Hollywood Game Night

Gameplay

Two teams of four players each (consisting of three celebrities and one contestant) play a series of games. The celebrities play for a chance to win $10,000 for a charity of their choice, while the non-celebrity players compete for the right to win $25,000. The non-celebrity player is designated captain of the team.

Five games are played on each episode. Within each game, teams attempt to score points for their team, with one point awarded for each correct response in rounds one and two, and two points per correct answer in rounds three and four. The fifth and final game awards five points per correct answer, with the team in the lead going first. If both contestants are tied prior to the fifth and final game, then the contestant who won the last game goes first.

The contestant with the most points at the end of play wins the game and advances to the $25,000 bonus round. When both contestants are tied at the end of the game, the contestant who wins more games will advance to the bonus round. In season four, the contestant who misspells a celebrity name loses and the other contestant advances to the bonus round.

Games

Games vary in complexity and subject. Some games require teams to answer questions based upon photographs of celebrities, television programs, or films, while others ask teams to place items in categories or order items based upon a chronological scale. Other games require teams to identify the brand of grocery products based upon pictures of the product or to match pictures to audio clues played for the team. Several other games are based on wordplay, requiring teams to identify subjects for which the vowels have been removed, titles in which the order of words has been shuffled or to identify titles and phrases which are displayed in a language other than English. Games where a time limit is involved are typically played for 90 seconds.

Celebrity Name Game (bonus round)

In the bonus round, "Celebrity Name Game", the winning contestant chooses one of the six celebrities as their partner (beginning in season three, this was changed to two celebrities, one from each team). The chosen celebrity begins describing a different celebrity as best they can. For every celebrity the winning contestant identifies correctly, the contestant earns $1,000 and the celebrity receives $1,000 for his or her charity. If the contestant guesses 10 celebrities correctly within 90 seconds, the contestant's winnings are increased to $25,000 and the celebrity partner wins $10,000 for his or her charity (in season three, each celebrity won the same amount, up to $10,000, for their charities).

Not to be confused with Celebrity Name Game, an unrelated television game show of the same name hosted by Craig Ferguson.

Production

On August 1, 2011, NBC announced that they were developing the series, then under the name Celebrity Game Night. The project's name was changed to Hollywood Game Night when it was ordered to series on December 18, 2012. In February 2013, it was announced that Jane Lynch would host the show.

Created by actor/producer Sean Hayes and producer Todd Milliner, the show was inspired by real-life cocktail party-style game nights held by Hayes and Milliner. "Sean Hayes, the creator of the series, has these notorious game nights that are so much fun, that a variety of people go to because he has a lot of interesting people in his life," host Jane Lynch told The Huffington Post. "And he said 'Let's put it on TV,' and NBC said, 'OK!' Before I knew it, I was hosting it, and we rented this mansion that is, ostensibly, mine, and we put couches in there and we got everybody tanked up on booze and we played these games."

On August 20, 2013, NBC renewed Hollywood Game Night for a ten-episode second season that began airing on January 20, 2014. The season was soon extended, with the eleventh episode airing on April 17. The season includes fifteen new party games as well as some from the previous season.

NBC announced on May 11, 2014 that Hollywood Game Night would return for a third season. Season four premiered on January 5, 2016.

A New Year's Eve-themed live episode of Hollywood Game Night, New Year’s Eve Game Night, was broadcast by NBC on December 31, 2015, replacing the primetime hour of New Year's Eve with Carson Daly. Andy Cohen hosted, as Lynch was unable to participate due to other commitments.

Broadcast

The first season of Hollywood Game Night premiered on July 11, 2013, on NBC. It aired on Thursdays at 10 p.m. and was repeated on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.

The program's second season began with a Christmas episode that aired on December 23, 2013. Regularly scheduled episodes then premiered on January 20, 2014 and aired on Mondays until February 3. The rest of the season's episodes were aired on Thursdays, from February 27 to July 24.

Season three aired Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Season Four episodes aired on Tuesdays at 8 pm beginning January 5, 2016 until February 23 of the same year. The show returned with a new episode on Sunday, March 13, 2016, in its new time slot of 10 pm Eastern Time. On March 30, NBC pulled the show from its Sunday night schedule, with one unaired episode remaining from the fourth season. That episode aired on July 28, 2016. In the meantime, on May 15, NBC announced that it was renewing the show for a fifth season, which has yet to be scheduled.

Reception

Hollywood Game Night's ratings were first or tied for first in its timeslot for every episode of season 1. The show received little advance press, but was reviewed positively by the Los Angeles Times.

Awards and nominations

On August 25, 2014, Jane Lynch won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. On February 14, 2015 the writers of Hollywood Game Night won the Writers Guild of America award in the Quiz and Audience Participation category.

On September 19, 2015, Jane Lynch won her second Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program at the 67th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

In 2017, the series was honored at the 69th Writers Guild of America Awards for Best Quiz Show Writing.