Quiz Show Scandal

Sophia Olson
January 28, 2014
Quiz Show Scandals of the 1950s
CO 220 American Electronic Media
Introduction
Anyone who watched television nowadays knows how inundated it has become with
game shows as well as reality shows. You can turn on the television and start channel surfing and
a majority of the programs on air are some kind of reality show or game show. However, that is
not always how it was. These scandals played an important role at the time because they showed
how easily not only the contestants but also the people at home watching these shows could be
manipulated.
Prior to the invention of television, people listened to quiz shows on the radio. Once
television came along, game shows began to air. People were captivated by these new game
shows due to their similarity to the radio quiz shows. During the 50s, the biggest focus in the
United States was to be able to live what was called the American dream. This was so because
there was a great many people coming back to America from the war who desired to return to a
normal life. The introduction of quiz game shows on television reflected the promise of hope,
excitement, and potential sought by middle class America. With the answer to one question, an
ordinary American could become wealthy beyond his or her wildest dreams (Halberstam, 643)
(Venanzi, 1997).
Discussion
There were three main game shows that were involved in these scandals. They were
Twenty-One, The $64,000 Question, and Dotto. Twenty-One and The $64,000 Question were very
similar to each other in that the contestants who appeared on those shows competed against each

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other from soundproof booths. In particular to Twenty-One, the contestants answered questions
that were of varying difficulties and were worth from one to eleven points. The first contestant to
reach 21 points would be the winner. The emcee of Twenty-One informed the contestants of the
general category and then they chose how many points they were willing to play for.
The scandal involving Twenty-One was eventually discovered by one of the first
contestants used in this scandal. A man by the name of Herbert Stempel was chosen by the
producers of Twenty-One due to his working class status and they also believed that he was
someone the viewing public would be able to relate to. Herbert was chosen because the
producers of the show were in a bind. Twenty-One did not get the amount of attention that its
sponsor, Geritol, would have liked. Therefore, Geritol told the producers of the show that they
were licensed to take any actions they wished in order to make the show more successful.
The producers decided to play Herbert up in order to make him into a celebrity that the
regular viewer could compare themselves to and, in turn, the public who watched this show
would be more likely to watching the show because of this one, very successful, run-of-the-mill
guy. In order for him to continue appearing on the show week after week, since he was
intelligent and possessed a photographic memory, the producers gave him the answers to the
questions that would be asked on the show.
On top of giving him the answers, the producers created an image for him that they
wanted him to fit and even coached him on how to attain and maintain that image. They told
him how to have his hair cut, what types of clothes to wear, how to address the emcee, and how
to act when on the show when answering certain questions by making certain gestures to add
dramatic effects such as dabbing his sweaty brow with a handkerchief (Venazi, para. 7). Yet,

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even after all of that, Geritol, who sponsored the show, was not in favor of his image due to him
being unattractive and not really someone fit to be on the air, despite the fact that he had become
a nation-wide celebrity.
In order to keep the sponsor happy so that the producers could make more money, they
went out on another search for a new contestant to oppose Stempel and increase the shows
ratings once again. This time, the producers search yielded a good-looking, charming man
named Charles Van Doren, who was also a college professor who taught at Columbia University.
The producers set up the dramatic downfall of Stempel by telling him to give the incorrect
answer to the question of what the Oscar winning movie was in 1955. Even though Stempel
knew that the answer was Marty because he later told people making a documentary about
these scandals that he had seen it about five times, he gave the response of On the Waterfront
instead. Due to Stempels blunder, the producers got what they desired as the ratings again
rose drastically. Yet, Stempels defeat did not sit well with him. Since he felt deceived by the
producers of Twenty-One, he eventually decided to expose the scandal. This exposition
eventually brought an end to Twenty-One and lead other contestants from a show called Dotto to
admit that they also were given answers to questions that would be asked on the show by the
producer (Hill, 1992).
Stempel was not the only one to expose the Twenty-One scandal. Dan Enright, the
producer who actually came up with the idea for the show as well as the man who
choreographed Stempels fateful dance (Hill, para.12), also came out about the scandal on Larry
Kings show. While it may have been a dishonest or unethical way to make money, the good
thing was that Enright admitted it and did not keep it concealed. By doing that, he put himself in
a little bit of a better light.

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As with any scandal, there were repercussions for those who were involved. Lewis
Cowan, the man who created The $64,000 Question and who then became the president of CBS
had to resign his position in 1960. Not only that, but contestant Elfrida Von Nardorff, who won
$22, 500 on Twenty-One, joined seventeen other winners in 1961-1962 in pleading guilty to
committing perjury before a state grand jury more than two years earlier; they received
suspended sentences (MacDonald, para. 10). Charles Van Doren, the man who knocked off
Stempel, lost the trust of the public. On top of that, however, after his admission that he took part
in this scandal, he was removed from his position as anchor on the Today show (MacDonald,
2009).
This scandal also hurt the networks these shows appeared on as well. NBC and CBS in
particular were upset by threats of greater FCC regulations, possible antitrust action against
network television, investigation of tax violations in broadcasting quiz shows, and the
possibility that federal law had already been violated (MacDonald, para. 11). In the end,
Twenty-One, The $64,000 Question, and Ditto were pulled off the air.
There were many lessons learned from these scandals. These scandals showed that people
could be duped into believing the quiz shows were real and fair, when in actuality, they were not.
When the people who watched these shows found out that they had been lied to, they were
stunned. They felt that there was a violation of trust by the networks. They could not come to
grips that such a fraudulent scheme was taking place right under their noses due to the fact that it
looked so real, so true on their television sets (Venanzi, 1997).
Even though this scandal took place almost 60 years ago, there are still some remnants of
it occurring today.

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It may seem strange to hear that the practice of rigging a show continues, even though
there were stipulations and regulations placed on television after these scandals broke. However,
while it does not occur on game shows, rigging is very prominent on what we call reality shows
today. It may not be very explicit, but if examined carefully, there are most certainly hints of the
practice continuing.
If you watch reality shows such as The Bachelor, Survivor, or Auction Hunters for
example, then you might notice that the same people stay on the shows for a great deal of time
whereas other contestants are voted off rather quickly. In the case of shows such as Auction
Hunters, there will be valuable objects will be placed in the storage units so that when the hosts
find it and get the item or items appraised for large amounts of money, the viewers continue to
watch the show because they want to see the next big money item.
Another example of modern day shows reality shows being rigged is the Ghost
Hunters. As their name says, this show consists of two main guys and a few other people who
go ghost hunting. On the show, they would show the evidence they captured while on a ghost
hunt and a majority of the time, it would seem very real. It was later found out that they faked a
great deal of their evidence. For many people who believe in the paranormal, this came as a huge
surprise. Other shows were then looked at, such as Ghost Adventures, to see if they faked
evidence as well.
When watching the reality shows on television today, sometimes it does appear as
though the people on those shows act abnormally. If something bad happens, the people will
sometimes act much more upset than they would if they were in a normal situation. On the other
hand, if something extremely good happens to them, such as they win the show or another

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fortune happens to them, they act exceedingly happy. So happy, at times, that it appears very fake
and most certainly not how someone would act if a situation similar to the one they are in were
to arise in their day to day life. Knowing this, it becomes even more evident that the reality
shows we watch on television are in some way rigged or scripted.
Conclusion
At the time the Twenty-One and The $64,000 Question quiz show scandals occurred,
television was still in its infancy. People were just beginning to own television sets in their
homes and were starting to transition from just listening to their favorite quiz show on the radio
to actually being able to see it on television. On top of that, producers and television networks
were looking for ways to attract and keep an audience. Therefore, they decided to move some of
the radio quiz shows on to television, but they found out that they did not go very easily from
radio to television. The producers and networks then decided to create new shows strictly for
television. When their ratings dropped, however, the sponsors allowed the producers to come up
with creative ways in order to bring up the ratings. Ultimately, the producers decided to cheat
and tell contestants the answers to the questions that would be on the show as well as tell them
how to act while on the show. Eventually, the networks and producers were ratted out by the
contestants who felt duped.
In todays world, we have reality shows on television that are also rigged to a certain
degree. Some reality shows have been found out to be rigged, but yet, just as the people in the
50s were, we get hooked on a show we like and we turn a blind eye in a way to the fact that the
shows are scripted. After the scandals of the 50s were discovered, the United States government
did put more restrictions on television shows in order to prevent another incident similar to the

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quiz show scandals to happen again, but producers still sometimes find ways around those
restrictions and laws.

Bibliography

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MacDonald, J.F (2009). One nation under television the rise and of network TV. In One nation
under television the rise and decline of network television (Part III). Retrieved from
http://jfredmacdonald.com/onutv/quiz.htm

Venanzi, K (1997). An examination of television quiz show scandals of the 1950s. The Beat
Begins: America in the 1950s. Retrieved from
http://www.plosin.com/beatbegins/projects/venanzi.html