Quiz show scandals
Encyclopedia
The American
quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a series of revelations that contestants of several popular television
quiz show
s were secretly given assistance by the show's producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition.
In 1956, the game show Twenty-One
, hosted by Jack Barry, featured a contestant coached by producer Dan Enright
to make the other contestant win the game. This was brought into focus in 1958 when Enright was revealed to have rigged the show and caused networks to cancel the quiz shows. This element of the scandal was portrayed in the 1994 movie Quiz Show
.
As a result, many contestants' reputations have been tarnished. The United States Congress
passed the 1960 amendments of the Communications Act of 1934
, preventing anyone from fixing quiz shows. Due to that action, many networks imposed a winnings limit on game shows, such as Wheel of Fortune
, Jeopardy!
, and The Price Is Right
(the limits were removed by 2008). The scandal even resulted in the declining ratings of quizzes that were not rigged, such as You Bet Your Life
.
Over the same period, the United States was engaged in a technology race with the Soviet Union, as a consequence of the Cold War
. American military and political dominance was bolstered by the nation's technologies that harnessed the power of the atom. This focus on technological superiority contributed to a national reverence of intelligence and knowledge.
It was against this backdrop that quiz shows became popular. Questions asked on these shows required substantial knowledge across a broad spectrum of topics. The spectacle of people achieving huge financial success through the exercise of brain power was riveting to a nation that revered intellectualism as well as wealth.
The 1954 Supreme Court
ruling in Federal Communications Commission v. American Broadcasting Co., Inc. 347 U.S. 284, that quiz shows were not a form of gambling, paved the way for their introduction to television. The prizes of these new shows were astonishing in magnitude, and gave them an aura of significance that went well beyond mere entertainment.
The $64,000 Question
s predecessor radio show was The $64 Question, and few prizes exceeded even $100. There was no gradual escalation; The $64,000 Question debuted on June 7, 1955 with a top prize 1,000 times greater than its predecessor. ($64,000 in 1955 was equivalent to almost $ in present-day terms)
was a contestant on Twenty-One
who was coached by the show's producer Dan Enright
. After achieving a score of $69,500, Stempel's scripted loss to the more popular Charles Van Doren
occurred on December 5, 1956. One of the questions Stempel got wrong involved the winner of the 1955 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. (The correct answer was Marty
, one of Stempel's favorite movies; as instructed by Enright, Stempel gave the incorrect answer On the Waterfront
.) After his preordained loss, Stempel spoke out against the operation, claiming that he deliberately lost the match against Van Doren on orders from Enright.
Initially, Stempel was dismissed as a sore loser and it wasn't until August 1958 that his credibility was bolstered. Ed Hilgemeyer, a contestant on Dotto
, announced that he had found a notebook containing the very answers contestant Marie Winn
was delivering on stage. But the final stroke came from Twenty-One contestant James Snodgrass, who had sent registered letters to himself containing the advance answers. Such evidence was irrefutable. It eventually emerged that the Twenty-One
debut on September 12, 1956 had gone so badly that sponsor Geritol
called producers Barry and Enright the following day and demanded changes. Under pressure, Enright and his partner Albert Freedman decided to rig the show. Jack Barry, the show's host and co-owner of Barry-Enright Productions, was not involved in the actual rigging, but later helped in the cover-up.
By October 1958, the story was everywhere and the quiz shows' Nielsen ratings
were dropping. The networks denied everything and canceled the now-suspicious shows. The people's reactions were quick and powerful when the quiz show fraud became public. Between 87 and 95% of the American public was informed about the scandals as measured by industry-sponsored polls. Meanwhile, New York prosecutor Joseph Stone convened a grand jury
to investigate the charges. Many of the coached contestants, who had become celebrities due to their quiz-show success, were so afraid of the social repercussions that they were unwilling to confess to having been coached, even to the point of perjuring themselves to avoid backlash. The judge sealed the grand jury report for unknown reasons.
The 86th Congress, by then in its first session, quickly saw the political opportunity the scandals offered; in October 1959, the House Committee on Legislative Oversight, under Representative Oren Harris
's chairmanship, began to hold hearings investigating the scandal. Patty Duke
, then a child actress who had competed on The $64,000 Challenge (a companion show to The $64,000 Question), testified to having been coached, as did Stempel, Snodgrass, and Hilgemeyer.
It was confirmed on November 2 when Van Doren said to the Committee that "I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. The fact that I too was very much deceived cannot keep me from being the principal victim of that deception, because I was its principal symbol."
. After concluding the Harris Commission investigation, Congress passed a law prohibiting the fixing of quiz shows (and any other form of contest). However, at the time, while the actions may have been disreputable, they were not illegal. As a result, no one went to prison for rigging game shows. The individuals who were prosecuted were charged because of attempts to cover up their actions, either by obstruction of justice
or perjury
.
He refused requests for interviews for more than three decades and chose not to participate in the production of The Quiz Show Scandal, a 1992 one-hour documentary aired in the United States on PBS
. He later turned down an offer of $100,000 to act as a consultant on the 1994 Robert Redford-directed feature film Quiz Show
after discussing the matter with his family members who, with one exception, were against his participation.
In 2008, Van Doren broke his silence, describing his quiz show experience in an essay-length memoir published in The New Yorker
.
, a scathing critique on television's influence over children. The book became somewhat controversial for its author having been circumspect about her role in one of the medium's greatest scandals.
Barry and Enright's reputations suffered the most from the scandals as the result of the rigging of Twenty-One. Barry was effectively blackballed from national television until 1969. Enright went to Canada
to continue working in television, and was unable to get a job in American television until 1975.
Although he went through a difficult five-year period (according to an interview with TV Guide before his death in 1984), Barry moved to Los Angeles
, eventually finding work on local television. He would later admit in an article in TV Guide that, in order to determine if he still had a bad reputation (because of the requirement to have a license with the FCC), he raised money to buy a Redondo Beach
radio station. Barry returned to hosting with The Generation Gap
in 1969 and had success with The Joker's Wild
, which premiered in 1972. Barry and Enright resumed their partnership full-time in 1976. Their production of game shows, notably the syndicated Tic-Tac-Dough
(which Barry did not host) and Joker (which he did) in the 1970s and 80s resulted in millions of dollars in revenue and, more importantly for both, forgiveness from the public for their involvement in the scandals.
Indeed, Barry and Enright were able to sponsor the teen-sex comedy film Private Lessons, based on Dan Greenberg
's novel Philly
and starring Eric Brown
alongside Sylvia Kristel
versus Howard Hesseman
, using revenue from their renewed success.
Other producers met the same fate as Barry and Enright, but were unable to redeem themselves afterwards. One of the more notable is Frank Cooper, whose Dotto ended up being his longest-running and most popular game.
Hosts such as Jack Narz
and Hal March
continued to work on television after the scandals. March died in January 1970 from lung cancer. Narz, who passed a lie-detector test at the time of the Dotto affair, had an extensive career as a game show host after the incident (as did his brother Tom Kennedy), retiring in 1982; he died in October 2008 after suffering two massive strokes. Sonny Fox
, the original host of The $64,000 Challenge, left that show long before it could become tainted and became a popular children's host in the northeast, remembered best as the suave, genial host of the Sunday morning learn-and-laugh marathon Wonderama
.
Quiz shows just about disappeared from prime time
American television for decades. Those that continued to air had substantially reduced prizes, and many shows adopted limits on the number of games a player could win (usually five). Quiz shows became game shows, shifting focus from knowledge to puzzles and word games. A quiz for big money would not return until ABC
premiered 100 Grand
in 1963; it went off the air after three weeks. Big-money jackpots remained on NBC from 1959-1961 on Jackpot Bowling
; however, more large jackpots returned permanently in 1973 with the success of The $10,000 Pyramid
and "Big Money" Match Game 73
, both daytime shows on CBS.
Syndication showcased even bigger jackpots, usually as part of annual tournaments, such as The $100,000 Name That Tune
(1976), The $128,000 Question
(1976), a revamped Jeopardy!
and its annual $100,000 Tournament of Champions
(1984), and eventually the first game show to feature a top prize bigger than the quiz shows at their peak: The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime
(1986). Networks would not follow with a million-dollar prize until 1999, when ABC premiered the prime-time game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Networks were forced to adapt winnings limits to meet Standards & Practices guidelines. During the 1970s, ABC
imposed a winnings cap limit of $30,000, which had been lifted by 1981. CBS
also imposed a winnings cap limit, which increased as follows:
By 2006, with just one network game show remaining on air, and syndicated (including CBS-distributed) game shows having abolished earnings caps, the daytime winnings limit was eliminated in 2006. During Bob Barker
's 35th and final season on The Price is Right
, a recreational vehicle
prize in the Golden Road pricing game was valued at over $100,000. Season 35 featured two contestants winning over $140,000 – $147,517 on the season premiere in 2006, and $140,235 on the season finale (Bob Barker's last show). By 2008, Drew Carey
's second season on Price, CBS had increased prize values for Punch a Bunch and the Showcase Showdown to $25,000 each. CBS also had a pilot considered, a revival of Pyramid
that featured a million-dollar tournament, although the proposal did not mention if the tournament would be a daytime or prime-time tournament like Price. By 2009, CBS added a second network game show. In 2010, a Tesla Roadster
became the first prize on Price worth over $110,000, again on Golden Road, and for Season 39 (2010–11), a new pricing game, Pay the Rent, features a $100,000 grand prize.
NBC
's game show limits involved the maximum number of matches a champion could play, with no limit on winnings. One contestant, Barbara Phillips, became the first daytime game show contestant to win over $100,000 by retiring with over $150,000 on the 1980s Sale of the Century
.
In 1981, The Joker's Wild
aired mostly on TV stations owned and operated by CBS, resulting in a winnings limit of $35,000 with anything over that amount being donated to charity. The limit increased to $50,000 in 1983 and was abolished a year later.
Jeopardy! had its own winnings cap of $75,000 for many years, which did not extend to special tournaments. In a period of two months in the series' sixth season, circumstances surrounding record-setting performances by Bob Blake and Frank Spangenberg
caused a change. In Blake's case, he had to give up $7,501 of his then record-setting total in November 1989 to charity. Spangenberg broke Blake's record and became the first-ever contestant on Jeopardy! to top $100,000 in regular game earnings. However, due to the cap Spangenberg was docked $27,597 of his $102,597 in winnings, which also went to charity. For the next season Jeopardy! adopted a $100,000 cap, which then doubled $200,000 after automobiles were awarded for five-time champions (this was before the 2001 doubling of values) and was finally removed after the show removed the five-day limit for champions in 2003. The following year, contestant Ken Jennings
began a 74-game winning streak, ending with a payout of $2,522,700.
Wheel of Fortune
had imposed a winnings limit of $200,000 (originally $125,000), which was never reached partly due to the show's lack of returning players since 1998. The limit was abolished in 2008 when the show adopted the 2008 Australian version rule where a player could win $1,000,000 under special conditions. This was achieved by contestant Michelle Lowenstein on October 14, 2008, winning $1,026,080.
Networks required game shows to be heavily monitored by their standards and practices departments. Contestants were kept away from anybody who might know questions to be asked. The scandal also marked an end to widespread naming of television shows by their sponsors. Future game shows like The New Price is Right
in 1972 and Let's Make a Deal
were not sponsored by any one company, although in Millionaire (when Phone-A-Friend was used by AT&T; Ask The Expert uses Skype, and Ask The Audience briefly had AOL) and Price (Hole In One by adidas golf
) have carried sponsors. Also on Price, if a prize package comes from, or a contestant wears any merchandise from the Seattle Sounders FC
and it is mentioned by host Drew Carey, a disclaimer must be run stating the host's financial interest.
Merv Griffin
was irritated by the impossibility of trying to make a quiz show due to the scandals. His wife Julanne suggested that he offer a quiz show where competitors were given the answers, but had to supply the correct question (a format which had already been used by Gil Fates
on the CBS Television Quiz
, which aired from 1941–1942). This led to the 1964 introduction of Jeopardy! and its unusual answer-and-question format.
While controversial at the time, The Hollywood Squares
ran a disclaimer stating that celebrities may have been coached on their answers. However, as the goal of the game is for the contestant to determine whether the celebrity gave a correct answer (by agreeing or disagreeing with the stated answer), this was not rigging. (The exceptions were Secret Square questions, where the celebrity had to rely on his/her own intellect.)
In addition, the major television networks took a greater hand in creative production to avoid similar problems in the future. This extended so far as to change television series that were not even game shows, most notably demanding that the premise of the dramatic series Mr. Lucky be changed from a riverboat casino to a restaurant to avoid the idea of games on prime-time TV.
, which was scheduled to debut on FOX's prime-time schedule on January 13, 2010, was pulled six days before its debut by producer Mark Burnett
due to concerns about the show's integrity. On February 20, it was reported that a contestant's parent sent a letter to the FCC on December 17, 2009 claiming that a member of the production staff supplied the contestant and parent with questions and answers that the child "needed to know".
The FCC is currently looking into the matter, to determine if criminal charges will be filed. If the show were found to have been deliberately rigged, it will mark the first known instance of such a deception in America since the 1950s.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a series of revelations that contestants of several popular television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
quiz show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
s were secretly given assistance by the show's producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition.
In 1956, the game show Twenty-One
Twenty One (game show)
Twenty One is an American game show which aired in the late 1950s. While it included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, it became notorious for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations...
, hosted by Jack Barry, featured a contestant coached by producer Dan Enright
Dan Enright
Daniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...
to make the other contestant win the game. This was brought into focus in 1958 when Enright was revealed to have rigged the show and caused networks to cancel the quiz shows. This element of the scandal was portrayed in the 1994 movie Quiz Show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
.
As a result, many contestants' reputations have been tarnished. The United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
passed the 1960 amendments of the Communications Act of 1934
Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law, enacted as Public Law Number 416, Act of June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, by the 73rd Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the...
, preventing anyone from fixing quiz shows. Due to that action, many networks imposed a winnings limit on game shows, such as Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
, Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, and The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
(the limits were removed by 2008). The scandal even resulted in the declining ratings of quizzes that were not rigged, such as You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in September...
.
Background
The 1950s proved a boon for television as it burst into the mainstream. While at the beginning of the decade only 9% of U.S. households had a television, over half had one by 1954 – and 86% had them by the end of the decade. The medium proved to be a powerful influence on American society.Over the same period, the United States was engaged in a technology race with the Soviet Union, as a consequence of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. American military and political dominance was bolstered by the nation's technologies that harnessed the power of the atom. This focus on technological superiority contributed to a national reverence of intelligence and knowledge.
It was against this backdrop that quiz shows became popular. Questions asked on these shows required substantial knowledge across a broad spectrum of topics. The spectacle of people achieving huge financial success through the exercise of brain power was riveting to a nation that revered intellectualism as well as wealth.
The 1954 Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruling in Federal Communications Commission v. American Broadcasting Co., Inc. 347 U.S. 284, that quiz shows were not a form of gambling, paved the way for their introduction to television. The prizes of these new shows were astonishing in magnitude, and gave them an aura of significance that went well beyond mere entertainment.
The $64,000 Question
The 64,000 Dollar Question
The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955-1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day...
s predecessor radio show was The $64 Question, and few prizes exceeded even $100. There was no gradual escalation; The $64,000 Question debuted on June 7, 1955 with a top prize 1,000 times greater than its predecessor. ($64,000 in 1955 was equivalent to almost $ in present-day terms)
Revelation
Herb StempelHerb Stempel
Herbert Milton "Herb" Stempel is a television game show contestant and subsequent whistle blower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the quiz show scandals...
was a contestant on Twenty-One
Twenty One (game show)
Twenty One is an American game show which aired in the late 1950s. While it included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, it became notorious for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations...
who was coached by the show's producer Dan Enright
Dan Enright
Daniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...
. After achieving a score of $69,500, Stempel's scripted loss to the more popular Charles Van Doren
Charles Van Doren
Charles Lincoln Van Doren is an American intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s...
occurred on December 5, 1956. One of the questions Stempel got wrong involved the winner of the 1955 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. (The correct answer was Marty
Marty (film)
Marty is a 1955 American film directed by Delbert Mann. The screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky, expanding upon his 1953 teleplay of the same name. The film stars Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The film enjoyed international success, winning the 1955 Academy Award for Best Picture and...
, one of Stempel's favorite movies; as instructed by Enright, Stempel gave the incorrect answer On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
.) After his preordained loss, Stempel spoke out against the operation, claiming that he deliberately lost the match against Van Doren on orders from Enright.
Initially, Stempel was dismissed as a sore loser and it wasn't until August 1958 that his credibility was bolstered. Ed Hilgemeyer, a contestant on Dotto
Dotto
Dotto is an American television quiz show which aired on CBS from January 6 to August 15, 1958 and was hosted by Jack Narz. Although it quickly became the highest-rated daytime game show on television, its end came when it became the unexpected first casualty – and ignition – of the...
, announced that he had found a notebook containing the very answers contestant Marie Winn
Marie Winn
Marie Winn, a journalist, author and birdwatcher, is known for her books and articles on the birds of Central Park, her Wall Street Journal ornithology column and her role in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s...
was delivering on stage. But the final stroke came from Twenty-One contestant James Snodgrass, who had sent registered letters to himself containing the advance answers. Such evidence was irrefutable. It eventually emerged that the Twenty-One
Twenty One (game show)
Twenty One is an American game show which aired in the late 1950s. While it included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, it became notorious for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations...
debut on September 12, 1956 had gone so badly that sponsor Geritol
Geritol
Geritol is a US trademarked name for various dietary supplements, past and present. Geritol is currently a brand name for several vitamin complexes plus iron or multimineral products in both liquid form and tablets, containing from 9.5 to 18 mg of iron per daily dose...
called producers Barry and Enright the following day and demanded changes. Under pressure, Enright and his partner Albert Freedman decided to rig the show. Jack Barry, the show's host and co-owner of Barry-Enright Productions, was not involved in the actual rigging, but later helped in the cover-up.
By October 1958, the story was everywhere and the quiz shows' Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
were dropping. The networks denied everything and canceled the now-suspicious shows. The people's reactions were quick and powerful when the quiz show fraud became public. Between 87 and 95% of the American public was informed about the scandals as measured by industry-sponsored polls. Meanwhile, New York prosecutor Joseph Stone convened a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
to investigate the charges. Many of the coached contestants, who had become celebrities due to their quiz-show success, were so afraid of the social repercussions that they were unwilling to confess to having been coached, even to the point of perjuring themselves to avoid backlash. The judge sealed the grand jury report for unknown reasons.
The 86th Congress, by then in its first session, quickly saw the political opportunity the scandals offered; in October 1959, the House Committee on Legislative Oversight, under Representative Oren Harris
Oren Harris
Oren Harris was a U.S. Representative and United States District Court Judge from Arkansas.-Background:Born in Belton, Arkansas, Harris attended public schools in Prescott, Arkansas....
's chairmanship, began to hold hearings investigating the scandal. Patty Duke
Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...
, then a child actress who had competed on The $64,000 Challenge (a companion show to The $64,000 Question), testified to having been coached, as did Stempel, Snodgrass, and Hilgemeyer.
It was confirmed on November 2 when Van Doren said to the Committee that "I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. The fact that I too was very much deceived cannot keep me from being the principal victim of that deception, because I was its principal symbol."
Law and politics
The entire matter was called "a terrible thing to do to the American people" by President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
. After concluding the Harris Commission investigation, Congress passed a law prohibiting the fixing of quiz shows (and any other form of contest). However, at the time, while the actions may have been disreputable, they were not illegal. As a result, no one went to prison for rigging game shows. The individuals who were prosecuted were charged because of attempts to cover up their actions, either by obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice
The crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of interfering with the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other officials...
or perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
.
Contestants
Many quiz show contestants' reputations were ruined.- Charles Van Doren, who had become a regular on NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Today Show, lost his job in the television industry. He was also forced to resign his professorship at Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Van Doren took a job as an editor at Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
earning about 20% of what he had been paid on The Today Show, and continued working as an editor and writer until his retirement in 1982.
He refused requests for interviews for more than three decades and chose not to participate in the production of The Quiz Show Scandal, a 1992 one-hour documentary aired in the United States on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. He later turned down an offer of $100,000 to act as a consultant on the 1994 Robert Redford-directed feature film Quiz Show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
after discussing the matter with his family members who, with one exception, were against his participation.
In 2008, Van Doren broke his silence, describing his quiz show experience in an essay-length memoir published in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
- Herb Stempel, the man Van Doren defeated on
- Marie WinnMarie WinnMarie Winn, a journalist, author and birdwatcher, is known for her books and articles on the birds of Central Park, her Wall Street Journal ornithology column and her role in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s...
, whose notebook triggered
The Plug-In Drug
The Plug-In Drug: Television, Children, And The Family is a book of social criticism written by Marie Winn and published in 1977 by Viking Penguin Publications with the ISBN 0 14 00.7698 0...
, a scathing critique on television's influence over children. The book became somewhat controversial for its author having been circumspect about her role in one of the medium's greatest scandals.
Hosts and producers
In September 1958, a New York grand jury called producers who had coached contestants to appear in testimony. It was later estimated by a prosecutor on the case that of the 150 sworn witnesses before the panel, only 50 told the truth. Some producers included Jack Barry, Dan Enright, and Frank Cooper.Barry and Enright's reputations suffered the most from the scandals as the result of the rigging of Twenty-One. Barry was effectively blackballed from national television until 1969. Enright went to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to continue working in television, and was unable to get a job in American television until 1975.
Although he went through a difficult five-year period (according to an interview with TV Guide before his death in 1984), Barry moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, eventually finding work on local television. He would later admit in an article in TV Guide that, in order to determine if he still had a bad reputation (because of the requirement to have a license with the FCC), he raised money to buy a Redondo Beach
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...
radio station. Barry returned to hosting with The Generation Gap
The Generation Gap
The Generation Gap was a primetime American game show that aired from February 7 to May 23, 1969 on ABC. It was originally hosted by Dennis Wholey for the first ten episodes, after which he was replaced by Jack Barry. Fred Foy announced during the entire run....
in 1969 and had success with The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times during the 1970s through the 1990s. Contestants answered questions based on categories that were determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine....
, which premiered in 1972. Barry and Enright resumed their partnership full-time in 1976. Their production of game shows, notably the syndicated Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough
Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–1986 run initially on...
(which Barry did not host) and Joker (which he did) in the 1970s and 80s resulted in millions of dollars in revenue and, more importantly for both, forgiveness from the public for their involvement in the scandals.
Indeed, Barry and Enright were able to sponsor the teen-sex comedy film Private Lessons, based on Dan Greenberg
Dan Greenberg
Daniel "Dan" Greenberg is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 2006 through 2011...
's novel Philly
Philly
Philly may refer to:Things related to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:*Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a city in the United States, nicknamed Philly*Philly , an American television series*Philly cheesesteak, a sandwich...
and starring Eric Brown
Eric Brown (actor)
Eric Brown, , is an American film and TV actor of the 1980s.Brown is best known for his role as Phillip Fillmore in the coming of age motion picture Private Lessons and as Vinton "Buzz" Harper, Jr...
alongside Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel is a Dutch actress, model and singer. Her most famous role is in the French film Emmanuelle.- Early life :...
versus Howard Hesseman
Howard Hesseman
Howard Hesseman is an American actor best known for playing disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class.-Early life:...
, using revenue from their renewed success.
Other producers met the same fate as Barry and Enright, but were unable to redeem themselves afterwards. One of the more notable is Frank Cooper, whose Dotto ended up being his longest-running and most popular game.
Hosts such as Jack Narz
Jack Narz
Jack Narz was an American television announcer and game show host. Narz was the elder brother of Tom Kennedy and the former brother-in-law of Bill Cullen...
and Hal March
Hal March
Hal March was a Jewish-American comedian and actor.-Early career:March first came to note as part of a comedy team with Bob Sweeney. The duo had their own radio show for a time and performed, in the early 1950s, as "Sweeney & March." He also partnered with actor/comic Tom d'Andrea in the early...
continued to work on television after the scandals. March died in January 1970 from lung cancer. Narz, who passed a lie-detector test at the time of the Dotto affair, had an extensive career as a game show host after the incident (as did his brother Tom Kennedy), retiring in 1982; he died in October 2008 after suffering two massive strokes. Sonny Fox
Sonny Fox
Irwin "Sonny" Fox is an American television host, executive and broadcasting consultant, who was the fourth full-time host of the children's television program, Wonderama.-Biography:...
, the original host of The $64,000 Challenge, left that show long before it could become tainted and became a popular children's host in the northeast, remembered best as the suave, genial host of the Sunday morning learn-and-laugh marathon Wonderama
Wonderama
Wonderama was a long-running children's television program that appeared on the Metromedia-owned stations from 1955 to 1986, with WNEW-TV in New York City being its originating station....
.
Television
The quiz show scandals exhibited the necessity for an even stronger network control over programming and production. Quiz show scandals also justified and accelerated the growth of the networks' power over television advertisers concerning licensing, scheduling, and sponsorship of programs. The networks claimed to be ignorant and victims of the quiz show scandals. The NBC president at the time stated that, “NBC was just as much a victim of the quiz show frauds as was the public.”Quiz shows just about disappeared from prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
American television for decades. Those that continued to air had substantially reduced prizes, and many shows adopted limits on the number of games a player could win (usually five). Quiz shows became game shows, shifting focus from knowledge to puzzles and word games. A quiz for big money would not return until ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
premiered 100 Grand
100 Grand (game show)
100 Grand was an American game show hosted by Jack Clark, with Bill Wendell announcing. The series ran for three episodes, weekly on Sunday nights from September 15 to 29, 1963 on the highly-touted "New ABC" as the network's attempt to bring back high-stakes game shows after the quiz show scandals...
in 1963; it went off the air after three weeks. Big-money jackpots remained on NBC from 1959-1961 on Jackpot Bowling
Jackpot Bowling
Jackpot Bowling is a professional bowling show on NBC from January 9, 1959 to June 24, 1960 and again from September 19, 1960 to March 13, 1961....
; however, more large jackpots returned permanently in 1973 with the success of The $10,000 Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
and "Big Money" Match Game 73
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
, both daytime shows on CBS.
Syndication showcased even bigger jackpots, usually as part of annual tournaments, such as The $100,000 Name That Tune
Name That Tune
Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....
(1976), The $128,000 Question
The $128,000 Question
The $128,000 Question was an American game show which aired from 1976-1978 in weekly syndication. This revival of The $64,000 Question was produced by Cinelar and distributed by Viacom Enterprises....
(1976), a revamped Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
and its annual $100,000 Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament featuring the longest-running champions from the past season or seasons of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! The tournament began in the show's first season in 1964 during Art Fleming's tenure as host, and continued into the Alex Trebek era of...
(1984), and eventually the first game show to feature a top prize bigger than the quiz shows at their peak: The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime
The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime
The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime is an American game show which offered a $1 million grand prize to winning contestants. Based on a late 1970s unsold game show pilot titled The Letter Machine, the show aired in syndication from January 6, 1986 until September 11, 1987...
(1986). Networks would not follow with a million-dollar prize until 1999, when ABC premiered the prime-time game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
Networks were forced to adapt winnings limits to meet Standards & Practices guidelines. During the 1970s, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
imposed a winnings cap limit of $30,000, which had been lifted by 1981. CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
also imposed a winnings cap limit, which increased as follows:
| Year | Contestants retired after winning: | Contestants were allowed to keep up to: |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | $25,000 | |
| 1978 | $25,000 | $35,000 |
| 1982 | $25,000 | $50,000 |
| 1984 | $50,000 | $75,000 |
| 1986 | $75,000 | $100,000 |
| 1990 | $125,000 | |
By 2006, with just one network game show remaining on air, and syndicated (including CBS-distributed) game shows having abolished earnings caps, the daytime winnings limit was eliminated in 2006. During Bob Barker
Bob Barker
Robert William "Bob" Barker is a former American television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history, and for hosting Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975.Born...
's 35th and final season on The Price is Right
The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
, a recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...
prize in the Golden Road pricing game was valued at over $100,000. Season 35 featured two contestants winning over $140,000 – $147,517 on the season premiere in 2006, and $140,235 on the season finale (Bob Barker's last show). By 2008, Drew Carey
Drew Carey
Drew Allison Carey is an American actor, singer, comedian, photographer, sports executive, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey eventually gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as...
's second season on Price, CBS had increased prize values for Punch a Bunch and the Showcase Showdown to $25,000 each. CBS also had a pilot considered, a revival of Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
that featured a million-dollar tournament, although the proposal did not mention if the tournament would be a daytime or prime-time tournament like Price. By 2009, CBS added a second network game show. In 2010, a Tesla Roadster
Tesla Roadster
The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle sports car produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors in California. The Roadster was the first highway-capable all-electric vehicle in serial production available in the United States. Since 2008 Tesla has sold 2,024 Roadsters in 30 countries...
became the first prize on Price worth over $110,000, again on Golden Road, and for Season 39 (2010–11), a new pricing game, Pay the Rent, features a $100,000 grand prize.
NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's game show limits involved the maximum number of matches a champion could play, with no limit on winnings. One contestant, Barbara Phillips, became the first daytime game show contestant to win over $100,000 by retiring with over $150,000 on the 1980s Sale of the Century
Sale of the Century
Sale of the Century is a television game show format that has been screened in several countries in various incarnations since 1969. The show found its biggest success in Australia, where it aired weeknights from 1980 to 2001...
.
In 1981, The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild
The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times during the 1970s through the 1990s. Contestants answered questions based on categories that were determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine....
aired mostly on TV stations owned and operated by CBS, resulting in a winnings limit of $35,000 with anything over that amount being donated to charity. The limit increased to $50,000 in 1983 and was abolished a year later.
Jeopardy! had its own winnings cap of $75,000 for many years, which did not extend to special tournaments. In a period of two months in the series' sixth season, circumstances surrounding record-setting performances by Bob Blake and Frank Spangenberg
Frank Spangenberg
Lieutenant Frank Spangenberg garnered fame in 1990 when he set the five-day cumulative winnings record on the game show Jeopardy!, becoming the first person to win more than $100,000 in five days on the show...
caused a change. In Blake's case, he had to give up $7,501 of his then record-setting total in November 1989 to charity. Spangenberg broke Blake's record and became the first-ever contestant on Jeopardy! to top $100,000 in regular game earnings. However, due to the cap Spangenberg was docked $27,597 of his $102,597 in winnings, which also went to charity. For the next season Jeopardy! adopted a $100,000 cap, which then doubled $200,000 after automobiles were awarded for five-time champions (this was before the 2001 doubling of values) and was finally removed after the show removed the five-day limit for champions in 2003. The following year, contestant Ken Jennings
Ken Jennings
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows...
began a 74-game winning streak, ending with a payout of $2,522,700.
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
had imposed a winnings limit of $200,000 (originally $125,000), which was never reached partly due to the show's lack of returning players since 1998. The limit was abolished in 2008 when the show adopted the 2008 Australian version rule where a player could win $1,000,000 under special conditions. This was achieved by contestant Michelle Lowenstein on October 14, 2008, winning $1,026,080.
Networks required game shows to be heavily monitored by their standards and practices departments. Contestants were kept away from anybody who might know questions to be asked. The scandal also marked an end to widespread naming of television shows by their sponsors. Future game shows like The New Price is Right
The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
in 1972 and Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal is a television game show which originated in the United States and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The show is based around deals offered to members of the audience by the host. The traders usually have to weigh the possibility of an offer being...
were not sponsored by any one company, although in Millionaire (when Phone-A-Friend was used by AT&T; Ask The Expert uses Skype, and Ask The Audience briefly had AOL) and Price (Hole In One by adidas golf
Taylormade-adidas
TaylorMade-Adidas Golf Company of Carlsbad, California is a U.S. headquartered subsidiary of the German based Adidas Group. TaylorMade was started in 1979 by Gary Adams, the inventor of the metalwood, and the company has continued to maintain a consistent presence at the top of golf product...
) have carried sponsors. Also on Price, if a prize package comes from, or a contestant wears any merchandise from the Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle Sounders FC is an American professional soccer club based in Seattle, Washington. The club competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. Sounders FC was established in November 2007 as a MLS expansion team, making it the 15th team in...
and it is mentioned by host Drew Carey, a disclaimer must be run stating the host's financial interest.
Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
was irritated by the impossibility of trying to make a quiz show due to the scandals. His wife Julanne suggested that he offer a quiz show where competitors were given the answers, but had to supply the correct question (a format which had already been used by Gil Fates
Gil Fates
Joseph Gilbert Fates was an American television producer.Nicknamed "Gil", Fates was the executive producer of What's My Line?. Fates produced the game show its entire quarter-century span of CBS and syndicated runs...
on the CBS Television Quiz
CBS Television Quiz
CBS Television Quiz was the first live television game show ever to be broadcast regularly, running from July 2, 1941 to May 25, 1942 on the fledgling CBS Television network. Quiz was an in-house network production and broadcast in black and white...
, which aired from 1941–1942). This led to the 1964 introduction of Jeopardy! and its unusual answer-and-question format.
While controversial at the time, The Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
ran a disclaimer stating that celebrities may have been coached on their answers. However, as the goal of the game is for the contestant to determine whether the celebrity gave a correct answer (by agreeing or disagreeing with the stated answer), this was not rigging. (The exceptions were Secret Square questions, where the celebrity had to rely on his/her own intellect.)
In addition, the major television networks took a greater hand in creative production to avoid similar problems in the future. This extended so far as to change television series that were not even game shows, most notably demanding that the premise of the dramatic series Mr. Lucky be changed from a riverboat casino to a restaurant to avoid the idea of games on prime-time TV.
United Kingdom
- In the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's version of Twenty-One was pulled almost immediately in 1958 when contestant Stanley Armstrong claimed that he had been given "definite leads" to the answers. - In 2001, an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty...
featuring Charles IngramCharles IngramCharles Ingram is a former British Army major who made headlines worldwide after he was accused of cheating in the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2001. He was convicted of deception, although he maintains that he did not cheat...
in two parts was not originally shown after suspicions arose from the producers that Ingram had cheated his way to the jackpot. The allegation was that Ingram's wife Diana had created several schemes in attempting to win the top prize after she and another family member both won "only" 32,000 pounds on their appearances. After a person (presumably in on the initial scheme) was demanded by security not to use a cell-phone on the grounds (the presumption that Major Ingram had pagers implanted), Diana hired a friend by the name of Tecwen Whittock (who was a contestant, and did make the Hot Seat, on Ingram's second show) to help Ingram whenever he was stuck on a question on the second night, in the form of coughCoughA cough is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes...
ing in order to signal the correct answers. All three were found guilty of the scam in April 2003, after which a documentary was shown of the Ingram case followed by Ingram's game in its entirety. Ingram was revealed to have known only one of the nine questions he faced on the second night as he attempted to defraud his way to a million pounds. - In February 2006, Laurence Llewelyn-BowenLaurence Llewelyn-BowenLaurence Llewelyn-Bowen is a successful homestyle consultant best known for his appearances on the BBC television programme Changing Rooms...
and his wife Jackie appeared on Millionaire and got to the final question, where they were asked what the motto of the United States of America was. They gave the answer In God we Trust (which still exists today) which turned out to be wrong, resulting in a loss of £468,000 (the supposed correct answer was One Out of Many). Because the producers decided that this was a rather ambiguous question, the couple were given a second chance at the final question, however they would wind up walking away and winning £500,000 for their chosen charity. No other contestant has ever answered the final question incorrectly in the UK.
Australia
- In March 2002, a special episode of The Weakest LinkThe Weakest Link (Australian game show)The Weakest Link was an Australian game show based on the successful UK format, which aired from February 2001 until April 2002 and was broadcast on the Seven Network. Presented by Cornelia Frances, the show featured nine contestants competing for a potential prize of $100,000...
went to air featuring the nine remaining contestants from the third season of The MoleThe Mole (Australia season 3)The third season of the Australian version of The Mole took place mostly in Gold Coast, Queensland and was hosted by Grant Bowler.-Show Details:...
attempting to win $100,000 for that show's prize kitty. The contestants only achieved $14,100, which was touted as the lowest ever score on the Australian version of the show. Upon announcing Bob Young as the winner of the special and the free pass that came with it, host Cornelia FrancesCornelia FrancesCornelia Frances is a British-born actress based in Australia since the early 1970s. Frances is best known for her recurring role as judge Morag Bellingham on Home and Away.-Early life and personal life:...
left it a cliffhanger by saying: "Or have you (won the free pass)? Find out Wednesday night, on The Mole!". Two days after the Weakest Link broadcast, one of the assignments on The Mole involved hidden cameras and microphones being installed in the green room of the Weakest Link studio tracking every contestant's actions. Any cheating from the contestants in any form would mean the prize money won and the free pass would be lost, however the contestants were deemed not to have cheated. The money they won was rounded up to $15,000, which was then added to the kitty for The Mole.- A month later, the final elimination of The Mole almost ended up without a winner, with reports arising that the two genuine contestants were suspecting each other of being the Mole and that no one had suspected the actual Mole until the very end. It turned out that one of the genuine contestants had changed his/her mind at the very last second.
- In late 2005, Martin FloodMartin FloodMartin Flood is an Australian quiz show contestant who competed in the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and participated in the short-lived program The Master. Flood was an I.T. analyst for Westpac bank at the time of winning 'Millionaire'...
was investigated after coughs were heard coming from the studio audience on the Australian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Australian game show)Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was an Australian television game show which would offer a maximum cash prize of $1,000,000 for answering 15 successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty as a team...
. The producers later exonerated him and he ultimately went on to win the million-dollar jackpot.
Our Little Genius
Our Little GeniusOur Little Genius
Our Little Genius is a game show produced for the Fox network that was pulled before making it to air, hosted by Kevin Pollak. The program was slated to premiere on Fox on January 13, 2010, at 9:15 PM Eastern following American Idol with a special 45-minute episode, with further episodes being 60...
, which was scheduled to debut on FOX's prime-time schedule on January 13, 2010, was pulled six days before its debut by producer Mark Burnett
Mark Burnett
Mark Burnett is a British television producer and executive producer, based in the United States. He currently is the executive producer of five network television series with seven hours of network programming. Works with which Burnett is associated have won multiple awards and recognition...
due to concerns about the show's integrity. On February 20, it was reported that a contestant's parent sent a letter to the FCC on December 17, 2009 claiming that a member of the production staff supplied the contestant and parent with questions and answers that the child "needed to know".
The FCC is currently looking into the matter, to determine if criminal charges will be filed. If the show were found to have been deliberately rigged, it will mark the first known instance of such a deception in America since the 1950s.
See also
- American game show winnings recordsAmerican game show winnings recordsThis article lists American game show winnings records and goes into the history and people who have held them. Through the years there have been number of big winners as American game shows competed for viewers with ballooning prizes....
- 2007 British television phone-in scandal
- College BowlCollege BowlCollege Bowl was a format of college-level quizbowl run and operated by College Bowl Company, Incorporated. It had a format similar to the current NAQT format. College Bowl first aired on US radio stations in 1953, and aired on US television from 1959 to 1970...
- Charles IngramCharles IngramCharles Ingram is a former British Army major who made headlines worldwide after he was accused of cheating in the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2001. He was convicted of deception, although he maintains that he did not cheat...
- Michael LarsonMichael LarsonPaul Michael Larson was a contestant on the American television game show Press Your Luck in May 1984 that aired on TV in June 1984. Larson's claim to fame was his winning $110,237 in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show...
- Kevin Olmstead
- QuizbowlQuizbowlQuiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...
- Slumdog MillionaireSlumdog MillionaireSlumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...