- 1 hour ago
At the time, these game show moments seemed normal — even entertaining.
But knowing what we know now, they’ve become deeply disturbing and unsettling.
In this video, we explore 20 game show moments that aged terribly due to hidden truths, scandals, dark secrets, and shocking revelations revealed years later.
⚠️ Viewer discretion advised — some moments may be uncomfortable to watch.
Subscribe to watchmojo.world for more disturbing media moments, dark history, and shocking true stories.
But knowing what we know now, they’ve become deeply disturbing and unsettling.
In this video, we explore 20 game show moments that aged terribly due to hidden truths, scandals, dark secrets, and shocking revelations revealed years later.
⚠️ Viewer discretion advised — some moments may be uncomfortable to watch.
Subscribe to watchmojo.world for more disturbing media moments, dark history, and shocking true stories.
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TVTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most shocking and dark revelations about
00:09individuals who appeared on game shows. Ingram's Trickery for Victory
00:17Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Charles Ingram became only the third person to win this British
00:21game show's top prize, but it was all for naught. Chris Tarrant, the original host of Who Wants to
00:26Be a Millionaire, said no one on the production team thought Ingram would turn things around
00:29after a rocky start. But it wasn't just a nice comeback story. Suspicions of cheating rose rather
00:41quickly, mainly due to coughing heard from the audience. It turned out the coughs weren't random,
00:45they were answer clues provided by Ingram's wife and college lecturer, Tekwen Widok.
00:51Not only was the prize not awarded, but all three involved were found guilty in court,
00:54ordered to pay fines and given suspended prison sentences, ranging from 12 to 18 months.
01:06A fraudulent schemer wins big. Press Your Luck. Michael Larson's record-breaking win on Press Your
01:12Luck in 1984 was impressive. Too impressive. CBS executives grew suspicious of cheating and didn't
01:17want to give him the winnings. Larson had studied the game show patterns closely, effectively beating
01:26the system. It was determined that there was no legal issue with what he did. Still, we discovered
01:30other damaging facts about this guy. He was a major schemer. For example, he once used a family member's
01:35name to register a business so he could fire himself and collect unemployment benefits. He had
01:39also been arrested for theft three times before his game show appearance. In the 90s, Larson became
01:43implicated in a fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme. He fled a law enforcement investigation
01:48and eventually died in hiding. Now, do you have anything in mind as to what you're going to get
01:51your daughter for her belated birthday present? Uh, no. It'll be a surprise. You think this might
01:56be a surprise to her as well? Fugitive contestant wins money using fake identity. Super Password.
02:02Watching Password at home, a viewer in Anchorage, Alaska recognized the scruffy-faced contestant
02:08as a fugitive in a credit card fraud case and called the authorities. During the 80s, Patrick
02:13Quinn won $56,000 on the game show Super Password. But his name was not, in fact, Patrick Quinn.
02:19That was his former college professor's name. The contestant's real name was Kerry D. Ketchum.
02:23My name's Patrick Quinn. I'm a senior systems analyst for the government. I myself spent the
02:28last eight years in Europe and the Far East traveling around and everything. I'm just really
02:32pleased and happy to be here. I'm having a great time. A viewer recognized who the man on the TV screen
02:36really was and alerted the authorities. Ketchum was a convicted felon and fugitive,
02:40wanted for faking his wife's death to collect a $100,000 insurance payout. In fact, he faced
02:44multiple charges, including bank and mail fraud. When Ketchum arrived at the show's Hollywood offices
02:49to claim his winnings, authorities were waiting. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
02:53One of the biggest winners in the history of the television game show, Password,
02:57was suddenly busted today when he showed up at the Password offices in Hollywood
03:01to claim his prize, $58,000. Former Jeopardy champion goes from fame to infamy. Jeopardy.
03:08A math teacher named Winston Wynn became a two-time Jeopardy champion in 2014. Over ten years later,
03:13his reputation took a major hit, casting a shadow over the fame he gained on television all those years ago.
03:19So what did he do? Pretending to be a teenage boy, Wynn used Snapchat to exchange explicit images
03:24and videos with minors. Some of these were students who attended the school he worked at.
03:28Wynn pleaded guilty to multiple sex crimes and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
03:32He also tells us that Wynn is due in court next week, where he expects his client will give a
03:37statement apologizing to his victims. In downtown Brooklyn, Rob Flax, News 12 Brooklyn.
03:43A then-Wanted Man appears as a game show contestant, Wheel of Fortune.
03:47In 1998, Matthew Fenwick won $4,400 on Wheel of Fortune. Watching that particular episode was
03:53a girl who recognized him for a horrible reason. Like seriously, this is unsettling stuff.
03:57Prior to appearing on the show, Fenwick had been on the run after being accused of molestation of
04:01that girl and one other girl. Two days after his appearance on the show, he was found and arrested,
04:06and in the summer of 1998, he pleaded guilty. This totally reframed that TV appearance in such a dark,
04:11alarming way. The legacy of a game show athlete tarnished, American Ninja Warrior.
04:16It's far from an easy feat to become an American Ninja Warrior champ. Drew Dreschel was able to do
04:21that. On top of that, he became a very well-known competitor on the show over a multi-year period
04:25during the 2010s. However, shortly after the 2020 season wrapped up filming, he was arrested for
04:39charges related to sexual misconduct. In 2023, Dreschel pleaded guilty for crimes involving illegal
04:45pornography and coercing a minor to travel to engage in sexual activity. The judge labeled him a dangerous
04:50predator and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
05:06Wife's life in jeopardy. Jeopardy. A few years after becoming known as a two-time Jeopardy champion,
05:11Paul Curry became known as the Jeopardy killer. In 1994, his wife Linda died under mysterious
05:16circumstances. It turned out it was nicotine poisoning, but Linda wasn't a smoker. It took
05:21years for prosecutors to build an effective case against Paul Curry. Finally, in 2010,
05:2516 years after Linda's death, Paul was arrested.
05:28In 2014, he was deemed guilty of first-degree murder. He had poisoned his wife all those years
05:40ago, apparently intending to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance money and other
05:44financial benefits. Jeopardy is a fun way to earn big bucks, but this? This is just twisted.
05:50She wouldn't wake up. I couldn't get her awake. Didn't know exactly what to do, but I...
05:57Doomsday contestant, Wheel of Fortune. Looking back now, this is horrifying stuff.
06:01Lori Vallow Daybell appeared on Wheel of Fortune in 2004, winning $17,500. She talked a bit about her
06:08family on that show. From Austin, Texas. A hair stylist in Austin, hey? That's right. The best.
06:13How's the hair in Austin? It's good. Good. Austin's a happening place. Probably thanks to you.
06:18Years later, Lori made headlines for shocking reasons. In 2023,
06:21she was found guilty for murdering her two children. Over the years of court proceedings,
06:25she was also found guilty of conspiring to kill multiple other people,
06:29including her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. How long have you lived here?
06:31Like three weeks. Oh, geez. Yeah. Okay. That's why the neighbors don't know us. Gotcha.
06:36Like, hi, neighbor. Sorry. What was striking about the footage that we saw
06:42was that there's no remorse. There's no, oh my gosh, my husband's dead.
06:48She and her husband, Chad Daybell, led what some media outlets called a doomsday cult.
06:52Lori Vallow received multiple life sentences for these disturbing, heinous acts.
06:56You simply have no remorse for it, even sitting here today.
07:00Suspected serial killer serves pasta and meatballs. Celebrity Master Chef
07:04In 2015, Chef Steven Port appeared on the British show Celebrity Master Chef,
07:08donning a blonde wig and serving up pasta with meatballs in East London. Just months after the
07:13episode aired, articles started coming out connecting sinister dots to this man. He had
07:17been accused of drugging and murdering four young men. Port became known as the Grinder Killer. He met
07:22men through gay websites, invited them over, and committed horrific acts. In 2016, he was convicted of
07:27four murders, plus multiple sexual assaults, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
07:31To think this individual was on a competitive cooking reality show amidst his crimes is truly unsettling.
07:41The pockmarked man. Tout le monde va prendre sa place.
07:45French police had been searching for a man known as the Grele, or the pockmarked man,
07:49for more than three decades by the time he appeared on a game show. This notorious individual,
07:53a former police officer named François Verov, was responsible for multiple shocking murders and
07:59sexual attacks in the Paris region between 1986 and 1994. For so long it was an unsolved case
08:04and the perpetrator was out there. The year was 2019 when he appeared on that game show,
08:08but the dark truth tied to him wouldn't come out until 2021, ending a 35-year manhunt.
08:13Verov left a note confessing to his crimes before taking his own life.
08:17A Wipeout Contestant Tragedy
08:19Wipeout
08:20Obstacle courses are fun, but they can come with a host of safety concerns. Wipeout does its best to
08:25vet contestants and provide them with sufficient protective gear, but accidents can still happen.
08:31Contestant Michael Paredes found this out the hard way, suffering a heart attack after completing
08:36the show's obstacle course. He was promptly rushed to a local hospital, but it was too late to save
08:41him. TMZ reported on his death shortly after. In spite of the tragedy, the series went on as planned,
08:46but it's hard to shake the feeling that contestants are risking their lives for viewers' entertainment.
08:50Oh my God, that was crazy. Alleged poor conditions, Squid Game The Challenge
08:56In 2021, Squid Game became Netflix's newest hit show, garnering both mass appeal and critical
09:01approval for its dark yet captivating premise. But when the streaming giant announced that they
09:06would be producing their own game show based on the series' success, many were skeptical.
09:10Squid Game was critiquing the dystopian competition at its center, not endorsing it.
09:15Unfortunately, it turned out that the naysayers were right to be uneasy. Although Netflix naturally
09:24denied any foul play, contestants complained of unbearably cold sets and long hours. Some even
09:29compared the filming to a war zone. These anonymous criticisms of the show's conditions completely
09:40recontextualized the show, which has more similarities to its inspiration than many fans are comfortable with.
09:50The 1950s Quiz Show Scandals
09:52Have you ever watched a game show and wondered if it may be rigged? In the 1950s, many viewers
09:56were stunned to learn that this was the reality for three major quiz shows. 21, The Big Surprise,
10:02and Dotto. The scandal began with 21, which was revealed to have scripted the loss of a contestant
10:07named Herb Stemple. He lost out on an unknown amount of potential winnings, and to add insult
10:14to injury, the final nail in his competitive coffin was an incorrect answer about one of
10:18his favorite films. On The Big Surprise, a warm-up question that contestant Dale Logue did not know
10:27the answer to is deliberately repeated for the show, while Dotto was found to be providing answers to
10:31its participants. Ryan Jenkins is suspected of murder. Megan Wants a Millionaire? I Love Money.
10:39Following Rock of Love, contestant Megan Houserman was offered another chance at love by VH1 in
10:44Megan Wants a Millionaire. Among the contestants was so-called smooth operator Ryan Jenkins,
10:50who also filmed for the third season of another dating show, I Love Money.
10:53I figure, hey, if there's any time for a Baywatch dive, it's now. During Megan Wants a Millionaire's initial
10:58broadcast, Jenkins' wife was found dead, causing the series to come to an abrupt halt. I Love Money 3
11:04never made its air. In the days after his wife's murder, Jenkins evaded police, crossing the border
11:09into Canada, and eventually taking his own life before a trial could be held. The manhunt for a
11:13reality show contestant Ryan Jenkins ended yesterday when he was found dead in a Canadian motel.
11:18Had Megan Wants a Millionaire continued, viewers would have seen him place third, proving that people
11:23are not always what they seem. You know, I've put a lot of blame on myself for it for a long time,
11:28because I knew him as a different person. Nasubi's Challenge, Susunu Denpa Shonen.
11:34Translating to Do Not Proceed, Crazy Youth, Susunu Denpa Shonen was a challenge-based game show
11:39in Japan, which became notorious for the cruelty of its competitions. In its first year on air,
11:50the series began its most controversial challenge to date, Denpa Shonen Teiki Kensho Seikatsu, in which
11:56the contestant, Nasubi, was forced to live solely on sweepstakes prizes. His condition was filmed and
12:04reported on for 15 agonizing months, all without his explicit consent, as he struggled to win basic
12:09necessities, particularly food. What was, at the time, perceived to be light entertainment was actually
12:14the broadcast torture of a human being. The death of Michael Lush, The Late Late Breakfast Show.
12:25While The Late Late Breakfast Show wasn't technically a game show, its give it a whirl
12:28segment featured many hallmarks of the reality subgenre. Viewers of the variety show would call
12:33in as a whirly wheel was spun to decide what stunt they would perform on the following week's program.
12:38This included everything from car stunts to being fired out of a cannon. It was an incredibly dangerous
12:43segment, which had already resulted in a few injuries prior to the involvement of its final
12:47contestant, Michael Lush. It certainly looked remarkably frightening from the pictures I can see.
12:51Lush was set to perform a bungee jumping stunt that also involved a straitjacket and an explosion.
12:56No professional stuntman had attempted the feat prior to Lush's first day of training,
13:00and a fatal mishap cost him his life. Because of the tragic accident involving Michael Lush
13:05while preparing for tonight's edition of The Late Late Breakfast Show,
13:08the BBC has decided to cancel this and all further additions.
13:11The Bleefnik Family, Family Feud. When you tune into an episode of Family Feud,
13:16you know you can expect some well-intentioned barbs, a few double entendres, and plenty of
13:20wide-eyed reactions from Steve Harvey. So while this response from Tim of The Bleefnik Family may not
13:25seem so out of the ordinary, the truth behind the scenes makes this moment extremely sinister.
13:30What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding? Honey, I love you, but said I do.
13:36Bleefnik was later convicted of the murder of his wife, Becky, who did not appear in the episode.
13:41Allegedly, his wife had requested a restraining order from him a year prior to her death,
13:45which was rejected by the legal system for unknown reasons.
13:48And you shot her. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 times.
13:57Tim Bleefnik was sentenced to life in prison, though he insists that he did not commit the crime.
14:01Because of that joke, so many people paid attention to his case in this trial.
14:06Edward Edwards conceals the truth. To tell the truth.
14:09Edward Edwards had already been dubbed one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives when he appeared on
14:14To Tell the Truth. In fact, this history is the entire reason he was cast on the show.
14:18I, Ed Edwards, was once on the FBI's list of the 10 most wanted criminals in America.
14:24Now I am a respected citizen in my community.
14:27His unique life experience made him the perfect candidate for the series,
14:30which saw contestants attempting to guess which of the three people was that episode's central
14:34character. Although Edward claimed to have been reformed and even wrote a book on his life as
14:38a criminal, his reformation was all a charade. The real Ed Edwards, please stand up.
14:47Between 1977 and 1996, Edwards lived as a serial killer, murdering at least five people.
14:53Looking back, it's hard to believe people let him achieve the level of fame that he did.
14:56The more trouble you get into, the bigger you are in their eyes.
14:59Bullseye helps catch a criminal. Bullseye.
15:02John Cooper's crime spree began when he was just 17. Back then,
15:05he was seen publicly intoxicated and was charged with stealing cars and assaulting police officers.
15:10He would graduate to murder in 1985 when he killed a man and woman while robbing their farmhouse
15:15in Scoveston Park. Four years later, he would participate in the game show Bullseye,
15:19a British series involving darts and trivia.
15:21No one could know that this charming Welshman was a double murderer.
15:26As his violent crime spree continued, investigators realized that a police sketch looked eerily
15:30similar to Cooper's appearance on the show and used the likeness as evidence to build the case.
15:34Following Cooper's conviction in 2011, ITV would officially vault the episode he appeared on,
15:39ensuring that viewers of the lighthearted game show weren't reminded of his grisly crimes.
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16:04The Dating Game Killer. The Dating Game.
16:06Now known as the Dating Game Killer, Rodney Alcala is notable for actually winning the
16:10episode of the Dating Game he appeared on. Luckily, the female contestant who chose him
16:14ultimately decided not to go on a date with him, because she found him creepy.
16:18Uh, can you be a little more descriptive?
16:21Peel me.
16:22We're sure she's now thankful for following her gut instinct, as Alcala would later be directly
16:27linked to eight murders, with many more considered open cases in which he was a prime suspect.
16:31The detective frantically tried to call the police department and let other detectives
16:35know that he was on television.
16:36Watching the show back today is unsettling, particularly when you consider no background
16:40check was performed on any of the show's potential bachelors.
16:43Thinking back on it, it was very spooky.
16:48Which of these stories about game show contestants do you find most puzzling?
16:51Let us know in the comments.
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