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 it had been a very common scenario in his career, hence why he had so many game show hosting gigs to his credit). 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. Gameplay Two teams of three players competed, one of which consisted of the previous game's champions. The members of each team shared a common trait (hobby, occupation, etc.). All questions used during the main game had at least seven correct answers. Some were trivia questions with a set number of factual answers – for example, naming the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – while others required the players to guess the most common responses to a survey. In each round, Cullen asked a question and stated the number of acceptable answers. One member of the team with initial control started by either giving an answer or challenging an opponent to do so. If the player gave a correct answer, control passed to the next team member in line. An incorrect response sent the