Hollywood Squares

The Hollywood Squares is a American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. The "board" for the game is actually a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The celebrities are asked questions and the contestants judge the veracity of their answers in order to win the game.

Basic rules

Although there have been variations over the years in the rules and the prize-winning aspects of the game, certain aspects of the game remained fairly consistent. Two contestants, a woman playing Os (noughts) and the man playing Xs (crosses), take turns selecting a celebrity, following traditional tic-tac-toe strategies for which square to select. The chosen celebrity is then asked a trivia question by the show's host. The celebrity answers the question, and a contestant win an X or an O on the board by agreeing with the celebrity, or disagreeing if the celebrity is bluffing or wrong. If the contestant is right, he or she gets the square; if wrong, the other contestant gets the square, unless that causes the opponent to get three-in-a-row. In that case, the opponent has to win the square on his or her own. A player can also win by getting five of his or her symbols on the gameboard (thus preventing "cat's games" or ties); this is called a "five square win."

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Peter Marshall's explanation of the rules were legendary:

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"Object for the players is to get three stars in a row; either across, up-and-down, or diagonally. It is their job to determine if a star is giving a correct answer or just making it up; that's how they get the square."

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