Three on a Match is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart that ran on NBC from August 2, 1971 to June 28, 1974 on its daytime schedule.

[1] The host was Bill Cullen and Don Pardo served as announcer on most episodes, with Bob Clayton and NBC staffers Wayne Howell and Roger Tuttle substituting at times.

The outcome was determined as follows: The pot for each round was equal to $10 times the total of the contestants' final bids, with a potential maximum of $110.

If the other two contestants had matched each other, a miss gave them a chance to bid again; the high bidder then chose one of the two remaining categories.

On April 23, 1973, the prizes were replaced with images that fit a particular theme, such as hats, slot machine symbols, musical instruments, or even humorously altered photos of Cullen.

Pictures representing the two halves of a $1,000 bill were hidden on the board, and the contestants took turns revealing one box at a time.

If a total of nine blank boxes were revealed, or if the contestant who found one half failed to find the other on his/her extra turn, the game ended.

A correct answer added the value to the contestant's score, while a miss deducted it and also gave half the money to each opponent.

Three on a Match was not only the first show since the Deal defection to run for more than a year against the ABC version and CBS' top-rated As the World Turns (then a half-hour soap opera), but it also brought several affiliates that had preempted the slot back to the network feed for that half-hour, which pleasantly surprised NBC executives.

On April 23, 1973 the series became NBC's only game to receive an exemption from the network's five-game limit for returning champions.

However, by spring 1974 daytime head Lin Bolen, who had overseen the cancellation of several games started before her arrival a year and a half earlier, asked Stewart to overhaul Three on a Match.

When this failed to improve ratings, the two decided instead to start from scratch with a new game, titled Winning Streak.

The new show replaced Three on a Match and swapped time slots with Jeopardy!, a decision that would prove to be fatal to both programs.

Reg Grundy bought the rights to produce an Australian version for the Seven Network hosted by Bob Moore.