpers! and 50 Grand Slam and lasted all the way to its cancellation in 1980. The show officially announced its cancellation by NBC executive Fred Silverman on February 27, 1980, citing the fact the set was outdated and the host was aging in contrast to the neon-lit sets of their newer game shows at that time. The daytime show aired its 3,536th and last episode on June 20, 1980, when it was canceled to make way for a talk show with David Letterman that would become a precursor to his Late Night and Late Show programs.
The show also ran at night, first on NBC from January 12 to September 13, 1968, as a mid-season replacement for the short-lived sitcom Accidental Family. A nighttime syndicated program ran from November 1, 1971, until May 22, 1981. Initially airing once weekly, the syndicated Squares added a second airing in 1972 and began airing daily or nightly in September 1980, the show's final season.
The daytime series was played as a best two-out-of-three match between a returning champion and an opponent, with each game worth $200/$400 per match (originally $100 for each game and an additional $300 for the match, totaling $500). Originally, a five-match champion retired with an additional $2,500, the Secret Square prize package (if not yet won), and a new car; the cash bonus was increased through the years. By 1976, the prize for a five-day champion included additional cash ($5,000 or $10,000), two new cars, and a luxury vacation, with a total value of somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000. In September 1976, an endgame was added after each match, with the champion simply selecting a star, each of whom held an envelope with a prize; the top prize was $5,000, with additional prizes ranging from small kitchen appliances to items worth up to about $2,000.
The nighttime versions featured the same two contestants playing for the entire half-hour, with each completed game worth $300 (NBC prime time) or $250 (syndicated). On the syndicated version, if time ran out with a game still in progress (interrupted by a loud horn that the host called "the tacky buzzer"), each X or O on the board at that point was worth an additional $50 to the contestants, with each contestant guaranteed at least $100 in total winnings. The contestant with the most money at the end of the show won a bonus prize, which for the first seven years of the syndicated series was a car. From 1978 to 1980, the endgame described above was used with each prize worth at least $5,000 including a new car; cash prizes of $5,000 and $10,000 were also available. If the match ended in a tie, one final question was played with the star of one contestant's choosing; if the contestant agreed or disagreed correctly, they won the match; otherwise, the match went to the opponent. The nighttime syndicated version's episodes were self-contained, unlike the daytime version where games could straddle.
For the final (1980–1981) season, the syndicated series left NBC's Burbank, California studio and moved to the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. During the final season, games were no longer scored. Instead, the winner of each game won a prize, and if time ran out before a game could be completed, the prize went to the player with the most squares on the board. Additionally, eight of the season's winning contestants were invited back to play in a Grand Championship tournament at the end of the season. The final $100,000 Grand Championship Tournament was played in 1980 and won by Eric Lloyd Scott of Denver, Colorado. Prizes that year included a Geodesic Dome Home from Domes America, a Botany 500 wardrobe, a 50-day cruise on Delta Line, the first Apple II computer system, the original Sony Betamax, a camper trailer, a motorhome and $20,000 in cash.
Cast of stars
Many celebrities became recognized as regulars on the show. Some regulars were frequently asked questions pertaining to a certain topic or category. For instance, Paul Lynde was frequently asked questions related to history or relationships, to which he would first respond with a clever zinger to get a laugh (usually a wrong answer but funny joke/punch line) before providing his answer. Cliff Arquette (in character as "Charley Weaver"), a history buff, excelled at American history questions; Rich Little almost always received questions about other celebrities, which allowed him to do an impression of that individual; Wally Cox was also given a lot of celebrity questions for which he usually gave the wrong answer; Roddy McDowall usually gave correct answers about the plays of Shakespeare; Rose Marie often received questions on dating and relationships, playing off her lovelorn comic persona; and Demond Wilson often responded with mock anger to questions that were carefully worded to play upon African-American stereotypes.
Lynde was featured in the tactically important center square throughout most of the show's original run. In 1968, after the first two years on the show, Lynde became the regular center square. Lynde's outrageous jokes earned him three consecutive Daytime Emmy Award nominations from 1972 to 1974. He left the series after taping the August 20–24, 1979, week of shows and was replaced by Wayland Flowers; Lynde returned when the series relocated to Las Vegas for the 1980–1981 season.
Secret Square The Secret Square game is played as the first game on a given broadcast (or the first complete game, if a show began with a game already in progress) during the daytime series. In this game, a randomly selected Secret Square is shown only to the home audience by the shot of the television camera. A contestant who picked that square during the game won a bonus prize package if they correctly agreed or disagreed with the star. Secret Square prize packages added cash on the daytime edition, which started at around $1,000 for the 1966 episodes; the base amount increased in the later years from 1967 to 1980, by which time a new Secret Square package was worth around $3,500 to $4,500. The package grew daily until won. The question for the star was sealed in a special envelope and was almost always multiple-choice.
For the 1968 NBC primetime series, the first two games were the Secret Square games. One Secret Square offered a trip and the other Secret Square offered a car or occasionally a boat. If not won, the prize offered in the first round carried over to the second round, with a second prize added. If not won in the second round, the Secret Square prize package went unclaimed.