I re-watched the movie Quiz Show last night, and did a little research afterwards. The show featured in the film, Twenty-One, was not the only show involved in the rigging scandal of the 1950s.
So I thought it might be interesting to have a look at some of the quiz shows that ultimately got cancelled because of the affair, starting with Twenty-One itself.
Riding on the wave of success from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the show was resurrected in 2000.
I wasn’t aware that ITV in the UK was airing a British version of Twenty-One in 1958. As soon as the scandal hit, the broadcaster pulled it from the air.
Dotto was also cancelled in the States, after a contestant claimed he had found a notebook backstage listing all the questions and answers that were currently being played out live in front of the cameras.
Another show on NBC was The Big Surprise, which was caught up in the scandal when a contestant claimed she was asked a question in rehearsals, which she got wrong, again on the live broadcast, because producers did not want her to progress. She sued.
