Episode 367 - The Quiz Show Scandals Part 2
Hollywood Crime Scene
Rachel Fisher
4.6 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After a successful run on Twenty One, contestant Herbert Stempel threatens to expose the cheating after he's forced to lose to the charismatic Charles Van Doren.
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Transcript
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| 0:36.3 | Hello, welcome to Hollywood crime scene. This is Rachel Fisher. Hi, this is Desi Jetican. We are back for part two of quiz show scandals. Once again, my main source is the book, Primetime and Misdemeanors investigating the 1950s TV quiz scandal by Joseph Stone and Tim Yohn. So let's get |
| 0:58.0 | started. Where we left off? We're in the 1950s where basically every quiz game show is completely |
| 1:05.7 | rigged to various degrees. The show 21 is trying to overcome its dud reputation and has decided they will cast |
| 1:13.2 | a contestant to get viewers invested and then just give those handpicked contestants the answers to |
| 1:19.6 | guarantee that they succeed. After a botched attempt with a good-looking popular contestant who |
| 1:25.4 | unfortunately had integrity, producer Dan Enright goes a |
| 1:29.6 | different route. What if, instead of a hero, viewers can root for he picks a villain that audiences |
| 1:36.7 | can despise and tune in for week after week, just hoping this unlikable know-it-all finally gets his |
| 1:42.9 | comeuppance. He thinks he's found that |
| 1:45.1 | contestant and a young married college student and father named Herbert Stemple. They meet up, |
| 1:51.8 | and at some point Enright broaches the subject of the fix, and Stemple will later testify to Congress |
| 1:57.3 | that he very, very bluntly sat back and said with a smile, how would you like to win |
| 2:02.1 | $25,000? And he later explained, I had been a poor boy all my life and I was sort of overjoyed. |
| 2:09.6 | And as many in financial dire straits would do, he agrees to the rigging. Ultimately, it really is kind of a victimless crime. Totally. So you can't |
| 2:20.3 | really, it's not like Jen Shaw or something where there actually are victims they're scamming. |
| 2:25.7 | He's not stealing from any of these viewers. He's essentially getting paid to be like an actor on this game show. |
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