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Million Dollar Password premiered June 1, 2008 at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time. The series' initial order consisted of six hour-long episodes, each comprising two games. These six episodes were taped in New York City's Kaufman Astoria Studios in March. The second order, another six episodes, were taped on August 2, 3 and 4, 2008 in Los Angeles's CBS Radford studios.

Million Dollar Password's second season began on December 18, 2008 in a special Thursday broadcast. Three days later, the show moved to its regular Sunday time slot.

On the June 12, 2008 edition, Betty White became the first celebrity to play in all American television versions of Password. She returned on the episode aired December 28, becoming the first celebrity on Million Dollar Password to appear more than once.

Sande Stewart, the son of Password creator Bob Stewart, is a consultant for the show.

On January 7, 2009, CBS removed the two remaining episodes in the season (one featuring Norm MacDonald and Jamie Kennedy and another with Chelsea Handler and Jeff Garlin), along with a season one repeat from its schedule. They were replaced with episodes of 60 Minutes, The Mentalist and Cold Case. It is unknown when the episodes will air, or if the show is officially canceled.

This format of Password departs somewhat from its predecessors in terms of gameplay. The first half of the game is an elimination game featuring two contestants and two celebrity guests. The contestants alternate playing 30-second rounds in which they attempt to match as many as five given words with a celebrity partner using the traditional one-word clue method. There is no limit on the number of clues for each word. Words can be passed on and returned to later; the gameplay has similarities to the bonus round of the original series, as well as the elimination round of the various Pyramid series (also created by Bob Stewart).

The contestants are each paired with one of the celebrity partners for the first two rounds, and then switch partners for the next two rounds. The rounds alternate between the contestant giving and receiving clues, such that they give and receive once to each celebrity. After four rounds, the contestant who has matched the most words moves on to the Million Dollar Password game. For the final round, the contestant who is trailing in score plays first. Their opponent does not need to play their final round if they are still leading after that, and otherwise has their round cut short as soon as they have passed their opponent's score. If the contestants are tied after four rounds, a tiebreaking word is given to both teams, starting with the winner of a coin-toss. The teams alternate giving clues and responses in "classic Password" format, until one contestant gets the word and wins the game.

The Million Dollar Password round has a six-step prize ladder (shown at right) with a top prize of $1,000,000. The contestant's partner in this round is the celebrity with whom they earned more points in the elimination game; if they earned the same number with both celebrities, their partner is the last celebrity they played with. The contestant may choose to give or receive the clues for the entire round. For each step of the ladder, the clue giver must get their partner to say five given passwords within 90 seconds. For each word, the clue giver may give a maximum of three clues (similar to Cashword from Super Password); they may pass, but cannot return to a word, like the original "Lightning Round" of the classic Password.

Successful contestants may take their winnings and leave, or may attempt the next prize level. At each subsequent level the game play remains the same, but the number of available passwords is reduced by one. Failure to complete a level ends the game. A contestant who fails on the first two levels leaves with nothing. Failure on the $50,000, $100,000 or $250,000 levels means the contestant leaves with $25,000.[6] Should a contestant clear the first five levels, he/she wins a guaranteed $250,000 and gets a free shot at the $1,000,000 top prize (this was not the case in the first season).

If a contestant clears the $100,000 level, he/she is shown the six (the first five in Season 1) passwords for the $250,000 level before making a decision. Also in the second season, if a contestant fails on one of the first two levels, they can re-do that level; note that the first attempt on that level is edited out of the broadcast.

Of the forty contestants that have been seen on the program, twenty have won the right to play the Million Dollar Password round. Thirteen have departed with $25,000, one walked away with $50,000 and five have won the $100,000. Six have seen the preview at the $250,000 level, but only only one contestant has decided to continue and, subsequently, he lost. No one has won $1,000,000. One contestant has won nothing in the final round.

Throughout the game, the giver must wait for a response before giving a new clue, and only one clue may be given at a time. Breaking either rule forfeits the word. (The guesser may suggest the giver pass, but only the clue giver may officially do so.)

In this Password revival, antonyms are acceptable clues; hyphenated clues are not. Breaking either rule will also forfeit the word.