First off, this is coming from someone who isn't familiar with Hollywood Squares and was only fully exposed to it by watching the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour (I'm not kidding about that BTW, more on that on a later date).
So, most of you remember the original HS hosted by the late Peter Marshall, known for featuring some familiar celebrities like Rose Marie, Buddy Hackett, Karen Valentine, Cliff Arquette as Charley Weaver and of course, the center square of that era, Paul Lynde, who is quick witted and delivers one-liners with ease.
Throughout the years, it has been revived a few times, with the aforementioned Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour with Jon "Bowzer" Bauman as the host of the HS portion (a full review of that show soon), The New Hollywood Squares in the 80s with John Davidson and the Tom Bergeron era in the late 90s and early 2000s, with Whoopi Goldberg as center square in the first 4 years of that era. Now, in 2025, we get reintroduced to the tic-tac-toe game with celebrities in a whole new way, and after watching the first 2 episodes (as it is a half-hour show), I concluded that it's OK and nothing too special.
Nate Burleson, currently known for hosting CBS Mornings, is a decent host who has a decent amount of energy, and he does keep the game moving when necessary.
Drew Barrymore as the center square is fine as well, never really taking the spotlight from the other celebrities while still being... well, Drew Barrymore.
As I said before, it's nothing too decent and I do dislike that it is way overhated because it's not that bad and we've gotten much worse than this. That's my 2 cents on it and I'll leave it there. However, it's probably best if you don't watch it every week because as I said before, it's nothing too special as its Hollywood Squares.
To conclude, it's a time-passer and nothing more than that, but I hope that it'll get better as it goes along and won't be as hated as it initially was.
