The Latest Hollywood Squares

From time to time I do like TV game shows. I like the current incarnation of Hollywood Squares with Drew Barrymore as the center square (as well as being one of the producers). For those who don't know Hollywood Squares is basically Tic-Tac-Toe fitted into a game show format. Two contestants compete against each other for a small sum of cash by playing tic-tac-toe with 9  Hollywood celebrities who are sitting at desks on a three level set. There is a host, in this incarnation Nate Burleson (most notably an ex NFL player?) who asks the celebrities questions. The celebrities usually give a joke answer to lighten the mood and then give their real answer to the question, the contestant then either agrees or disagrees with the celeb's answer if they are correct then their shape (X or O) gets the square. They usually have two rounds (games) and the contestant with the most accumulated cash wins and goes to a bonus round. In the bonus round the host makes a statement about each celeb to which the contestant either agrees that the statement is true or false, they have 60 seconds to answer this round robin of "fact" questions. Each celeb has an envelope with a card inside it, 8 of the celebs have a blank card and just 1 had a card that has $25,000 written on it. For each celeb the contestant matches with (gets the fact question correct) the celeb opens the envelope to reveal their card. If the celeb has the card with $25,000 on it the contestant wins the $25,000.

As a kid I enjoyed the original version that had Paul Lynde as the center square. I don't think any other version over the years has really compared to the charm of the original. A few years back (1990s? early 2000s?) there was an incarnation with Whoopi Goldberg as the center square that wasn't as good or as witty. At least this new incarnation has some of the old wit of the original somewhat.

As to Drew I have always liked her since she appeared in ET. As a child actor she was a cutie, then she became a troubled teen, a bit precocious and almost ruined her life with the alcohol and drugs. Still she has been a celebrity crush of mine for ages and still is.