Quiz Show

The Next Reel Film Podcast · Feb 26, 2026 · 1h · transcript

“We’re gonna put television on trial.”

A celebrated academic steps into a television booth and discovers how easy it is to compromise. We continue the True Lies series with "Quiz Show," Robert Redford's examination of the 1950s scandal when NBC's Twenty-One was exposed for feeding contestants answers. The film captures a moment when quiz shows were pitched as inspiring educational programming while sponsors and executives rigged outcomes behind the scenes. Charles Van Doren came from an intellectual family, making his involvement particularly devastating when a lawyer begins investigating the…