In the early days of TV, quiz shows were extraordinarily popular. The suspense of watching a contest sweat out a question that could make or break them was compelling entertainment. There were a bunch of these shows, including “The $64,000 Question”, “The Big Surprise”, “Dotto”, and “Twenty-One”. What viewers did not know was they were being manipulated. Some of the contestants were given the answers ahead of time and coached how to perform. When “Twenty-One” debuted in 1956, the first few episodes were a disaster. The questions were so hard that no one could get on a roll. Sponsor Geritol was not happy. To save the sponsorship and create appealing TV, co-producer Dan Enright decided to fix the show. He would pick intriguing winners and make sure they won. One of those winners was Herb Stempel. He was the average Joe and Americans loved him. He made $69,500 in four weeks. But the public is fickle and it was time to move on to a new champion. Enright had found one in Charles Van Doren. Van Doren was the egg head with sex appeal. He taught at Columbia University and his father was a Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry. Stempel was forced to take a dive. He had to answer a question about the Best Picture winner in 1955. The correct answer was his favorite movie, “Marty”. Enright have him answer “On the Waterfront”. The loss ended Stempel’s celebrity status, which he had reveled in. He may have been pressured to take a dive, but he refused to stay down. He tried to convince newspapers to report the cheating that was going on, but he had no proof and seemed like a sore loser. Enright, learning of Stempel’s attempts to blow the lid off, conned him into coming to his office. Enright, using a secret tape recorder, got him to admit he was mentally unstable, financially-challenged, and a blackmailer. In exchange for a promised job, Stempel signed a statement saying there had been no cheating. Meanwhile, Van Doren was a huge hit. For a while he was the most beloved person on TV, getting 20,000 fan letters. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The article gushed over the new national hero.
The scandal was exposed after “Dotto” was accused by some contestants. Although the show was cancelled as a result, the New York County district attorney began investigating. The media, which had fawned over Van Doren, now shifted to muckraking mode. Stempel’s story was front page news. Van Doren, who had parleyed his fame to a role on the “Today” show, denied any wrong-doing. He lied on “Today”. He justified his perfidy by telling himself his fame had helped teachers get recognition. In Oct., 1958, Congress got involved. A congressional committee’s first witness was Stempel. Van Doren disappeared to avoid a subpoena, but he was forced to testify on Nov. 2, 1958. He told the truth while weeping. The public was aghast to learn that what they saw was not real. Television lost its innocence. All quiz shows were tainted by the scandal and the genre disappeared for prime time until the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” craze of 1999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_quiz_show_scandals
https://www.americanheritage.com/quiz-show-scandal#7
Van Doren agonizes over an answer he was told earlier.
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