Herb Stempel, 1950s game show whistleblower, dies at 93
June 4, 2020 12:29 PM   Subscribe

Herb Stempel, who revealed that the game show Twenty-One was rigged, has died at 93.

Stempel was fed the answers and coached to make the show more dramatic, and promised continued employment after he took a dive against the more telegenic Charles Van Doren. When the job offer never came, Stempel told the world that Twenty-One was rigged, triggering Congressional investigations and an amendment to the Communications Act outlawing the fixing of game shows (if presented to the public as legitimate competitions). The sordid tale would become an Oscar-nominated movie, Quiz Show, and John Turturro's portrayal of Stempel would be nominated for a Golden Globe (Stempel, a veteran of the front lines of WWII, was annoyed at Turturro's portrayal of him as a whiny nerd, for which Turturro apologized to Stempel).

Stempel lived most of his life out of the public eye, and died nearly two months ago -- just two days before the first anniversary of Van Doren's death.
posted by Etrigan (5 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by Faint of Butt at 12:32 PM on June 4, 2020 [2 favorites]




Huh, having seen Quiz Show when it came out in 1994 I had an unexpectedly vivid reaction to reading the words Herb Stempel and Charles Van Doren. I was just thinking about that movie earlier, reminded by this new show about a possible cheating scandal on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
posted by trig at 3:56 PM on June 4, 2020 [1 favorite]


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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:31 PM on June 4, 2020


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posted by Gelatin at 4:06 AM on June 5, 2020


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