FACT FILE Broadcast History: May 17, 2004-April 22, 2005, PAX Host: Mark L. Walberg Announcers: Vanessa Marshall (1st two episodes) Mitch Lewis (rest of the show's run) Packager: CreativArts Entertainment Group Origin: Glendale Studios; Los Angeles

Round 1

Each of the three players had 15 seconds to identify celebrities on covers of magazines, DVDs, and other materials. Each celebrity correctly guessed by the player earned him/herself 25 points.

Round 2

Players were shown three covers on the board, each with an assigned a value of 50 points. The player in the lead, picked the first cover and a question about that was asked. The player who buzzed in with the right answer received the points attached to that cover. Then a new cover takes place with a reverted value of 50 points. The covers that weren't picked increased their values by 50 more points. No penalties were incurred for incorrect answers.

Round 3

Three fictional covers were shown on one "rack" with their representing answers. Questions in the first rack were worth 100 points. If a player buzzed in with a wrong answer at any time, their opponents were then read the rest of the question giving them a chance to buzz in. After a number of questions were asked, another rack was played with 200-point questions. And then one more rack was played with questions worth 300 points. The player with the most points at the end of the round won the game and received two prizes.

Bonus Round

The night's champion was shown four covers one by one. A question was asked on each of the four covers. The correct answers to each one of them served as clues to the final "mystery cover." Then the player was given a category on the mystery cover and the unimportant words in each clue were removed. If the player correctly identified the person in the mystery cover, then s/he won a grand prize package.

• On the Cover was originally piloted for NBC then for cable tv's The New TNN (now SpikeTV) during the time of big-money quiz shows.
• The show was shelved after two episodes were aired. PAX recognized that they had made a mistake in inserting a new game at mid-sweep in prime time against massive competition from other broadcast networks.
• When OtC returned on August 9, 2004, the following changes were made...
  • In Round 1 each correctly-guessed cover was worth 100 points.
  • In Round 2 was mentioned on the air as the "On the Cover" round and the initial value of the covers were worth 250 points.
  • In Round 3 questions were each worth 500 points for the first rack, 750 for the second rack, and 1000 for the third and final rack. The winner at the end of the round didn't win two prizes.
  • The bonus round involved the champion being shown a mystery with nine randomly-numbered pieces concealing it. S/he was then given 20 seconds (30 in early taped episodes) to correctly guess as many of the covers as possible. Each cover corresponded to the numbers of the pieces of the mystery cover. After the player received the day's category, the pieces of the numbers in which the covers were correctly guessed were revealed. A correct guess still won him/her a grand prize trip, but failing to do so won him/her a consolation prize.
• On the Cover was also paired up with another game show based on the board game of the same name Balderdash. That show premiered one week before the return of OtC. In the Fall of 2004 the show moved into the 5 PM eastern afternoon timeslot on PAX's affiliate stations, but not on PAX's national feed.