<P> Once the votes are in, the host asks, "Will the real (person's name) please stand up?" The central character then stands, often after some brief playful feinting and false starts among all three challengers . Occasionally, the central character would be asked to do something else related to their story instead of standing up . The two impostors then reveal their real names and their actual occupations . Prize money is awarded and divided among all three of the challengers, based on the number of "wrong" votes the impostors draw . </P> <P> To Tell the Truth was to have premiered on Tuesday, December 18, 1956, on CBS in prime time as Nothing But The Truth, but the program title was changed to To Tell the Truth the day before the show's debut . (There was one pilot episode titled "Nothing But The Truth", and the pilot / planned title, and the eventual title, both derive from the standard English court oath "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth .") The series was recorded in New York City; initially at CBS - TV Studio 52, moving to Studio 50 late in its run . The existence of an audience ticket for a taping indicates that the show originated in color at the CBS Broadcast Center in late 1966 . </P> <P> Bud Collyer was the show's host (Mike Wallace hosted the pilot); recurring panelists by the 1960s included Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Kitty Carlisle . (Cass and Carlisle stayed on as panelists for most subsequent editions .) Earlier regular panelists had included Johnny Carson, Polly Bergen, Jayne Meadows, Don Ameche, Hy Gardner, Dick Van Dyke, Faye Emerson, Hildy Parks, John Cameron Swayze, Betty White, and Ralph Bellamy . Bern Bennett, Collyer's announcer on Beat the Clock, was the inaugural announcer of To Tell the Truth in the 1950s . Upon Bennett's transfer to CBS's Los Angeles studios, Johnny Olson, who in time became the best - known of all Goodson--Todman Productions announcers, joined the show in 1960 and remained through the end of its CBS runs . </P> <P> On the pilot and the prime - time run, three games were played per episode . For the pilot, a wrong vote from each of the four member panel and one wrong vote derived from the majority vote of the audience (a total of five votes) paid $300, the total prize money divided among the three challengers . The studio audience also voted with the majority vote counting equally with that of one of a celebrity panelist, thus the maximum of five incorrect votes resulted in $1,500 divided among the challengers . If there was a tie for the highest vote from the audience, and for each panelist who was disqualified, a wrong vote was counted . There was no consolation prize for no wrong votes . </P>

Who hosted the first to tell the truth