The U.S. version of the program was among the longest-running and most popular game shows in the history of the genre. It began in June 1952 and ran on the CBS network until 1967. However, it was not quite an overnight success. The premiere episode used a courtroom as the set. Host Garry Moore was presented as a judge, the contestants as witnesses under cross-examination, and the panelists as the questioning lawyers. CBS canceled the program after its first season but almost immediately changed its mind, and the program resumed after its summer break. Secret became enormously popular and ran for 15 years on network television. By the late 1950s it was consistently in the top ten of U.S. television programs; it survived the quiz scandals of 1958-59; its popularity remained intact through the first part of the 1960s. The program was revived for syndication in 1972-73 and also played a short summer stint on CBS in 1976.

     I've Got a Secret had three hosts in its time on U.S. television: Moore, Steve Allen, and Bill Cullen. Cullen, a long-time panelist, was made famous by the program, but many other panelists were already well known. Among them were Laraine Day, Orson Bean, Henry Morgan, Jayne Meadows, Faye Emerson, and Betsy Palmer. Secret featured several producers, including Allan Sherman, who was to have his own career in the early 1960s as a comic singer­ cum-satirist.

     The program was originated and produced by the inimitable Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Their partnership in developing successful game-show formats had begun in radio in 1946, and I've Got a Secret was one of their earliest programs in television.