Hot Potato is a television game show that was broadcast on NBC in the United States from January 23 to June 29, 1984. From April 23 until its conclusion, the show was known as Celebrity Hot Potato.
Bill Cullen was the show’s host, his final hosting job for a network series, and Charlie O’Donnell was the announcer. Cullen remarked that he had been chosen to host largely by default, since the originally intended host had flopped during an early run-through of the game and neither Barry & Enright nor NBC could think of anyone else to ask. He also noted that this scenario had occurred repeatedly during his career, resulting in many of his credits as a game show host.
The series was produced by Barry & Enright Productions, the company’s first for NBC since the company was a central figure in the 1950s quiz show scandals. Hot Potato was the first game mounted for a network by Barry & Enright since 1976’s Break the Bank aired on ABC, the last one the company did not produce exclusively for syndication, and the last original production Jack Barry was a part of; he died on May 2, 1984, a little more than a week after Hot Potato made the switch to the celebrity format.
Hot Potato took over the noon ET timeslot from Go and did not perform well in the ratings, beaten by Family Feud on ABC and frequently pre-empted for local news in most larger markets. Reruns of Diff’rent Strokes took over that time slot for the rest of the summer.
This is a show that I kind of wished would return because it definitely feels like a show that would work in today’s climate overall and I kind of hope Game Show Network gets on that at some point down the road.
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