Game shows have a unique and enduring appeal. With a slew of new shows emerging on Netflix, it looks like the popularity of the format won't be waning any time soon. Unlike many other forms of reality TV, we associate game shows with being relatively controversy free and family friendly. But this is by no means the case.
While game shows may outwardly appear like a good bit of innocent fun, there have been numerous shocking scandals throughout the years. From serial killers to shady backdoor deals, these are the 10 biggest game show scandals of all time.
10 The Fake Millionaire
Long before The Bachelor saw women competing for the affections of a man, there was Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire. The show aired back in 2000 and was structured like a beauty pageant, with 50 women vying to be the fiancé of an anonymous multimillionaire. The so-called millionaire was revealed to be a man named Rick Rockwell, who chose nurse Darva Conger as his bride to be.
Rockwell kissed Conger without her consent when she was crowned the winner, but that's not the only controversy. It turned out that Rockwell wasn't a millionaire at all and lived in a dilapidated home. What's more, he had been accused of domestic abuse by various ex-partners, so the show's producers were essentially putting the contestants in grave danger.
9 The 1950s Quiz Show Scandals
From 1956 to 1958, Twenty-One was a popular game show in which contestants competed against each other in isolated booths by answering a series of general knowledge questions. Seems innocent enough, until it was revealed that the producers had been fixing the show. Twenty-One's reigning champion was Herb Stempel, an intelligent man who constantly answered his questions correctly. Only problem was, however, that the viewers didn't like the seemingly nerdy Stempel.
Consequently, the producers selected the charming and erudite Charles Van Doren as Stempel's challenger and fixed the show so that Van Doren would become the new reigning champion. The scandal spawned a movie, Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford and with John Tuturro and Ralph Fiennes as Stempel and Van Doren respectively.
8 A Blind Date With A Serial Killer
The Dating Game served as a precursor to the likes of Blind Date and The Bachelor. A woman would ask a series of questions to three eligible bachelors, all of whom were hidden from her view, and she would pick one man by the episode's end. In 1978, a man named Rodney Alcala was among the three men competing for the woman's affections.
There was only one problem: Alcala was secretly a serial killer, who committed at least 7 murders between 1971 to 1979. The show's host, Jim Lange, described Alcala as a "successful photographer", which is extremely creepy considering that he had later been found guilty of forcing minors to pose for explicit photographs. Many game shows actually want their contestants to act crazy for ratings, but not quite as crazy as Alcala. He was finally caught a year after the episode aired and sentenced to death.
7 'The Price Is Right' Fires A Woman For Being Pregnant
Discriminating against an employee for being pregnant is highly illegal, but that didn't stop the Price is Right producers. A model on the long running game show, Brandi Sherwood fell pregnant with twins in 2009. She took some time off to nurse her newborns, only to be told that she would not be welcome back on the show.
Accordingly, she sued the producers for discrimination and reached an out of court settlement in 2016.
6 Cheating With A Cell Phone App
Shazam is a pretty useful app that allows users to identify any song being played. It was also used as a tool in a game show cheating scandal in Spain. Pasapalabra is a long running Spanish game show in which contestants form teams with celebrities to take on several different challenges.
In 2014, model Adriana Abenia appeared as a celeb guest. During the music round, in which contestants had to correctly identify a song being played, Abenia was found to have been discreetly using the Shazam app to cheat her way to victory. Surprisingly, she actually admitted to the offense and it contributed to high ratings figures for the episode.
5 The Coughing Major
A very British scandal, the U.K. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was embroiled in one of the weirdest crimes that could only have come from across the pond. British Army Major Charles Ingram was accused of using his wife and friend to cheat his way to a million bucks in 2001. Prosecutors alleged that Ingram deliberately read out his multiple choice options individually so that his wife or friend could cough when the correct answer was uttered.
He won the million, but the producers confiscated his cheque and he was convicted of the frankly made-up sounding "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception". However, he claims that he is innocent to this day.
4 A Couple Loses $800,000, But Got The Question Right
We've explored cheating contestants on game shows, but what about when contestants are cheated by the producers? That's exactly what happened to Gabe Okoye and Brittany Mayt on Million Dollar Drop. In 2010, the couple appeared on the Fox show and were asked which invention was sold first: Macintosh Computers, Sony Walkman, or Post-It-Notes. They answered "Post-It-Notes", only to be told that "Sony Walkman" was the correct answer, losing a whopping $800,000 in the process.
However, it turned out that Fox had made a grievous error and the couple had actually answered correctly. Instead of awarding Okoye and Mayt the money they rightfully deserved, they were offered the chance to appear on the show again. However, this never came to be, as the show was pulled shortly after.
3 The 'Super Password' Fugitive
Super Password was a game show that aired in the '80s and revolved around contestants being awarded clues to guess a given word. In 1988, a man named Patrick Quinn appeared on the show and proved to be an extremely adept contestant, winning $58,000, the largest winnings of any contestant in the show's history.
But it turned out that the winner was not Patrick Quinn at all: this was a mere alias used by a wanted fugitive named Kerry Ketchem, who was on the run for various fraud charges. FBI agents recognized him on the show and swiftly arrested him. Appearing on national television is surely the stupidest mistake a wanted fugitive could make...
2 'Our Little Genius' Was Staged
This show was so controversial that it never actually made it to air. Our Little Genius was supposed to premiere in 2010, but Fox had no choice but to pull it.
The premise revolved around a selection of purported child geniuses who had to answer a series of increasingly difficult questions to win money for their families. If the kids were struggling, they could ask experts and their parents for help. It turned out that much of the show was staged, as producers had been feeding answers to the contestants.
1 The 'Bullseye' Killer
The U.K. version of the darts-based game show Bullseye faced a shocking murder scandal. Police in Wales had been investigating a series of vicious murders and assaults, with almost no leads whatsoever. Years passed and it seemed as though the investigation would become a long-running cold case, with no hope in sight.
That all changed, however, when police watched an episode of Bullseye that aired in 1989. One of the contestants, John Cooper, perfectly matched the police sketch of the murderer. Chillingly, Cooper had committed 2 of the murders just one month after his appearance on the show. Finally, in 2011, he was jailed for life for his many crimes.