If you’re given the once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a game show, how far would you actually go
to outwit, outplay and outlast the competition? And if you’re the gamemaster, how far are you
willing to bend the rules for contestants who make just the teeniest, tiniest mistake? Before
we start any Family Feud, let’s find the Weakest Link among these 11 Worst Game Show Scandals!
What's up, fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the most outrageous,
outlandish, and out-of-this-world fun facts! Stay tuned ‘til our number one pick because
he’s one of the biggest game show winners of all time! But whether he actually deserved to win big
is a whole ‘nother story. Let’s spin that wheel!
#11: The One That Got Away The Moment of Truth is a short-lived
American game show that’s main goal is to ruin families, friendships and marriages. Because
hello, that makes for great TV! Imagine being hooked up on a lie
detector machine and having to answer some deeply personal questions in front of your
family and friends! Be 100% completely honest, and you go home with 500 grand! In exchange for
every single ounce of your dignity. Deep, dark secrets are the bread
and butter of this game show, and luckily, contestant Lauren Cleri has plenty of them.
Host: Since You’ve been married, have you ever pretended to be asleep
in order to avoid having sex with your husband? Lauren: Pretended to be asleep,
pretended to have a headache, so yes. Host: Do you believe you might have been in love
with a former boyfriend on your wedding day? Lauren: Yes, I believe I was.
Wow, these questions really go for the jugular! And of course, the 100,000-dollar question comes
from none other than… the ex-boyfriend! Ex-boyfriend: Do you believe
I’m the man you should be married to? Lauren: I wanna be honest, and say yes.
Wow, she really did spill the tea… right in front of her husband!
Where can you find reruns of this show? Asking for a friend.
Our top pick managed to crack the code on a classic game show,
but was he actually a genius or a cheat? You be the judge.
#10: What’s the T?
Let’s see if you can answer this question from a 2013 episode of Kids’ Jeopardy.
Uh, I think I skipped history class that day when it was discussed.
But not eight-grader Thomas Hurley III! He knew exactly what the answer was. Show it to them,
kiddo! Ugh,
but when did Jeopardy become a Spelling Bee? Aww, shucks. Just look at the poor boy’s face at the
end for the show. No wonder this incident has been dubbed the saddest moment in Jeopardy history!
However, despite the backlash the incident received, the production team
stood by its decision. And regardless,
Alex Trebek will forever be the best game show host in my book. Rest in Power, Mr. Trebek!
#9: Miss Pronounced In 2012, Wheel of Fortune contestant
Renee Durette was on the brink of bringing home the bacon, after guessing the Christmas-themed
puzzle on the board correctly. But host Pat Sajak wasn’t quite
ready to declare her the winner just yet… And it’s all because of how Renee pronounces
“swimming,” that caused the Navy officer almost 4 grand!
Twitter didn’t take the incident lightly, and fans accused the show of being discriminatory
towards Southerners and their accent. Renee: I think regionally, everybody
has a little bit of their own. You know someone from New England is definitely
gonna have a different type of speech than I do. But surprisingly, Durette herself was pretty chill
about the whole thing, and he was #TeamSajak. Renee: You could tell on his face that he felt
bad, but you know, it wasn’t his decision, it was the judges, and that’s fine.
Perhaps it’s the fact that she still walked away
with 8,200 dollars that cushioned the blow. Still. Justice for Renee!
#8: You’re Fired! In this day and age, it’s amazing
how women are still used as eye candy in some game shows. Perhaps sex will always sell, no matter how
#woke the world claims to be. But being a woman isn’t just about showing some skin, people!
Since 2002, Brandi Cochran had served as a game show model for The Price is Right. But in 2008,
she claimed to be unjustly axed from the show after getting pregnant and suffered a miscarriage!
Brandi: My fear was losing my job if got pregnant. And that’s ultimately what happened.
She claims she also received a lot of hurtful comments while she was pregnant
and her baby bump was starting to show. Brandi: I was told I was breaking the
set because I was packing a lot of extra weight.
However, the production company said that her dismissal was not due to her condition,
but because they needed models more suitable for new host Drew Carey’s impromptu style.
In 2010, Cochran filed a lawsuit against the show’s producers. She won the case in
2012 and was supposed to collect $7.7 million in damages, but in 2013, the decision was overturned.
#7: The Body Language Expert
When contestants don’t know the answers to the game show questions,
most of them would take an educated guess. But not this one! He has a different strategy altogether.
In 2014, law student Khaled El-Katateny appeared in the Australian version of Millionaire Hot Seat.
And while he seemed to be struggling all throughout the game and despite
claiming to not know all the right answers… Khaled: Well, I have no idea, and if you
wanna know my thought process, it was like, I haven’t done D in a while so I’ll choose it.
The dude still ended up winning a hundred grand! So what’s his secret? Khaled revealed later on
that he read the body language and facial expressions of host,
Eddie McGuire! Well, technically he didn’t cheat so the show let him keep his prize.
#6: Most Wanted Contestant
Now let’s take a trip down memory lane and reminisce the time when a certain Patrick Quinn
became the largest one-game winner in the history of the classic game show called
Super Password. But mind you, that’s not the only reason for his 15 minutes of fame.
As Patrick was about to pick up his check on January of 1988, days after winning on the show,
instead of the prize money, he was awarded with handcuffs on his wrists!
It turns out that Patrick Quinn was a fake name, and he was immediately identified as
Kerry Dee Ketchem, a fugitive wanted in three states for fraud cases!
This includes faking his wife’s death to collect a 100,000-dollar insurance policy!
As to why a criminal hiding from authorities would decide to expose himself on national
TV is anybody’s guess. Perhaps he was hoping to win some bail money?
#5: Flip-Flop Fail There’s only one golden rule
in any game show. Follow the darn rules! Hosts go through the boring motions
of explaining the mechanics as if they’re talking to a 3-year-old so
that the contestant understands clearly. But this Price is Right contestant named
Breton was too laser-focused on the prize to listen carefully to host Bob Barker.
But what’s the prize at stake anyway? This brand new digital piano!
Wait, what? That’s what a digital piano looked like back in the day?
Anywho, so our boy Breton steps up to the plate to play Flip-Flop.
But what he does next proved to be a bigger flop than the game itself.
Uh… that wasn’t in the instruction, bruh. I don’t blame Bob for walking out at all.
But being the generous soul that he is, he still awarded the prize to not-so-bright Breton
in the end! Because, you know, he might not have a brain but at least he has a digital piano.
#4: One in a Million
That’s probably the odds of guessing the exact amount in the game show The Price is Right.
And that one-in-a-million moment happened in September of 2008,
when contestant Terry Kniess tried to guess the price of the entire showcase which included…
A new karaoke system, a pool table, and a brand-new trailer!
Models not included of course. Terry’s winning bid?
Terry: 23,743. Drew: 23,743 dollars, wow.
And when host Drew Carey finally revealed the correct answer…
Apparently, Terry and his wife Linda had studied the show for months. He used his
knowledge to estimate the 23 grand. For the last three digits, he used his wedding date,
April 7, and his wife’s birth month of March, resulting in the numbers 7-4-3.
And that’s the 4-1-1 on his incredible stroke of luck.
#3: Wronging a Right What happens when the
contestants prove to be smarter than the game show runners? Let’s find out.
During an episode of Million Dollar Money Drop in 2010, husband and wife
Gabe Okoye and Britanny Mayi were asked… Host: Which of these was sold in stores first?
Host: A) Macintosh computer B) Sony Walkman, and C) Post-Its
After a lot of back-and-forths that almost ruined the couple’s relationship…
It was time to reveal the answer. Cue ridiculously loud suspense music.
The mistake cost them a cool 800 grand, but wait, did they really choose the wrong answer?
Some websites did some digging and through the power of Google, they learned that Post-its
were test-marketed by 3M in 1977, 2 years before the Walkman went on sale in Japan!
However, producers of the show stood by their decision, claiming that 3M itself confirmed
that Post-it notes were only given out for free in 1977, and were not sold until 1980.
Because of the confusion, the showrunners invited the couple back for a do-over.
But unfortunately, the show got cancelled even before the couple got a second chance.
#2: A Sick Move These days, it’s hard to imagine
a coughing fit in a public place not triggering a major panic attack. But pre-pandemic, a little
cough here and never bothered anyone around you. It surely didn’t bother audience members back in
April 2003, when former British army major Charles Ingram was in the hot seat of UK’s
“Who Want To Be a Millionaire?” For some strange reason,
his wife Diana and another contestant named Tecwin Whittock sounded like they were under the weather
in the middle of the game. I say “sounded” because just listen to all the coughing! Ugh!
Strangely enough, Charles would lock in an answer after the coughing.
During one of the questions, His wife Diana was even caught on cam doing the deed!
Which led to Charles suddenly changing his answer at the 11th hour!
And when it was time for the million-pound question, Charles took his sweet time
going through each of the choices. Charles: I think it’s a nanomole.
But it could be a gigabit I don’t think it’s a Megatron. I don’t think I’ve heard of a Googol.
Whoops! There it is! And the coughing fit grew louder and louder as Charles makes a decision.
When the correct answer was revealed…
Charles went home a million pounds richer! Or so he thought.
After the show, the production team was tipped off of a possible cheating incident.
An investigation ensued, the tapes were played back and it was confirmed that Charles,
Diana and Tecwin were all involved in the million-pound deception.
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#1: Gaming the System On May 18, 1984, Michael Larson became famous
when he won 110,237 dollars in cold cash in the CBS game show, Press Your Luck. That’s the biggest
single-day winnings in any game show at the time! The gameplay was simple. Answer a trivia question
correctly, and get a chance to hit the buzzer. The contestant wins whatever is on the illuminated
box. For some odd reason, whenever Michael pushed his button, he ended up in a high-ticket square!
But before you dismiss him as some wise-ass cheat, Charles actually found a way to game
the system by studying the show for six months, and recognizing some sequences
by which the squares lit up. So all he needed to do was press the buzzer
at the right time! That’s why he celebrated just a fraction of a second before each spin ends!
After investigations, the production team couldn’t find any evidence of cheating,
so they had no choice but give Larson his well-deserved prize pool. Unfortunately,
Charles quickly lost the money to investment schemes and
dubious business deals. I guess he’s not the smartest kid on the block after all.
So, which of these game show scandals shocked you the most?
Let us know in the comments section below! Take home any of our exclusive gear by browsing
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Wanna know more people who were too cunning for their own good?
Then don’t miss our roundup of the 10 Fake Beggars Who Were Finally Exposed!
‘Til then, stay clever, fact-natics! And see you in the next video!