Quiz show scandals

The quiz show scandals of the 1950s were an American scandal when it was revealed that contestents of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by the producers to arrange the outcome of a supposed competition.

This interferance included choosing topics that the contestants were good at, answers to upcoming questions and even stage directions of how to act on camera.

The most notorious participants in this deception were Charles Van Doren[?] and Herb Stemple[?] who were leading competitors on the show, Twenty One[?]. Both were heavily coached by the show's producers, but Stemple blew the whistle when he was pressured to deliberately lose in favour of Van Doren.

The impact of this scandal led to a specific federal law prohibiting fixing quiz shows. Contestents like Van Doren found their reputations were ruined and quiz shows lost much of their remaining presence on prime time American television for decades. In addition, the major television networks[?] took a greater hand in creative production to avoid similar problems in the future. This even extended so far as to demand changes to unrelated television series like demanding that the premise of the dramatic series, Mr. Lucky[?] be changed from a riverboat casino to a restaurant to avoid the idea of games on prime time TV.

This scandal is dramatized in the feature film Quiz Show directed by Robert Redford.