Smush was hosted by Ken Ober and co-hosted by Lisa Dergan. The show, set in a basement party atmosphere, featured four contestants trying to "smush" the answers to clues together to create a new phrase. For example, the clue "A New England state + 'Flying Circus' man" would result in an answer of "Vermonty Python," formed by combining "Vermont" and "Monty Python". Smushes did not have to use the exact spelling of both words. For example, "Belly Lafghanistan" could be a combination of "belly laugh" and "Afghanistan."
Rounds 1 and 2
Rapid-fire clues are presented in which the answers smush together. The first contestant to buzz in with the correct answer scored points, but an incorrect answer gave the opposing contestants a chance to take a guess. Round one featured two-part clues which created two answers to be smushed together. Each correct answer was worth one point. Later in that round, the remaining clues were visual clues. Round two had three-part clues with three answers smushed together, called "Smush Tris", with each correct answer worth two points. The final smush in the second round was called the "Smush Quad", a four-part clue worth three points. The contestant with the lowest score at the end of each of the first two rounds was eliminated from the game.
Round three was called the "Smush Chain." Clues were given one at a time to a smush that would grow progressively longer. To score, the contestant must buzz in and recite the entire chain, starting at the first clue. A total of seven clues were asked, the first of which served as the base of the smush, and was not a smush in itself. For example, the chain might become "Leap Yeardrum Major Tommy Thompson Twin Cities," by combining "Leap Year," "Ear Drum," "Drum Major," "Major Tom," "Tommy Thompson," "Thompson Twins," and "twin cities." The first clue was worth one point, the second clue was worth two points, and so on, up to seven points. The contestant with the higher score went on to the bonus round.
Money Round
In the bonus round, hostess Lisa wrote a word or phrase on a mirror in lipstick which served as the root word for the next five smushes. Five clues were read one at a time, the answers to which smush to either the left or right side of the root word. The winning contestant had 45 seconds to answer those clues. For each correct smush given, the winning contestant was awarded $1,000. If the contestant made a mistake the clue and smush was thrown out. The winning contestant could pass on a clue and return to it if time remained. If the contestant answered all five clues correctly in 45 seconds or less, the contestant won a total of $8,000.
