TO SAY THE LEAST

"To Say The Least" premiered on the NBC daytime schedule on October 3, 1977. This Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley game ran in late morning time slots until April 21, 1978. Tom Kennedy was the host and Kenny Williams had announcing duties.

Celebrities during premiere week: Lee Meriweather, Rita Moreno, Jamie Farr, and Robert Fuller

Part of the animated opening

Tom Kennedy hosted "To Say The Least" after hosting the NBC daytime "Name That Tune."

Two teams, comprised of one contestant and two celebrities on each team, battled in this word game.

Each game started with a phrase. One player from each team would remain on stage and eliminate words from the phrase until one of the players either decided to play or challenge the other team to guess the phrase.

Two players started each game while the rest of the team members were isolated backstage.

Once a team decided to play or challenge, teammates would return from backstage to guess the answer to the phrase based on the remaining word(s) left.A match was won when a contestant won two games. Contestants remained on the show until they lost two matches.

During the bonus round, the celebrites were isolated backstage. They drew numbers to see which door they would hide behind. On stage, the contestant was shown a phrase. The phrase would be eliminated to three words. The first celebrity would appear. If he guessed the phrase, the contestant would win $100. Another word would be eliminated. If the second celebrity correctly guessed with only two words, the contestant would win $200. A final word would be eliminated and if the third celebrity correctly guessed with just one word, the contestant would win the money in the jackpot. On the first show, the jackpot started at $2,000. The jackpot would increase by $1,000 each time there was not a winner.