It Could Be You used a variation of the format made famous in another popular show of the time, Queen for a Day, where a woman who had gone through many hardships in her life was selected and awarded prizes.

However, It Could Be You, though still awarding prizes, focused most often on a woman's more embarrassing moments — for example: being seen by a neighbor while getting out of a bathtub, or engaging in a romantic interlude with a boyfriend while parked next to a bus full of tourists.

At times, though, the producers of the show were much more sensitive, bringing about reunions of relatives long thought dead, or re-uniting families torn apart by the Iron Curtain.

[2] The weekly evening version of the show premiered July 2, 1958, in the 10:00–10:30 PM (EST) timeslot on Wednesday nights, where it continued until September 1958.

The weekly evening show began again in November 1958 in a new timeslot, 8:30–9:00 PM (EST) on Thursday nights, and continued there until the end of March 1959.