Just a Minute of the show, all created by Messiter, include a 1952 version on South African radio, and a television version on the DuMont network in the United States. The pilot for the show was recorded in 1967, featuring Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Beryl Reid and Wilma Ewart as panellists. The chairman was originally planned to be Jimmy Edwards but he was unavailable on Sundays, the proposed recording dates, and was replaced by Nicholas Parsons who was originally supposed to be a panel member. Parsons did not want the job and only reluctantly took it, just for the pilot episode. After the
2 Minute Drill (game show) a question and the contestant had to wait for a question to be completed before they could answer. In season one, the panel included host Kenny Mayne, who sat in the center position at the panel desk. When the show made its aforementioned aesthetic changes for season two, Mayne got his own desk and sat to one side of the panel; he thus ceased to be an active part of the front game (as in, he no longer asked any of the questions). Whoever had the highest score after this round won $5,000 in cash, an "ESPN Experience", and advanced