Game and quiz shows gone wrong

From time to time, when we watch TV game shows, we feel a twinge of doubt and an alarum of suspicion when a contestant gets all of the right answers to difficult questions, easy as pie.

Is he a genius and “walking encyclopedia,” or are the show’s viewers’ collective legs being pulled?

On two occasions, on the opening telecasts of local game or quiz shows, the “lucky” contestants won the top prize of a cool million bucks apiece. Now, what are the statistical odds for such a triumph to take place on a show’s very first telecast?!

Stunning victories

Could it possibly be that the wins were engineered to get the two shows off to a humdinger start, because they had become “breaking news” due to the stunning buena mano victories?

We may never know, but the world of television gaming and quizzing is full of stories about shows gone wrong, so at least a smidgen of selective cynicism may be called for.

The most infamous case of cheating on a televised quiz show happened in 1959, when a “brilliant” contestant, Charles Van Doren, admitted that he had been given the questions and answers in advance.

More likable

On NBC’s “Twenty One,” producers wanted to get rid of the “reigning” champion, because he wasn’t popular with viewers. He was replaced by the more likable Van Doren, an esteemed professor who went on to become champion for a long time.

However, after the man he “defeated” blew the whistle on the quiz show and exposed its lack of integrity, Van Doren was disgraced, and the show was pulled off the air. (Since the program had become a cautionary example of cheating in high media places, a movie was even made about it.)

Later, it was learned that the same thing had happened on the British version of “Twenty One,” so it too was canceled.

Elsewhere, on the CBS quiz show, “Dotto,” a contestant found another player’s notepad, on which key questions and answers were written. He complained, was paid some hush money, later asked for more—and the show eventually had to own up.

Manipulation

“The $64,000 Question” was another show that went in for what may be euphemistically described as “contestant manipulation.” In its case, the show’s contestants of choice were given easier questions than others, so they ended up winning. Despite this less obvious style of cheating, however, the ploy was still found out.

On the British version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” a “lucky” contestant won the top prize of one million pounds—but wasn’t allowed to cash in his check (that’s why the checks are post-dated).

It was discovered that he had made all the right choices, because he had been coached by means of a code based on the coughs of an accomplice in the studio! (Ironically, when the “winning” telecast was aired, the first commercial shown was for a cough syrup!)

Results

Even the BBC was once charged with “manipulation” when its children’s show, “Blue Peter,” fiddled around with the results of a quiz for viewers. It was fined 50,000 pounds for the incident.

Other game or quiz shows have been rapped for keeping phone lines open even after winners of a viewers’ quiz have already been chosen, for posing questions that are impossible to answer, or for using members of the production crew or their friends as contestants!

—What about local game or quiz programs? Watch some of them, keep your nose in active mode—and you be the judge!