From scandalous cheating to unexpected criminal contestants, game shows have seen their fair share of dark moments. Join us as we explore the most shocking, tragic, and unsettling incidents that have occurred on television game shows. These moments left audiences stunned and changed the industry forever.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00There was a profile which effectively was like a tracing of that artist's impression.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the creepiest,
00:08most unfortunate, and most tragic things that have occurred on television game shows.
00:13We will only be including footage that you actually see in the show,
00:17so behind-the-scenes stories will not count.
00:24The Charles Ingram scandal. Who wants to be a millionaire?
00:28£500,000. You no longer have that.
00:34You've just won £1 million!
00:37It didn't take long for someone to exploit this show, and it was surprisingly easy.
00:42The program premiered in 1998, and just three years later,
00:46it hosted British Army Major Charles Ingram.
00:48Ingram struggled with many questions,
00:50but miraculously managed to guess the correct one every single time.
00:57Final answer? No.
01:03He walked away with the top prize, but the producers thought,
01:06quote, there's just no way, and refused to hand over the money.
01:10During an investigation, they found that Ingram's wife and a fellow contestant
01:14named Tequan Wittick would cough when Ingram read the correct answer.
01:17It was that simple.
01:18The scandal had a profound impact on the game show industry,
01:22and all three conspirators were given suspended prison sentences.
01:25Ingram was also forced to resign from the army.
01:28He used a 50-50, Coldplay and Toploader went, he then went for a 1.
01:34Then because... I actually rather lost the plot of his thinking.
01:38Richard Dawson kissing women. Family feud.
01:48The 70s were a weird time. Richard Dawson was a fine host of Family Feud,
01:53but he had one bizarre trademark, and that was kissing women...
01:57on the lips... while their partners were in the audience.
02:00Some call it a casual display of affection,
02:02a cute little gesture to make contestants feel welcomed.
02:12Others see it as highly inappropriate and borderline creepy.
02:15Societal attitudes towards personal space,
02:18consent, and professional boundaries have changed significantly since the 1970s.
02:23And while there's something to be said for changing norms,
02:26Dawson's kissing wasn't exactly a hit back then either.
02:29In fact, television executives and producers hated the practice,
02:33and continuously asked Dawson to knock it off. He didn't.
02:42Demeaning Contestants
02:44The $1.98 Beauty Show
02:48This is the moment we've been waiting for!
02:52There's a fine line between satire and humiliation,
02:55and we're not sure if the $1.98 Beauty Show walked it successfully.
03:00Released in the late 70s, the game show was a parody of beauty pageants,
03:04with contestants often encouraged to act in ridiculous ways
03:07for a rotten bouquet of flowers and two dollars and change.
03:10Hosted by Rip Taylor, the show had an irreverent tone,
03:14and featured contestants who often didn't fit
03:16the standard mold of beauty pageant participants.
03:28Their appearance and talents were often the subject of open mockery,
03:31and some appeared visibly uncomfortable with the whole charade.
03:34The show received some backlash for exploiting and demeaning the participants,
03:38and it was canceled after two years.
03:44Lauren Cleary Tells the Truth
03:48The Moment of Truth
03:56A short-lived Fox show, The Moment of Truth saw contestants
04:00answering personal questions for cash.
04:02They were given a polygraph test beforehand,
04:04and the questions were repeated in the studio.
04:06If they told the truth, they won. If they lied, they were out.
04:10Lauren Cleary was a contestant, admittedly seeking quote,
04:14fame and fortune. Well, she certainly got that.
04:23Over the course of the game, Cleary admitted that she had committed theft,
04:26that she had cheated on her husband,
04:28and that she secretly wished to be married to her ex-boyfriend.
04:31It was painfully awkward for everyone involved,
04:34even host Mark Wahlberg, who begged the network not to air the episode.
04:38They did, and it was horrible.
04:49The Quiz Show Scandals, Various
04:58Quiz shows were nearly ruined as soon as they began.
05:00The genre was immensely popular in the 1950s,
05:03but fun soon turned to fury when a major scandal emerged
05:07detailing an intricate cheating scheme.
05:09Producers of various shows had been rigging their games,
05:12mostly to generate false drama for continued interest and views.
05:20This is best exemplified through the continued success of Herb Stemple,
05:24who became a media sensation while dominating the show 21.
05:28Only his entire six-week reign was rigged as he was fed answers by the producers.
05:33It was Stemple who eventually blew the whistle,
05:35and the backlash was incredible.
05:37Public trust was destroyed, a multitude of shows were cancelled,
05:41and Congress even amended a law preventing future tampering on game shows.
05:52Edward Edwards, To Tell The Truth
05:59Some game shows welcome controversial figures,
06:02and To Tell The Truth was one of them.
06:04In this game, three people claim to be the same person,
06:07and panelists must ask questions to discern who is telling the truth,
06:11and root out the real contestant.
06:13In this episode, they had to guess the real Ed Edwards,
06:16a reformed man who was once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
06:30Edwards was contestant number three,
06:32having landed himself on the list after committing robbery and escaping from prison.
06:36It gets worse.
06:37Five years after the show,
06:38Edwards committed murder and would go on to kill at least five people,
06:42possibly as many as 15.
06:45He was finally apprehended in 2009 and died in prison.
06:49No, when I was released from the reformatory, they looked up to me,
06:53and this motivated me to go on to bigger things,
06:56because this is why I was out there committing the crime, was for the recognition.
07:07A British game show popular in the 1980s,
07:10Bullseye combined darts and trivia.
07:12In May of 1989, a man named John Cooper appeared on the show,
07:16telling host Jim Bowen about his love of scuba diving.
07:19But Cooper had a much darker hobby.
07:21He had a long criminal history stretching back to the early 1960s,
07:25including assault and theft.
07:32But his crimes got progressively more serious,
07:35and just four years before appearing on Bullseye,
07:37Cooper murdered a pair of siblings while robbing their farmhouse.
07:41And just one month after the show,
07:43he murdered a tourist couple after robbing them on a walking path.
07:46He was finally apprehended in 2009,
07:48and the prosecution used the footage from Bullseye to link Cooper to an eyewitness sketch.
08:02The failed car jump.
08:03Wettendas.
08:04German for, wanna bet that...
08:06Wettendas was an enormously popular European game show
08:09that was broadcast all across the continent.
08:11But it experienced a major ratings decline in the early 2010s,
08:16starting with the infamous Samuel Koch incident.
08:18Koch appeared on December 4th, 2010,
08:21betting that he could jump over five moving cars using a pair of jumping stilts.
08:25He went through three cars unscathed, but the fourth proved disastrous.
08:30The vehicle was being driven by Koch's own father,
08:32and the stuntman failed to jump it,
08:34instead spilling over the top and landing on his head.
08:37Everyone immediately knew that it was bad, and it was.
08:40Koch had broken his neck and was left with quadriplegia.
08:44Tomoake Hamatsu is tormented.
08:46Susuno Denpa Shounen.
08:51A highly controversial Japanese game show,
08:53Susuno Denpa Shounen was known for placing contestants in extreme,
08:57often inhumane conditions.
08:59Hamatsu's challenge was to remain isolated in a small apartment,
09:03and live entirely off what he won in mail-in sweepstakes.
09:06He would only be freed once he won 1 million yen in prizes,
09:10about the equivalent of $8,000.
09:15Once this goal was met after 335 days,
09:18Hamatsu was taken to yet another apartment in South Korea,
09:21with the goal of winning a ticket home to Japan.
09:24All told, Hamatsu spent 15 months in complete isolation,
09:28living mostly on dog food and rice,
09:30playing video games and speaking to a stuffed toy for companionship.
09:45Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
09:48and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
09:51You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
09:55If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings
09:57and switch on notifications.
10:01Rodney Alcala, The Dating Game.
10:03Between takes, you might find him skydiving or motorcycling.
10:07Please welcome Rodney Alcala.
10:09Rod, welcome.
10:10A bachelor-type game show,
10:12The Dating Game saw three men sitting behind a partition
10:14while a woman asked them questions laced with innuendo.
10:17She would then choose one and the couple would go on a date.
10:20In 1978, a man named Rodney Alcala appeared on the show,
10:24wooing bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw.
10:26However, you did leave one remaining,
10:28and this is your date, and I want to tell you something about him.
10:33However, Bradshaw refused the date,
10:35finding Alcala to be quite the oddball.
10:37Bradshaw refused the date,
10:39finding Alcala to be, quote,
10:40creepy, a sentiment that was mirrored by one of the other contestants.
10:44Their intuitions were correct.
10:46Alcala was a convicted sex offender and serial killer,
10:49having murdered at least eight people throughout his life,
10:52but possibly more than 130.
10:55By the time he appeared on The Dating Game,
10:57he had already killed multiple people
10:59and had spent time in prison for sexual assault.
11:02So I guess this means we're not really meeting up in Carmel anymore?
11:08Yeah, I'm not going anywhere with you.
11:11Did you see any of these live?
11:13Let us know in the comments below.
11:15Quite honestly, if I had my vote, it would not air.
11:18Did you enjoy this video?
11:20Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
11:22and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.