Quiz Scandal (Contd.)

"When I started reading about the expose of quiz shows," said former Twenty One Contestant James Snodgrass. "I was hoping I'd be the forgotten man." But the New York County District Attorney's office remembered Artist Snodgrass for his moment of fame in Twenty One's low-income brackets (he won $4,000). His testimony, as reported by the New York Post, added up to one word: fraud. Like Contestant Herb Stempel before him (TIME, Sept. 8), said Snodgrass, he was given answers in advance, was eventually told when to lose gracefully to Research Consultant Hank Bloomgarden (who went on to win $98,500). An employee of the show, said Snodgrass who refused to identify the culprit, coached him in the proper gestures of hesitation in the isolation booth, paid to have his teeth cleaned for the bright TV lights and later begged him not to squeal.

Once, Snodgrass doublecrossed his collaborators by answering a question correctly when he was scheduled to goof. And at least three times before he eventually lost as requested, he wrote himself registered letters spelling out his questions and answers in advance of his appearance on the show. Turned over to the district attorney last week, those letters, says Snodgrass, will prove to a grand jury that he and someone on Twenty One were involved in a fix. "Surprised" by Artist Snodgrass' testimony. NBC officials faced up to the fact that the quiz scandal has not died and promised "to launch a prompt and thorough investigation of the charges."

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