Television: The $60 Million Question

Are the quiz shows rigged? The question, worth far more than $64,000 in an industry that is plunging $60 million a year on such programs, has tickled the curiosity of millions of TV watchers. It seemed more pertinent than ever last week when ten-year-old Robert Strom pushed his winnings to $160,000 on CBS's $64,000 Question, and a $10-a-week Government clerk, Theodore Nadler, hit $152,000 on $64,000 Challenge.

The answer: the producers of many shows control the outcome as closely as they dare—without collusion with contestants, yet far more effectively than most viewers suspect.

From the heyday of radio's first spectacular giveaways, quiz producers have stacked the cards to make the game as entertaining as possible. Stop the Music telephoned listeners, apparently at random, to give them a chance to name the "mystery tune" and win a growing jackpot, but by the time the broadcast started, the calls were stacked up on the switchboard and auditioned by a program staffer, who put them on the air in the most dramatic order. Just in case enough listeners might not know the mystery tune, tips on its name were planted regularly in Walter Winchell's gossip column—by Stop the Music itself.

Ad-Lib Writers. In that tradition, producers try to leave so little to chance that TV has spawned a group of craftsmen who call themselves "audience participation comedy writers.'' Not only do they interview prospective participants and write the ad-lib banter between contestants and M.C.s on such shows as Two for the Money and Edgar Bergen's recently ended Do You Trust Your Wife?, but their lines are carefully rehearsed.

Even the chitchat between contestant and quizmaster on Twenty One and $64,000 Question is composed and drilled in advance. On What's My Line?, the panel does not know the guest's occupation it is supposed to guess, but its members are prompted before air time with questions calculated to produce the funny double entendre. When Trust your Wife used celebrities as contestants, they were guaranteed a fee regardless of whether they won. "Of course," says a Hollywood agent who gets requests from quiz shows for celebrities, "they don't ask anything that will make a big name look stupid." Strike It Rich insures itself on that score by rehearsing some questions with its guests.

The big-money shows are subtler. With huge audiences at stake, they go to extremes to appear beyond reproach. They know that they cannot afford to risk collusion with contestants. Yet, estimates one veteran of such shows, "you have 70% or 80% control of what happens." The technique is simple: "To keep a contestant winning, all you have to do is figure out how not to hit a question he doesn't know. That's the basis of all quiz shows." The producers hand-pick their contestants for personality, occupation and geographical spread as well as specialized knowledge, then arm themselves with a shrewd, thorough insight into the contestant's strength and weakness, and have full control of the questions he will be asked.