Main game

On each version, three contestants competed.

Each question the host asks has three possible correct answers. Some questions took a form such as "Name the three films for which Katharine Hepburn won the Oscar for Best Actress." For most questions, three words, names, or phrases were displayed on a board which acted as clues, and the question took a form such as "Pick a word from the board and give its plural." Approximately once each day on the ABC version there was also a "Memory Buster," in which Kennedy gave a list of items and asked which three of them were common to each other.

Contestants rang in by pushing a button on their lecterns. The first person to ring in was permitted to provide any one of the three answers. The second-fastest provided one of the remaining answers, and finally, the slowest player got whatever was left, by default. In the '70s version, the clues on the board were revealed first and contestants could buzz in before the question was completed, whereas in the syndicated version, the answers were revealed after the question was finished, and if a contestant rang in too soon (before the choices were revealed), he/she was automatically relegated to last place in the order of play.

Bob Synes, a producer of the 1970s Split Second, took a very strict stand regarding contestants' answers; he required contestants to guess the answers exactly right, meaning mispronounced answers were ruled incorrect, similar to most other quiz shows like Jeopardy!. When Hall took the reins of the 1980s version, he acted as judge himself, giving players credit if they mispronounced a correct answer or gave an alternate wording that was sufficiently close to it.

Each player received money (points on the GSN version) for a correct answer. The value of each answer was determined by the number of people supplying a correct response, and there was no penalty for a miss.

For example, if two players gave a correct answer in round one of the ABC version, each player received $10.

During the latter half of the ABC version, the first person to be the only contestant to respond correctly to a question during the first two rounds, a situation which Kennedy referred to as a "Singleton," also won a bonus prize, his or hers to keep regardless of the game's outcome.

In both the Kennedy and Hall versions, if a contestant gave an incorrect answer, a contestant who rang in after that could elect to answer the same part, unless the question was this/that format. In the Higgins version, each part is taken out of play once any contestant tries to answer it, whether they are correct or not.

Countdown Round

The Countdown Round serves as the final round and determines the winner. No money is awarded for correct answers in this round. Instead, a correct answer enables a player to keep control of the question and answer any parts that are still available. An incorrect answer passes control to the next player who has buzzed in.

Each player is required to give a set number of answers in order to win the game. The leader entering the Countdown Round has the lowest number, with the second-place player needing one more answer than the leader and the third-place player two. In the event of a tie, the tied players have to give the same number of answers. In the original series, the leader needed three answers to win (which could be accomplished in one question), the second-place player four, and the third place-player five. These numbers all increased by one when the syndicated series debuted, with four being the lowest number and six the highest. On the GSN version, the leader needs four answers to win, the second-place player six, and the third-place player eight. In the event of a tie for first place, the tied players have to give five answers, whereas a tie for second place requires six.

The first player to count down to zero wins the game regardless of their total score and moves on to the bonus round. In previous versions, all three players kept their accumulated money. The champion wins $1,000 on the GSN version.

Bonus Round

ABC: 1972–1975

Former logo, used from 1972 to 1975

Split Second occupied only one timeslot during its three-year run, 12:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m., Central), against the traditional CBS favorite Search for Tomorrow and NBC's The Who, What, or Where Game. It displaced Password, which moved ahead a half-hour. Although never able to surmount Search, Split Second kept a large number of affiliates on the network at that hour (preemptions, mostly for local newscasts, had plagued ABC for years). Within two years, NBC replaced 3W's with a succession of short-lived games.

Split Second's 1972 entry completed ABC's most successful block of daytime game shows, which included Password, The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game, and Let's Make a Deal, a lineup which lasted for nearly two years.

However, the decline of its lead-in, Password, began to adversely affect the Nielsens of Split Second, and it was one of four game shows ABC cancelled between June 27 and July 4, 1975. After a week of 60-minute episodes of the soap opera All My Children, Split Second was succeeded by another soap, Ryan's Hope. All My Children did return to a full hour from late April 1977, continuing for the rest of its ABC run.

The winning contestant on the final episode lost the bonus game but was awarded the car anyway since he would have no opportunity to try again on a future show; the final $1,000 cash jackpot was split between the two runner-up contestants.

Syndication: 1986–1987

In early 1986, Monty Hall had expressed his intentions to retire from hosting game shows altogether. He had been hosting a revival of Let’s Make a Deal in syndication since 1984, and he planned on stepping down from the series and launching a daily human interest program distributed by Worldvision Enterprises called For the People, where Hall would use connections he had made over various philanthropic ventures over the course of his life to offer assistance to viewers. The idea was for Hall to hand Let’s Make a Deal over to another host (likely the show’s announcer Dean Goss, as Hall allowed him to preside over several deals during the year) and start For the People in the fall. Both programs were presented in January 1986 at the annual NATPE convention. However, not enough stations showed interest in either Hall’s creation or a third season of Let’s Make a Deal.^[8] Hall and Hatos decided to revive their other hit from the 1970s and developed a new edition of Split Second, this time with Hall hosting, for a midseason premiere in December 1986.

The show aired simultaneously in the United States and Canada upon its premiere, but many more Canadian markets cleared Split Second than their American counterparts (although it was cleared in at least one major market, New York). With the reappearance of episodes on Canada's GameTV, there have emerged some notable production differences for episodes aired in Canada. These are listed as follows:

• As the show returns from its first two commercial breaks, some trivia questions are displayed on the screen for the viewers. On the American airings, three questions were shown. The Canadian airings usually only displayed one question, with announcer Sandy Hoyt filling the time with fee plugs.
• On the American airings, the bonus round is played immediately as the show comes back from its final commercial break. On the Canadian airings, a series of promotional consideration plugs are read before the round begins.
• In the closing credits, Canadian airings credit Hatos-Hall, Concept Equity Funding Limited, the Canadian stations involved in the production of the series, and distributor Viacom (now part of CBS Media Ventures). The Canadian entities do not receive credit on American airings; only Hatos-Hall and Viacom receive billing.

Australia

The show ran in Australia from 1972 to 1973 on Nine Network, hosted by Ken James and later by Jimmy Hannan, and produced by Reg Grundy.^[16]

United Kingdom

The show ran in the United Kingdom from 1987 to 1988 in the STV region of ITV, hosted by Paul Coia.^[17]

Non-US versions of Split Second

Country	Name	Host	Network	Date premiered
Australia	Split Second	Ken James Jimmy Hannan	Nine Network	1972–1973
United Kingdom	Split Second	Paul Coia	STV	1987–1988