A good game show is a well-oiled, million-dollar machine, built to ensure both fun and fairness.
But with tons of cash on the line, some contestants just can't resist the urge to find a way to
beat or cheat the system and win big.
Here are a few of the biggest game show cheaters in history… or at least the ones who were
caught.
Charles Ingram
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
really wants contestants to win, since it's just good TV to see a regular Joe get rich.
Even with multiple lifelines available to contestants for especially difficult trivia
questions, that just wasn't enough for disgraced Army Major Charles Ingram, who appeared on
the British edition of the show in 2001.
According to Vice, Ingram stationed two people in the audience: his wife, Diana, and his
friend, Tecwen Whittock, both former contestants.
As he carefully read off each of the four multiple choice answers out loud, he'd listen
for a cough, which was allegedly a signal from his plants as to which answer was the
correct one.
Using this ridiculous method pioneered by cheating high school students, Ingram actually
won the million-pound grand prize.
The scheme was ultimately discovered and all three were found guilty of, quote, "procuring
the execution of a valuable security by deception," or, in simpler terms: fraud.
All three received suspended prison sentences, and were fined a combined total of 55,000
pounds… which Charles allegedly never paid.
Ingram was also stripped of his title by the Army Board, after 17 years of service.
As if that weren't enough bad karma, Charles Ingram later slipped on an apple while mowing
his lawn and cut off three of his toes.
Sorry, Charlie.
Adriana Abenia
In 2014, Spanish model Adriana Abenia appeared on Pasapalabra, Spain's version of Password.
Abenia's blatant cheating scheme occurred during a segment where she had to listen to
song clips and identify the name and performer.
The game had barely started when the host and other contestants noticed that she kept
looking at a phone she had hidden in her lap.
She'd been using the music identification app Shazam.
She was called out on it right on the show, but everyone just laughed it off.
The host, Christian Galvez, even said that she deserved a special prize for cheating
so brazenly.
A few days later, Abenia made her intentions clear, saying,
"No one told me that [I] could not cheat."
"You also have to understand that it was to help someone else.
I'm very altruistic."
Khaled El-Katateny
Millionaire Hot Seat is an Australian spinoff of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and in
2014, a cocky 19-year-old law student named Khaled El-Katateny appeared on the show and
racked up winnings of $100,000.
"Where's the cellophane?"
"Where's the cellophane?
I want the cellophane."
"What was that?"
"I want the cellophane."
"Nah, you only get that for $250,000."
After the show aired, he told the media that he cheated — sort of, saying,
"I didn't play the game — I played the man."
Huh?
According to El-Katateny, he claimed to nail correct answers to the questions not through
knowledge, but by watching the body language of host Eddie McGuire as he read off the multiple
choice possibilities, admitting,
"If you look at it, you see me working Eddie McGuire.
I'm reading every single subtle thing about his face."
He also watched the studio audience behind McGuire to see which choice made their faces
light up.
In the end, El-Katateny got to keep his money, because utilizing a poker strategy for a trivia
game technically isn't against the rules.
When asked about his plans for his "winnings," El-Katateny simply said, quote, "I didn't
win anything — I earned it."
Terry Kniess
The Price is Right seems like a difficult game show to win because it involves guessing
the, quote, "actual retail price" of items — which never seems to be anywhere near
what you'd see at an actual retail store.
So, when Terry Kniess put in a bid of $23,743 during a "Showcase Showdown" in 2008 — and
hit the prize's retail price exactly — it defied all of the odds.
How'd he do it?
"Hasn't happened since '72 or '73.
Hit it right on the nose."
Esquire's profile of Kniess revealed his secrets: the man is an analytical genius.
Kneiss has been both an expert blackjack player and an award-winningly accurate meteorologist.
"I'm Terry Kniess, you might be better off sitting at home and roasting your nuts on
an open fire than going out on the road tomorrow."
Kniess told Esquire that he and his wife recorded episodes of The Price is Right every day for
four months, then memorized the prices of all the items the show used, and frequently
reused, in the Showcase Showdown segment.
From there, it was just basic math.
It wasn't even a new strategy.
"How did you you settle on $21.40."
"I seen that on here last week and that's what it is.
I watch you every day!"
Host Drew Carey floated another theory: in the audience during the taping was Ted Slauson,
a regular Price attendee and one-time contestant, who had also amassed an encyclopedic memory
of showcase prices.
Carey and show producers seemed to think that Slauson colluded with Kniess and used hand
signals to tell him the perfect price, an allegation that both men deny.
Kniess got to keep his winnings, because despite their suspicions, the show couldn't prove
he did anything wrong...other than being real good at math.
"Get those nerds!"
"Nerds!"
"NERDSSS!"
Korilla BBQ
In 2011, the NYC-based food truck, Korilla BBQ, was eliminated from The Great Food Truck
Race, a reality show competition in which hopeful street chefs compete for a grand prize
of $50,000.
The team with the lowest sales gets eliminated, hence Korilla's desperate, if not ill-conceived
attempt at staying alive with some bogus profit.
"Unfortunately, one of you guys tried to cheat."
"It was clear you put $2,700 of your own money in the till."
The owners of the Korean-Mexican fusion truck maintained their innocence, despite a confidentiality
agreement that barred them from speaking out in too much detail.
Food Network originally only said that the team was eliminated from the show after making,
quote, "an unfortunate decision."
It wasn't until a 2016 interview with KoreanAmericanStory.org that Korilla BBQ owner, Eddie Song, finally
cleared up what really happened.
Apparently, the team decided to get creative when facing the challenge of not being able
to sell meat while competing in Memphis.
Song and his crew, quote, "formed a little partnership with one of the top Memphis-style
BBQ" joints, and ended up selling empty tortillas... and sending their customers elsewhere to get
free meat.
Ultimately, they bent the rules and got busted.
The Twenty One gang
While most game show cheats are simply over-eager rogue contestants, the scandal surrounding
the 1956 game show Twenty One involved the show's producers — and served as the basis
for the 1994 movie, Quiz Show.
According to Charles Van Doren's New Yorker account of the scandal, producers Al Freedman,
Jack Barry, and Dan Enright colluded with contestants Herb Stempel and Charles Van Doren
in some carefully choreographed high-stakes game show drama.
After around six weeks of coached-winning for Stempel, the show saw a dip in ratings,
possibly due to the unlikable nature of the quirky New York postal clerk.
Enter Charles Van Doren, a handsome English professor from Columbia University, and son
of a prominent poet.
He was similarly coached, and after some staged episodes that ended in ties, Van Doren eventually
overtook Stempel.
Both contestants walked away with a bunch of cash, and ratings were up.
Win-win, right?
Wrong.
No one believed Stempel's claims about the plague of game show fixing until a notebook
full of future quiz answers was found on the set of a completely different game show.
Stempel testified to a grand jury, which eventually led to congressional hearings, and an amendment
to the Communications Act of 1934, making it officially illegal to fix quiz shows.
It didn't much matter, because the networks were so spooked that they abruptly cancelled
many of their primetime game shows anyway.
"We're looking for nuts, now.
We're looking for nuts.
NUTS!"
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