CBS adds a new game show to the mix for the 2024-2025 TV season and it's a throwback!

CBS is about to revive a classic game show in Hollywood Squares! Find out when it’s coming and who the main star will be!

Game shows have become hot on network television in the last few years. It got started a few years back as summer fare and also clicked during the pandemic. It makes sense as they’re much cheaper to produce and draw ratings from folks wanting to play along at home and try to outdo the folks on screen. 

CBS has several of them from the iconic The Price Is Right to Lingo and Let’s Make a Deal. Now, as part of the 2024-25 schedule, they’ve announced a new take on the long-standing Hollywood Squares. 

First premiering on NBC in 1966, Hollywood Squares uses the classic tic-tac-toe with contestants answering questions to get either an “X” or “O” on a huge board. The real draw is that each of the boxes contains a celebrity who shares some banter before giving an answer, which the contestant has to guess correctly. 

The original run went 14 seasons on NBC and was notable for some big names doing fun bits. Rich Little would answer with impressions, Roddy McDowell would talk in Shakespearean talk, and Paul Lynde would steal the show with jokes that pushed the network boundaries of the time. 

The NBC run ended in 1981 and the show was later revived for syndication. A 1998 run was made famous by Whoopi Goldberg as the center square, and her clout allowed bigger-name stars to take part with Tom Bergeron as host. This proved successful, thanks to wild moments. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the infamous episode where the contestants simply cannot get any right answers, with Gilbert Gottfried marking each response with “You Fool!”

That run ended in 2004 and twenty years later, CBS is bringing it back.

Who’s starring in the new Hollywood Squares?

As part of the announcements of their 2024-25 schedule, CBS confirmed that a new version of Hollywood Squares will premiere in January 2025. 

In the center square position is Drew Barrymore, who’s risen from child star to infamously troubled teen to a huge box office star, producer, and currently talk show host. She also serves as a producer with Jesse Collins.

Barrymore’s presence indicates she’s likely to get some A-list stars to appear with her to give the show more clout. The series was always best with the stars cracking jokes and playing off each other nicely. 

The show is scheduled to debut at midseason, presumably January 2025, at 10/9c on Wednesdays. It will follow prime-time versions of The Price is Right and a new season of Raid the Cage, making this night an all game show night for the network. 

With Barrymore’s presence and the promise of some new celebrities getting silly, Hollywood Squares seems set for a bold new revival in 2025.

Hollywood Squares premieres January 2025 on CBS.