Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares
Final title card, used from 2002 to 2004
Genre	Game show
Created by	Merrill Heatter Bob Quigley
Presented by	Peter Marshall Jon Bauman John Davidson Tom Bergeron Nate Burleson Drew Barrymore
Announcer	Kenny Williams Gene Wood Shadoe Stevens Jeffrey Tambor John Moschitta Jr.
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	14 (NBC) 3 (Syndication; 1986–89) 6 (Syndication; 1998–2004)
No. of episodes	3,536 (NBC) 585 (Syndication; 1986–89) 1,050 (Syndication; 1998–2004)
Production
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production companies	Heatter-Quigley Productions (1966–81) Century Towers Productions (1986–89) Moffitt/Lee Productions (1998–2002) One Ho Productions (1998–2002) Henry Winkler-Michael Levitt Productions (2002–04) Columbia TriStar (Domestic) Television (1998–2003) Sony Pictures Television (2003–04) King World (1998–2004) Jesse Collins Entertainment (2025) Flower Films (2025) CBS Media Ventures (2025)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 17, 1966 (1966-10-17) – June 20, 1980 (1980-06-20)
Network	Syndication
Release	November 1, 1971 (1971-11-01) – May 22, 1981 (1981-05-22)
Release	September 15, 1986 (1986-09-15) – June 16, 1989 (1989-06-16)
Release	September 14, 1998 (1998-09-14) – June 4, 2004 (2004-06-04)
Network	CBS
Related
Storybook Squares Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour Hip Hop Squares Nashville Squares Celebrity Squares
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Hollywood Squares (originally The Hollywood Squares) is an American game show^[1][2][3][4] in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the same network. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of 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),^[5] 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 bluff (plausible, but incorrect) answers prior to the show. The show was scripted in this sense, but the gameplay was not. In any case, as original host Peter Marshall explained at the beginning of the Secret Square game, the celebrities were briefed prior to the show to help them with bluff answers, but they heard the actual questions for the first time as they were asked on air.

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 in the 2010's with a different title all on Paramount cable channels; in 2012, Hip Hop Squares on MTV2 with Peter Rosenberg, and from 2017-19 on VH1 with DeRay Davis, in 2019, Nashville Squares on CMT with Bob Saget, and in 2023, Celebrity Squares on VH1 with John "DC Young Fly" Whitfield.

In 2013, TV Guide ranked it at No. 7 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.^[6] 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, with Drew Barrymore serving as the center square, and Nate Burleson as host.^[7] The show is slated to air in January 2025.^[8]