Kovacs's television programs included "Three to Get Ready" (an early morning program seen on Philadelphia's WPTZ from 1950 through 1952), "It's Time for Ernie" (1951, his first network series), "Ernie in Kovacsland", (a summer replacement show for Kukla, Fran and Ollie, 1951), "The Ernie Kovacs Show" (1952–56 on various networks), a twice-a-week job filling in for Steve Allen as host of "The Tonight Show" on Mondays and Tuesdays (1956–57), and game shows "Gamble on Love", "One Minute Please", "Time Will Tell" (all on DuMont), and "Take a Good Look" (1959–61). Kovacs was also the host of a program, "Silents Please", which showed silent movies on network television, with serious discussion about the movies and their actors.