Quiz Show Scandal

"During the rise of Khrushchev as television personality, the smoldering rumors of quiz program corruptions blazed into scandal.” (Barnouw, 243)

Charles van Doren, the most famous "Twenty-One" quiz show winner who had landed himself a permanent spot on NBC's Today, was one of the first to speak out about the fixing of the quiz shows.

"He took me into his bedroom where we could talk alone He told me that herbert Stempel, the current champion, was an "unbeatable" contestant becaues he knew too much. He said that Stempel was unpopular, and was defeating opponents right and left to the detriment of the program. He asked me if, as a favor to him, I would agree to make an arrangement whereby I would tie Stempel and thus increase the entertainment value of the program. I asked himt o let me go on the program honestly, without receiving help. He said that was impossible." (Barnouw, 244)

Barnouw also states in the book that many quiz members had lied to the grand jury, and the shows blamed their sponsor, Revlon- who allegedly told which contestants to keep and which ones to not keep.

Because TV was in it's pioneer stages, and there were no "rules" against rigging a quiz show, networks were able to do damage control. Nevertheless, over 50 million American's had fallen in love with these quiz shows- and the unmasking of all of the lies made them feel extremely betrayed, and many people were turned off from TV in general.

This is one event that has affected TV history, and at the time contributed to a negative overall attitude towards the television industry.