1950s quiz show scandals

2025-10-24T12:20:04Z

2603:6081:405:7D00:F9E1:A3EB:54AD:42B8: /* Television */

{{short description|Revelations that contestants on TV quiz shows were secretly assisted by producers}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
[[File:Twenty-One-Barry-Van-Doren-1957.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Host [[Jack Barry (game show host)|Jack Barry]] and contestant [[Charles Van Doren]] on the set of ''[[Twenty-One (game show)|Twenty-One]]'' in 1957. [[NBC]] took the show off the air after the scandals made headlines; its production was dramatized in the 1994 film ''[[Quiz Show (film)|Quiz Show]]''.]]
The '''1950s quiz show scandals''' were a series of scandals involving the [[Television producer|producer]]s and contestants of several popular American [[Game show|television quiz shows]]. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the shows' outcomes while still attempting to deceive the public into believing that these shows were objective and fair competitions. Producers fixed the shows sometimes with the free consent of contestants and out of various motives: improving [[Audience measurement|ratings]], greed, and the lack of regulations prohibiting such conspiracy in game show productions.<ref name="Venanzi">{{cite web |author=Venanzi, Katie |date=1997 |url=http://www.plosin.com/beatbegins/projects/venanzi.html |title=An Examination of Television Quiz Show Scandals of the 1950s |access-date=7 December 2016}}</ref>

The scandals took place at a time when television was still emerging as a medium and had yet to become the established cultural force in American society that it is today. When the behavior of the producers and contestants was exposed, the public reacted with shock. Many expressed concern about the potential for the young medium of television to harm society.

In response to the scandals, the government was widely pressured to impose stricter regulations on broadcasters. As a direct consequence, [[United States Congress|Congress]] amended the [[Communications Act of 1934]] to prohibit networks from prearranging the outcomes of quiz shows. In the United States, it has since become standard industry practice for game show producers to monitor their own shows closely for cheating and to ensure fairness in play and compliance with broadcasting law to the highest degree possible.
{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

==Summary==
The popularity of radio [[game show|quiz shows]] between 1938 and 1956 led to the creation of television quiz shows.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/quiz-show-scandal-fraud-jeopardy |title=The Rigged Quiz Shows That Gave Birth to 'Jeopardy!' |publisher=[[History Channel]] |website=[[History.com]] |date=18 April 2019 |access-date=2022-01-14}}</ref> In 1954, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled that radio and television quiz shows could give prizes to contestants, provided the contestants did not contribute any of their own money.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/284/|title=FCC v. American Broadcasting Co., Inc., 347 U.S. 284 (1954) |website=[[Justia]] |date=18 April 2019 |access-date=2024-02-19}}</ref>

In September 1956, the game show ''[[Twenty-One (game show)|Twenty-One]]'', hosted by [[Jack Barry (television personality)|Jack Barry]], premiered on [[NBC]], its first show being played legitimately with no manipulation of the game by the producers at all. That initial broadcast was, in the words of co-producer [[Dan Enright]], "a dismal failure", as the two contestants were so lacking in the required knowledge that they answered a large number of the questions incorrectly. Show sponsor [[Geritol]], upon seeing this opening-night performance, reportedly became furious with the results and said in no uncertain terms that they did not want to see a repeat performance.<ref name=MuseumTV>{{Cite web |url=http://www.museum.tv/eotv/quizshowsca.htm |title=The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television - Quiz Show Scandals |website=www.museum.tv |access-date=2016-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052409/https://www.museum.tv/eotv/quizshowsca.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

Three months into its run, ''Twenty-One'' featured a contestant, [[Herb Stempel]], who had been coached by Enright to allow his opponent, [[Charles Van Doren]], to win the game. Stempel took the fall as requested. A year later, Stempel told the ''[[New York Journal-American]]''{{'}}s [[Jack O'Brian]] that his winning run as champion on the series had been choreographed to his advantage, and that the show's producer then ordered him to purposely lose his championship to Van Doren. With no proof, an article was never printed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/quizshow/filmmore/transcript/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010501040754/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/quizshow/filmmore/transcript/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 1, 2001 |title=Quiz Show Scandal: Program Transcript |publisher=[[The American Experience]] |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=2016-10-16}}</ref>

Stempel's statements gained more credibility when fixing in another game, ''[[Dotto]],'' was publicized in August 1958. Quiz show ratings across the networks plummeted and several were cancelled amid allegations of fixing. The revelations were sufficient to initiate a nine-month-long [[County of New York|New York County]] [[grand jury]].<ref name=MuseumTV/> Although contest-rigging was not a criminal offense, several producers and dozens of contestants chose, rather than publicly admit they were frauds, to perjure themselves before the grand jury by denying they participated in fixing the shows. No indictments were handed down, but, in an unusual move, the judge ordered the findings and testimony sealed. This aroused public suspicion that corruption was involved, which in turn attracted the attention of the US Congress. A formal congressional subcommittee investigation began in August 1959.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal59-1334528 |title=TV Quiz Shows |date=1959 |publisher=CQ Almanac |access-date=2016-10-15}}</ref> The producers and contestants did not dare to perjure themselves before Congress. Enright was revealed to have rigged ''Twenty-One''; Van Doren also eventually came forth with revelations about how he was persuaded to accept specific answers during his time on the show.<ref name=Gross-EMedia>Gross, L. S. (2013). ''Electronic Media: An Introduction''. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.</ref>

In 1960, [[United States Congress|Congress]] amended the [[Communications Act of 1934]] to prohibit the fixing of quiz shows. As a result of that action, many networks canceled their existing quiz shows and replaced them—at [[Television and the Public Interest|the prodding]] of incoming FCC commissioner [[Newton Minow]]<ref name=wastelandspeechtext>Newton N. Minow, "[https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm Television and the Public Interest]", address to the National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, D.C., May 9, 1961.</ref>—with a higher number of [[public service]] programs.<ref name=Gross-EMedia/><ref>{{USPL|86|752|Communications Act Amendments, 1960}}</ref>

==Integrity questioned (1957–1958)==
=== ''Twenty-One'' ===
In late 1956, Herb Stempel, a contestant on NBC's ''Twenty-One'', was coached by Enright. While Stempel was in the midst of his winning streak, both of the $64,000 quiz shows (''[[The $64,000 Question]]'' and its spin-off, ''The $64,000 Challenge'') were in the top-ten rated programs but ''Twenty-One'' did not have the same popularity. Enright and his partner, Albert Freedman, were searching for a new champion to replace Stempel to boost ratings. They soon found what they were looking for in Charles Van Doren, an English teacher at [[Columbia University]]. Van Doren decided to try out for the NBC quiz show ''[[Tic-Tac-Dough]].'' Enright, who produced both ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' and ''Twenty-One,'' saw his tryout and was familiar with his prestigious family background that included multiple [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning authors and highly respected professors at Columbia. As a result, Enright felt that Van Doren would be perfect as the new face of ''Twenty-One.''<ref>Anderson, Kent. Television Fraud: The History and Implications of the Quiz Show Scandals. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1978. Print.</ref>

After achieving winnings of $69,500, Stempel's scripted loss to the more popular Van Doren occurred on December 5, 1956. One of the questions Stempel answered incorrectly involved the winner of the [[28th Academy Awards|1955]] [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Motion Picture]]. The correct answer was ''[[Marty (film)|Marty]],'' one of Stempel's favorite movies. As instructed by Enright, however, he gave the incorrect answer ''[[On the Waterfront]],'' which had won the [[27th Academy Awards|previous year]]. Although the manipulation of the contestants helped the producers maintain viewer interest and ratings, the producers had not anticipated the extent of Stempel's resentment at being required to lose the contest against Van Doren.<ref name=KAnderson-TVFraud>Anderson, K. (1978). ''Television Fraud: The history and Implications of the Quiz Show Scandals''. Westport and London: Greenwood Press.</ref>

Another former contestant, James Snodgrass, made lists of all the questions and answers on which he was coached and mailed them to his own home in a series of registered letters before his games aired. The dates on these letters served as indisputable proof that the show had been rigged, and Snodgrass testified before Congress on this matter in 1959.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6555 |title="A Make-Believe World": Contestants Testify to Deceptive Quiz Show Practices |publisher=Historymatters.gmu.edu |date= |accessdate=2014-02-18}}</ref>

=== ''The Big Surprise'' ===
In December 1956, Dale Logue, a contestant on NBC's ''[[The Big Surprise]]'', filed a lawsuit against the show's production company, Entertainment Productions, Inc., seeking either $103,000 in [[damages]] or reinstatement on the show as a contestant. Her claim was that, after being asked a question she did not know in a "warm-up" session, that she was asked the same question again during the televised show. Her assertion was that this was done intentionally with the express purpose of eliminating her as a contestant. At the time Logue's lawsuit was filed, Steve Carlin, executive producer of Entertainment Productions, Inc., called her claim "ridiculous and hopeless".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1956-12-27 |title=Sues Quiz Program For $103,000 |pages=22 |work=The News-Palladium |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61196106/sues-quiz-program-for-103000/ |access-date=2020-10-16}}</ref> Assertions that Logue had been offered $10,000 to [[legal settlement|settle]] in January 1957 were called baseless.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Torre |first=Marie |date=1957-01-08 |title=Out of the Air |pages=10 |work=The Evening Review |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61196531/out-of-the-air/ |access-date=2020-10-16}}</ref> [[Charles Revson]], head of [[Revlon]] and ''The Big Surprise's'' primary sponsor, asked the producers if Logue's accusation was true, and was told that it was not.<ref name=LossOfInnocence>{{Cite book |last=Matthews |first=Melvin E. Jr. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aL2XDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 |title=Loss of Innocence: America's Scandals in the Post-War Years |date=2019-05-01 |publisher=Algora Publishing |isbn=978-1-62894-356-6 |language=en}}</ref>

In April 1957, [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine published an article detailing the depths to which producers managed game shows, just short of involving the contestants themselves.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1957-04-21 |title=Television Quiz Shows Rigged? |pages=27 |work=The Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61196590/television-quiz-shows-rigged/ |access-date=2020-10-16}}</ref> This was followed by the August 20, 1957, [[Look (American magazine)|''Look'' magazine]] article "Are TV Quiz Shows Fixed?", which concluded "it may be more accurate to say they are controlled or partially controlled."<ref name=LossOfInnocence/>

=== ''Dotto'' ===
In August 1958, Stempel and Logue's credibility was bolstered when Edward Hilgemeier, Jr, a stand-by contestant on ''Dotto'' three months earlier, sent an [[affidavit]] to the FCC claiming that while backstage, he had found a notebook on set containing the answers contestant [[Marie Winn]] was to deliver.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/154370718 |title=28 Aug 1958, Page 6 - The News Journal at Newspapers.com |newspaper=Newspapers.com |access-date=2016-10-15}}</ref>

==Backlash==
The American public's reaction was swift and dramatic when the fraud became public; between 87% and 95% knew about the scandals as measured by industry-sponsored polls.<ref name="BoddyFiftiesTelevision">Boddy, W.(1990). Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.</ref> Through late 1958 and early 1959, quiz shows implicated by the scandal were quickly cancelled. Among them, with their last-aired dates, were:
* ''Dotto'' (August 15, 1958)
* ''The $64,000 Challenge'' (September 7, 1958)<ref>{{Cite news |date=1958-09-14 |title=Charged With Fix, $64,000 Challenge Taken From Air |pages=40 |work=The Lima Citizen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61300336/charged-with-fix-64000-challenge/ |access-date=2020-10-17}}</ref>
* ''Twenty-One'' (October 16, 1958)
* ''The $64,000 Question'' (November 2, 1958)<ref>{{Cite news |date=1958-11-05 |title=$64,000 Question, First Big-Money Quiz, Ended |pages=27 |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61299379/64000-question-first-big-money-quiz/ |access-date=2020-10-17}}</ref>
* ''Tic-Tac-Dough,'' primetime edition (December 29, 1958)
*[[For Love or Money (game show)|''For Love or Money'']] (January 30, 1959)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rahn |first=Pete |date=1959-02-03 |title='Rigged' Quiz Show Cancelled |pages=27 |work=St. Louis Globe-Democrat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62767058/rigged-quiz-show-cancelled/ |access-date=2020-11-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1959-02-01 |title=TV Quiz Show Cancelled to Avoid Fraud |pages=26 |work=The Star Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62767320/tv-quiz-show-cancelled-to-avoid-fraud/ |access-date=2020-11-07}}</ref>

In late August 1958, New York prosecutor Joseph Stone convened a grand jury to investigate the allegations of the fixing of quiz shows. At the time of the empaneling, neither being a party to a fixed game show nor fixing a game show in the first place were crimes in their own right. Some witnesses in the grand jury acknowledged their role in a fixed show, while others denied it, directly contradicting one another. Many of the coached contestants, who had become celebrities due to their quiz-show success, were so afraid of the social repercussions of admitting the fraud that they were unwilling to confess to having been coached, even to the point of [[perjury|perjuring]] themselves to avoid backlash. Producers who had legally rigged the games to increase ratings, but did not want to implicate themselves, their sponsors, or the networks in doing so, categorically denied the allegations. After the nine-month grand jury, no [[indictment]]s were handed down and the judge sealed the grand jury report in August 1959.<ref name=MuseumTV/> In October 1959, the [[House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight]], under [[United States Representative|Representative]] [[Oren Harris]]'s chairmanship, began to hold hearings to investigate the scandal. Stempel, Snodgrass, and Hilgemeier all testified.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/investigationoft01unit |title=Investigation of television quiz shows. Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Eighty-sixth Congress, first session |last=United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce |publisher=Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off. |year=1960 |page=III}}</ref>

The expansion of the probe led CBS president [[Frank Stanton (executive)|Frank Stanton]] to immediately announce cancellation of three more of its large-prize quiz shows between October 16 and October 19, 1959: ''Top Dollar'', ''[[The Big Payoff]]'', and ''[[Name That Tune]],''<ref>{{Cite news |date=1959-10-17 |title=TV Ban Criticized |pages=6 |work=Fort Lauderdale News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62766401/tv-ban-criticized/ |access-date=2020-11-07}}</ref> explaining that this decision was made "because of the impossibility of guarding against dishonest practice".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1959-10-19 |title=Name That Tune Goes Off Air After Tonight |pages=1 |work=Opelika Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62765342/name-that-tune-goes-off-air-after/ |access-date=2020-11-07}}</ref> On November 2 when Van Doren said to the Committee in a nationally televised session 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."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/investigationoft02unit |title=Investigation of television quiz shows. Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Eighty-sixth Congress, first session |last=United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce |publisher=Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off. |year=1960 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/investigationoft02unit/page/624 624]}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
===Law and politics===
All of the regulations regarding television in the late 1950s were defined under the Communications Act of 1934, which dealt with the advertising, fair competition, and labeling of broadcast stations. The act and regulations written by the FCC were indefinite in regard to fixed television programs. Because no specific laws existed regarding the fraudulent behavior in the quiz shows, whether the producers or contestants alike did anything illegal is debatable. Instead, one inference could be that the medium was ill-used.<ref name=KAnderson-TVFraud/> After concluding the Harris Commission investigation, Congress amended the Communications Act to prohibit the fixing of televised contests of intellectual knowledge or skill.<ref>{{USC|47|509}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roth |first=Gary Franklin |date=September 1972 |title=The Quizzes and the Law: Fifteen Years after "Twenty-One" How Far Can They Go? |journal=Performing Arts Review |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=629–654 |doi=10.1080/00315249.1972.9943360 |issn=0031-5249}}</ref>

[[President of the United States|President]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] signed the bill into law on September 13, 1960. The legislation allowed the FCC to require license renewals of less than the legally required three years if the agency believes it would be in the public interest, prohibited gifts to FCC members, and declared illegal any contest or game with intent to deceive the audience.<ref name=KAnderson-TVFraud/>

===Contestants===
Many quiz-show contestants' reputations were ruined, including:
* [[Charles Van Doren]], who had become a regular on NBC's ''[[Today (NBC program)|Today]]'', lost his job in the television industry. He was also forced to resign his professorship at Columbia University. Van Doren took a job as an editor at ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' 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 on [[PBS]]. He later turned down an offer of $100,000 to act as a consultant on the 1994 feature film ''[[Quiz Show (film)|Quiz Show]]'' directed by [[Robert Redford]] (on which Stempel was a consultant) after discussing the matter with family members, who, with the exception of his son John, were against his participation.<ref name="newyorker.com">Van Doren, Charles, [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/28/080728fa_fact_vandoren "All the Answers : The quiz-show scandals—and the aftermath"], The New Yorker, July 28, 2008</ref> In 2008, Van Doren broke his silence, describing his quiz show experience in an essay-length memoir published in ''[[The New Yorker]].''<ref name="newyorker.com"/> Van Doren died on April 9, 2019. Stempel, who was his opposing contestant on [[Twenty-One (game show)|''Twenty-One'']], died a year later almost to the day.<ref>{{cite web |author=McFadden, Robert D. |title=Charles Van Doren, a Quiz Show Whiz Who Wasn't, Dies at 93 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/obituaries/charles-van-doren-dead.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 10, 2019 |access-date=December 22, 2021 |archive-date=November 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114132732/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/obituaries/charles-van-doren-dead.html}}</ref>
* Teddy Nadler, whose $264,000 haul on ''The $64,000 Challenge'' stood as a record for two decades, resorted to applying for a temporary job with the [[United States Census Bureau]] when his prize money started running short; he failed the civil service exam.<ref name="nadler">{{cite magazine |title=Off the Map |date=March 28, 1960 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time Magazine]] |publisher=[[Time Inc.]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826147,00.html |access-date=September 1, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930200508/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C826147%2C00.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1970, producers exonerated Nadler, stating that they had shown him questions beforehand but that he already knew the answers and did not need them given to him.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Singer |first=Dale |date=1970-09-06 |title=Remember Teddy Nadler? Quiz Show Phenomenon Remembers When . . . |pages=75 |work=Independent Press-Telegram |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7001763/remember-teddy-nadler-quiz-show/ |access-date=2020-10-12}}</ref> Nadler died on May 24, 1984.<ref>{{cite news|date=1984-05-24|title=Teddy Nadler, TV Quiz Show Winner, dies|work=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]|pages=1, 4|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7001857/teddy-nadler-tv-quiz-show-winner-dies/|access-date=2022-03-01}}</ref>
* [[Leonard Ross]], who at age 10 won a combined $164,000 on ''The Big Surprise'' and ''The $64,000 Challenge'', had major mental-health issues, including [[depression (mood)|depression]] and [[attention deficit disorder]], which limited his ability to work as an author and attorney in adulthood; most of his work was completed by other co-authors. After an unsuccessful [[cingulotomy]], Ross died by [[suicide]] on May 1, 1985, at age 39.<ref name="lennyross">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/25/nyregion/the-early-death-of-a-bedeviled-genius.html |title=The Early Death of a Bedeviled Genius |last=Dowd |first=Maureen |date=May 25, 1985 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=August 3, 2011}}</ref>

===Hosts and producers===
In September 1958, a New York grand jury called producers who had coached contestants to appear in testimony. A prosecutor on the case later estimated that of the 150 sworn witnesses before the panel, only 50 told the truth.<ref name="BoddyFiftiesTelevision"/>

Other producers met the same fate as Barry and Enright but, unlike them, could not redeem themselves afterwards. One of the more notable is Frank Cooper, whose ''Dotto'' ended up being his longest-running and most popular game creation. 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 (which also allowed him to help his brother, James, who later took on the name [[Tom Kennedy (television presenter)|Tom Kennedy]], break into the television business.) Narz died in October 2008; Kennedy died in October 2020. [[Sonny Fox]], the original host of ''The $64,000 Challenge,'' left long before it could become tainted and became a popular children's host in the northeast, remembered best as the host of ''[[Wonderama]].'' (Fox later stated that his unintentional "predilection for asking the answers" was a factor in his decision to only rarely host game shows after the scandals.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/quizshow/sfeature/part1.html |title=The American Experience {{!}} Quiz Show Scandal {{!}} Sonny Fox on The 64,000 Challenge |website=www.pbs.org |access-date=2016-12-08 |archive-date=2016-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819050932/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/quizshow/sfeature/part1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>) Fox died in January 2021.

===Television===
The quiz-show scandals exhibited the necessity for 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 scandals. The NBC president at the time stated, "NBC was just as much a victim of the quiz-show frauds as was the public."<ref>Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics, William Boddy, University of Illinois Press, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-252-06299-5}}</ref>

The first sign of the new enforcement came when [[American Safety Razor Company]] pulled its sponsorship of NBC's ''World Championship Golf'' match play series in April 1960 after a December 1959 taping of the match play tournament featured [[Sam Snead]] against [[Mason Rudolph (golfer)|Mason Rudolph]]. With the match tied on the 12th hole, Snead discovered a 15th club in his bag in violation of the Rules of Golf, which is a loss of hole penalty for each hole the extra club was in the bag. By rule, the violation made Rudolph the legal match winner, 11 and 7. Snead instead hid the violation and played the remainder of the match, letting Rudolph finish ahead after a full 18 holes, to avoid "spoiling the show". While the legality of the outcome was unaffected, Snead drew criticism for what amounted to recreating and misrepresenting the end of the match. The rule was changed in 1964 by capping the number of penalties for this violation to two, after which Snead would have been informed of the violation, changing the score automatically to Rudolph 2 up, with the seven holes remaining under the new rule, which is still in use.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lKNOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QIgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2182,966467&dq=mason+rudolph+sam+snead+asr&hl=en |title=Sponsor Cancels After Snead TV Golf Incident |newspaper=[[The Victoria Advocate]] |location=[[Victoria, Texas]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |page=9 |date=April 9, 1960}}</ref> The disclaimer "Portions of the program not affecting the outcome of the game have been edited and/or recreated" is often posted on game shows when scenes may be reshot, the host's reading of a question may be re-recorded after the fact. In ''Wheel of Fortune,'' three consecutive turns that are a Lose a Turn, Bankrupt (without any money or prizes by the affected player), or letter called out that was not on the board, may be edited out of a broadcast, as will a Final Spin that lands on a penalty space. On ''The Price Is Right,'' if all four players overbid on a One Bid, the round may be edited out. All game shows will edit out questions thrown out for irregularities.

A big-money quiz show did not return until [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] premiered ''[[100 Grand (game show)|100 Grand]]'' in 1963. It went off the air after three shows, never awarding its top prize. Quiz shows still held a stigma throughout much of the 1960s, which was eventually eased by the success of the lower-stakes and fully legitimate answer-and-question game ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' upon its launch in 1964.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://media.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/?p=1243 | access-date=2014-08-18 |date=December 1967 |title=A garbage-can Memory Produces a CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS |work=Swarthmore College Bulletin}}</ref> ''Jeopardy!'' distinguished itself with a viewer-friendly format that offers "accessible clues and manageable categories" that the typical viewer has a realistic chance of being able to answer.<ref name=collegebowlupset/> The biggest winner across the 11-year original NBC run of ''Jeopardy!'', [[Burns Cameron]], won only $11,800 in his playing career{{emdash}}$7,070 in his five days, an additional $4,040 from his Tournament of Champions win, and a $700 prize in the all-star 2,000th episode{{emdash}}a full order of magnitude less than the 1950s quiz shows at their peak.<ref name=daytimeinterview>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110831030104/http://theycallittrivia.blogspot.com/2007/11/prior-art.html "YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO BE A CONTESTANT" "We Want Average Americans Who Are Aware of What's Going On"] from ''Daytime TV'' magazine, July 1974</ref> Later incarnations of ''Jeopardy!'' substantially raised money values and removed limits on winning streaks. (Cameron would later add an additional $5,000 consolation prize from his appearance on a 1990 all-star tournament ''[[Super Jeopardy!]]''.) The other quiz show with a sustained run during the post-scandal era of the 1960s, one with the high-difficulty questions associated with the quiz show format, was ''[[College Bowl|GE College Bowl]]'', in which college students competed on behalf of their universities (and the institutional goodwill those schools provided); competing teams were limited to five appearances and all winnings were placed in a scholarship trust.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19670808&id=NHMhAAAAIBAJ&pg=4097,2224806 |title = Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search}}</ref><ref name=collegebowlupset>{{Cite web|last=Yu|first=Lynn Q.|date=2018-08-06|title=How Four Nervous Girls From Georgia Staged the Biggest Upset in Quiz Show History|url=https://slate.com/culture/2018/08/agnes-scott-vs-princeton-college-bowl-the-biggest-upset-in-quiz-show-history.html|access-date=2021-07-29|website=Slate Magazine|language=en}}</ref>

Barry and Enright eventually found a loophole in limits the networks imposed on winnings by selling shows directly into [[broadcast syndication|syndication]], a business model the [[Federal Communications Commission]] was actively encouraging in the 1970s by way of rules such as the [[Prime Time Access Rule]] and [[Financial Interest and Syndication Rules]]. Its revival of ''Tic-Tac-Dough'' would regularly produce "six to eight" winners each year who netted more than the networks' limits,<ref name=ask-bob>{{Cite news|date=1983-10-16|title=Ask Bob: Mr. T: Kids' New Superhero|pages=250|work=The Palm Beach Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60962311/ask-bob-mr-t-kids-new-superhero/|access-date=2020-10-12}}</ref> including one, [[Thom McKee]], who would surpass Nadler's winnings with a total payday of $312,700 over a 46-episode run.<ref name="list">{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200501/slenske |title=Trivial Pursuits |accessdate=2008-08-22 |last=Slenske |first=Michael |work=The List|date=January 2005 }}</ref> Barry and Enright eventually brought its winnings limits into line with the networks' so that they could sell the programs to network [[owned-and-operated station]]s, particularly [[CBS Television Stations]], who had shown interest in buying the show only if the producers would adhere to CBS network standards.<ref name=ask-bob/> CBS would tighten its restrictions further in 1984 following an incident when Michael Larson [[Press Your Luck scandal|memorized and gamed the board]] on ''[[Press Your Luck]]'' to win over $100,000; CBS had initially suspected Larson, who had a long history of con jobs and scams, had somehow cheated before determining that Larson's actions did not break any rule nor constitute wrongdoing.<ref name="1994-11-26 TV Guide">{{cite magazine |last1=Greenberg |first1=Peter S. |author-link1=Peter Greenberg |date=1994-11-26 |editor1-last=Disney |editor1-first=Anthea |title=The Day the Game Show Got Whammied |url=https://archive.org/details/tvguide-19941126-nyc/page/26 |url-status=live |magazine=[[TV Guide (magazine)|TV Guide]] |language=en |volume=42 |number=48 #2174 |pages=26–29 |issn=0039-8543 |via=[[Internet Archive]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240629235135/https://archive.org/details/tvguide-19941126-nyc/page/26/mode/2up |archive-date=2024-06-29}}</ref><ref name="2003-03-13 Variety">{{cite magazine |last1=Speier |first1=Michael |date=2003-03-13 |title=Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal |department=Television Review |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |language=en |volume=278 |issue=49 |page=10 |issn=0042-2738 |oclc=60626328 |quote=A snappy documentary that charts a crafty little con job, Game Show Network's 'Big Bucks' spotlights a creep named Michael Larson and how he stuck it to CBS in 1984 on the popular 'Press Your Luck.' Comprehensive and clever, the upstart cabler's first original longform program underscores the impact that the cash-stash genre had on America's TV culture long before 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and 'Survivor' and is just the sort of thing to put a young company on the map. Jackpot.}}</ref>

Big money quiz shows would not enjoy widespread popularity in the United States again until the late 1990s. In 1999, ABC launched the [[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show)|American adaptation]] of the British game show franchise, ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' to both enormous critical success and high ratings, such of which still remains the last overall game show as of {{CURRENTYEAR}} to become the [[List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States|most watched annual regular series overall on U.S. television]]. Around the turn of 21st century, other American television networks launched similar quiz shows offering large sums of money, including Fox with ''[[Greed (game show)|Greed]]'' and NBC, who first revived ''[[Twenty-One (game show)|Twenty-One]]'' then later adapted the British game show, ''[[The Weakest Link]].'' In 2003, [[Sony Pictures Television]] changed the rules on ''Jeopardy!'' to allow players to win until they are defeated. At the end of Season 20 in July 2004, contestant [[Ken Jennings]] won over one million dollars after his thirtieth win in the first season of the rule. He won 74 games over two seasons. Three other players{{emdash}}[[James Holzhauer]] in 2019, and both [[Matt Amodio]] and [[Amy Schneider]] in 2021{{emdash}}have won over one million dollars through multiple wins. Holzhauer and Schneider both also won their Tournaments of Champions, which host [[Alex Trebek]] in his lifetime noted was a rarity in that contestants with long winning streaks usually were unable to replicate their successes in tournament play due to tougher competition.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marchese |first=David |date=2018-11-19 |title=Alex Trebek on Retirement, His Legacy, and Why Knowledge Matters |url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/alex-trebek-jeopardy-in-conversation.html |access-date=2024-05-14 |website=Vulture |language=en |quote=What bothers me is when contestants jump all over the board even after the Daily Doubles have been dealt with. Why are they doing that? They’re doing themselves a disservice. When the show's writers construct categories they do it so that there's a flow in terms of difficulty, and if you jump to the bottom of the category you may get a clue that would be easier to understand if you’d begun at the top of the category and saw how the clues worked.}}</ref> In 2008, Sony added the [[Wheel of Fortune (Australian game show)|Australian version's Million Dollar wedge]] to ''[[Wheel of Fortune (American game show)|Wheel of Fortune]]'' where a player can win a huge sum by landing on the wedge and meeting a series of standards.

Today, numerous high-stakes game shows and reality competition shows continue to air on broadcast American television. NBC in particular has offered games with exaggerated prize amounts in efforts to set winnings records, including ''[[The Million Second Quiz]]''<ref name="usatoday1">{{cite web |last=Oldenburg |first=Ann |date=September 20, 2013 |title=''Million Second Quiz'' wraps with $2.6 million winner |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/09/20/million-second-quiz-wraps-with-26-million-winner/2841631/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150124165035/http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/09/20/million-second-quiz-wraps-with-26-million-winner/2841631/ |archive-date=January 24, 2015 |access-date=October 5, 2014 |work=[[USA Today]] |publisher=[[Gannett Company]]}}</ref> and ''[[Deal or No Deal Island]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title='Deal or No Deal Island' Season 2 Winner David Genat Says He 'Didn't Want to Play It Safe' on Path to $5 Million Victory (Exclusive) |url=https://people.com/deal-or-no-deal-island-season-2-david-genat-winning-5-million-most-in-history-exclusive-11703365 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=People.com |language=en}}</ref> ''Jeopardy!'' itself has cashed in on the popularity of its former champions by adding in addition to the Tournament of Champions numerous all-star tournaments featuring their most memorable and successful contestants, including its network spin-off ''[[Jeopardy! Masters]]'', which have featured Amodio, Holzhauer, Rutter, and winners of their Tournament of Champions.<ref>{{cite web |last=Porter |first=Rick |date=January 11, 2023 |title=ABC Adds ''Jeopardy! Masters'' to Unscripted Slate |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jeopardy-masters-abc-1235296708/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111195638/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jeopardy-masters-abc-1235296708/ |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |access-date=January 12, 2023 |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal]]
* [[Quiz show scandals in the United Kingdom#2007 television phone-in scandals|2007 British television phone-in scandal]]
* [[American game show winnings records]]
* ''[[College Bowl]]''
* ''[[It's Academic]]''
* [[Martin Flood]]
* [[Charles Ingram]]
** ''[[R v Ingram, C., Ingram, D. and Whittock, T.]]''
* [[Jay Jackson (announcer)|Jay Jackson]]
* ''[[Manhunt (2001 TV series)|Manhunt]]'' (2001) and ''[[Our Little Genius]]'' (2010), later game shows that were pulled due to manipulation
* [[Michael Larson]]
* [[Quizbowl]]
* ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]''
* ''[[Quiz Show (film)|Quiz Show]]''
* [[CCNY point-shaving scandal]], another major scandal in the 1950s that involved the services of [[Frank Hogan]] to help expose what was going on

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Sams |first=David R. |author2=Robert L. Shook |title=Wheel of Fortune |year=1987 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York, N.Y. |isbn=0-312-90833-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Joseph |author2=Tim Yohn |title=Prime Time and Misdemeanors: Investigating the 1950s TV Quiz Scandal |year=1992 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |isbn=0-8135-1753-2 |url-access = registration |url=https://archive.org/details/primetimemisdeme00ston}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Tedlow |first=Richard |title=Intellect on Television: The Quiz Show Scandals of the 1950s |year=1976 |journal=American Quarterly |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=483–495 |doi=10.2307/2712542 |jstor=2712542}}

==External sources==
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/quizshow-rise-tv-quiz-shows/ PBS Article on Radio Quiz Shows]
* [http://www.mlfilms.com/productions/quiz The Quiz Show Scandal]
* [[Walter Karp]]: [https://www.americanheritage.com/quiz-show-scandal The Quiz-Show Scandal], in [[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]], May/June 1989

{{Quiz show scandals}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quiz Show Scandals}}
[[Category:1950s in American television]]
[[Category:1950s American game shows|*]]
[[Category:1950s scandals]]
[[Category:Entertainment scandals]]
[[Category:Scandals in the United States]]
[[Category:Television controversies in the United States]]
[[Category:Match fixing]]

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1950s quiz show scandals