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.
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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?
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