Premiere of ‘Hollywood Squares’ delayed by CBS due to fires in Los Angeles

CBS is postponing tonight’s originally scheduled premiere of “Hollywood Squares” by the week due to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area. As a result, the show will now bow on Thursday, January 16 at 8:00 PM ET instead.

According to insiders, the decision was made because it did not feel appropriate to present a light-hearted show with celebrities joking with each other at this moment due to the severity of the fires and the number of celebrities who have lost their homes in the disaster.

CBS’ KCBS-TV has also broadcast wall-to-wall news coverage of the fires and will likely continue to do so tonight. For the rest of the country, CBS will now air repeats of “George and Mandy’s First Marriage” and “Ghosts” at 8 p.m.

Drew Barrymore serves as the centerpiece of the updated version of “Hollywood Squares,” which CBS first picked up to air last January. Nate Burleson hosts the show, which moves to its regular Thursday at 10 p.m., beginning January 29.

Jesse Collins (for Jesse Collins Entertainment) and Barrymore (via her Flower Films) are the producers on this new “Hollywood Squares.” Much of the format remains the same: the “board” for the game is a vertical stack of open dice, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk facing the contestants. The celebrities are asked questions and the contestants judge the legitimacy of their answers to win the game.”

Barrymore hosts the first-ever syndicated talk show strip “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which CBS stations air in major markets, for CBS Media Ventures. This represents the first new edition of the regular “Hollywood Squares” since a syndicated version hosted by Tom Bergeron from 1998 to 2004.