Hot Potato

Broadcast
NBC 1984

Packager
Barry & Enright Productions

Host
Bill Cullen

Music
Pilot - Unknown

Music by Hal Hidey

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; but 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. To win a round, the entire opposing team (all three of it's 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 David Livingston's Hot Potato Page Xanfan's Hot Potato Page

YouTube Videos
Game Show Hosts Question The Waitresses' $20,000 bonus round