Herb Stempel - Twenty One

In 1956, after tuning in to a new program, Twenty One, he was intrigued by the questions and wrote to Dan Enright, the show's producer, asking to be a contestant. The qualifying trivia test took a grueling three-and-a-half hours; Stempel got 251 out of 363 questions right, which he claims is the highest score ever achieved.

At a time when the top five highest rated programs on television were quiz shows, Twenty-One was a mainstay for Barry & Enright Productions and the network.

It was the most impactful show we've ever had. The show went on the air in 1956 and we felt that it had such great quality and content to it that we would not have to rig it. In fact, the first show of Twenty-One was not rigged and the first show of Twenty One was a dismal failure. It was just plain dull. It lacked all drama, it lacked all suspense. And next morning, the sponsor called my partner, Jack Barry, and me and told us in no uncertain terms that he never wanted to see a repeat of what happened the previous night. And from that moment on, we decided to rig Twenty-One. —Dan Enright

Twenty One took the ultimate step in quiz-show rigging. Cast as though they were actors, every detail carefully orchestrated, the contestants were now partners in the deception.