Hot Potato

Premiere Intro: "ANNOUNCER: This is one of our teams, they're three of a kind. TEAM 1: I'm Donna Holton, I'm Barbara Masson, I'm Diane Callan, and we're MOTHERS TO BE! ANNOUNCER: And here's our other team, they're also three of a kind. TEAM 2: I'm Bonnie Murrow, I'm Ed Bearenson, I'm Steve Ross, and we're TEACHERS! ANNOUNCER: And they're here to play... HOT (hissssssssssssssss) POTATO! And here to toss the Hot Potato, our host, Bill Cullen!"

Series Intro: "Here are our champions, they're three of a kind. (self contestant intros and something in common) And here are our challengers, they're also three of a kind. (self contestant intros and something in common) And they're (all) here to play... HOT (hisssssssssssssssss) POTATO! And here to toss the Hot Potato, our host, Bill Cullen!"

Celebrity Intro: "ANNOUNCER: These 2 teams are about to play against each other. Team 1: (self celebrity intros) And we are the CHAMPIONS! ANNOUNCER: Now let's meet their opponents. Team 2: (self celebrity intros) And we are the CHALLENGERS. ANNOUNCER: And they're here to play CELEBRITY HOT (hisssssssssssssssssssss) POTATO! And here's our host, Bill Cullen!"

Premise
Two teams of three contestants that share a common bond competed in this short-lived game show where they answered questions with a number of answers (at least seven) to them.

Main Game
The game is played in up to three rounds. In each round, host Cullen read a question which was either a factual or survey question. One member of the team in control chose to either answer the question or challenge one member of his/her opposing team (this was classified as tossing the Hot Potato (hence the name of the show)). When deciding to answer, if the answer given by the player was correct, the team keeps control and play went to the next player in line; if the answer is wrong, the player who gave that answer was knocked out of the round and has to sit on a bench, and control passed to the opponents. On a challenge, the challenged player gave an answer. If the challenged was wrong, he/she was knocked out, but if the challenged was right, the challenger was knocked out. The winner of the challenge also took control. After the fifth answer to the question had been given, Bill would recap which given answers were in the question, and which wrong answers had been given. Until then, it was up to the players to remember. To win a round, the entire opposing team (all three of its members) must be knocked out of the round, or if one of the members of the controlling team came up with the seventh answer to the question. Now any team that gets seven correct answers in a row without missing or challenging, wins the "7 Straight Jackpot" which started at $1,000 and grew by $500 for each day it's not won in addition to the round. The first team to win two rounds wins the game, $1,000 and a chance to play the bonus game. In the pilot, losing challenging teams won $500 if they won a round.

Bonus Round
In the bonus game, the winning team was given a subject followed by the question (Ex: Which has more members or Which is the dirtiest). Then they were shown up to six pairs of choices; on each choice they must choose the one that answers the question. At some point in the bonus round, the winning team can pass on a pair of choices if they don't know the answer, but they can only do it once a bonus game. Each correct answer was worth $500. One incorrect answer along the way forfeited all the money earned in this round. To prevent this from happening, the winning team can decide to stop the game and keep the cash after a correct answer. Getting five out of six questions right won a jackpot which started at $5,000 plus $5,000 more for each bonus not won. New champions always started at $5,000. The highest jackpot won was $20,000 which was won in one episode by the Waitresses.

Pilot Bonus Round
Not much is different except for these differences:


 * There were seven pairs of choices instead of six.
 * For the first three pairs instead of answering together, each member of the winning team answered individually for $200/correct answer. The money earned in those questions was used as stake money to create a base amount up to $600.
 * Next the remaining four pairs of choices were played in a "double or nothing" fashion; instead of stopping in between choices, the winning team can stop during choices. The maximum payoff was $9,600.

Winning teams stayed on the show until they were defeated. The biggest winning team was the Accountants who all won $40,000.

Celebrity Hot Potato
After the first 13 weeks of Hot Potato shows, the game was changed to have celebrities play the game alongside civilian contestants. The "7 Straight Jackpot" was axed for this version.

A few weeks were played where all three players on a team were celebrities (usually sharing a common bond, such as comedians or stars of a particular TV series), with their winnings going to various charities.

Needless to say, the new celebrity format was not all that successful, and the show consequently died on June 29, 1984.

Music
Pilot - Unknown

Music by Hal Hidey

Trivia
Hot Potato was Bill Cullen's last network game show, and his second to last game show overall. When the show was canceled, Bill then hosted The Joker's Wild after original host & producer Jack Barry died.

The saddest thing about the show was the fact that it aired at noontime everyday, which was the timeslot for newscasts.

The show was mostly remembered by its giant Hot Potato sign with steam coming out of it at the start and end of the show. The sign was risen to reveal the bonus board.

Links
Adam Nedeff's Hot Potato Page

Adam Nedeff's older Hot Potato Page

David Livingston's Hot Potato Page

Xanfan's Hot Potato Page

Xanfan's older Hot Potato Page

Josh Rebich's Hot Potato Rule Sheet

YouTube Video
Game Show Hosts Question