Twenty-One is an American game show originally hosted by Jack Barry that initially aired on NBC from 1956 to 1958.

Produced by Jack Barry-Dan Enright Productions, the show featured two contestants playing against each other in separate isolation booths, answering general-knowledge questions to earn 21 total points.

The program became notorious when it was found to be rigged as part of the 1950s quiz show scandals, which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations.

Two contestants, typically a returning champion and a challenger, entered separate isolation booths and donned pairs of headphones.

The other booth would be "closed", with its microphone disabled and the headphones playing music to prevent the contestant from hearing the game.

After each question, sounds of laughter and applause were played through the headphones of the contestant in the closed booth in order to prevent him or her from learning the outcome of the opponent's turn.

Champions could choose to leave the show with the winnings earned up to that point or to play again, basing the decision on a small amount of information about the next challenger.

[1] Each contestant could call for a "Second Chance" once per game, allowing an opportunity to receive help from a friend or family member before answering.

If correct, he or she won the game and went on to play the bonus round; an incorrect answer gave the opponent a chance to respond.

When the rules changed, the returning champion had won one game and $100,000 in his appearance on the final show under the old prize structure.

Under the first payoff structure, Rahim Oberholtzer was the biggest winner, collecting $1,120,000 (at the time, the all-time game show winnings record) over four victories, three of which were the result of his opponents having struck out.

Twenty-One was originally conceived by host Jack Barry and producing partner Dan Enright as a weekly half-hour program for CBS' 1956–1957 schedule.

The show was ultimately picked up by NBC and ran from September 12, 1956, to October 9, 1958, under the sponsorship of Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the makers of Geritol.

[5] A prime-time version of Concentration was introduced in the 8:30 time slot on October 30, with Barry as the host and Pharmaceuticals' Geritol as the sponsor.

NBC aired first-run episodes through the end of May sweeps, after which the network declined to renew the series.

Show sponsor Geritol, upon seeing this opening-night performance, reportedly became furious with the results and demanded improvements.

Stempel answered incorrectly as he was instructed, but redeemed himself by staying in the game and earning enough points to tie Van Doren's score, unlike the depiction of events in Quiz Show.

Van Doren's victory began one of the longest and most storied runs of any champion in the history of television game shows.

His popularity soared as a result of his success, earning him a place on the cover of Time magazine and even a regular feature spot on NBC's Today show; at one point, the program even surpassed CBS' I Love Lucy in the ratings.

He was finally unseated as champion by Vivienne Wax Nearing (1926–2007) on March 11, 1957, after having won a total of $129,000 (the equivalent of $1,399,436 today).

[dubious – discuss] In the meantime, Stempel, disgruntled over being ordered to lose, attempted to blow the whistle on Twenty-One, even going so far as to have a federal investigator look into the show.

While a congressional investigation did affect Twenty-One during this period, the much larger ongoing investigation was the HUAC hearings into possible communists in entertainment; the show's director, Charles S. Dubin, was fired by NBC in June 1958 after he refused to answer whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA.

Stone said in his book Prime Time and Misdemeanors that question writer Glorianne Rader was instructed by Dan Enright and associate producer Albert Freedman, who had chosen the categories for the next broadcast earlier in the week, to place the questions in Barry's dispensing machine a few minutes before airtime; this was done to avoid any slip-ups in the planned outcome.

Stone contacted former Twenty-One contestants, including Richard Jackman, who confessed to the fixing of the show.

[6] Three days after Jackman's confession,[6] and without advance public warning, Twenty-One was canceled after its broadcast of October 17, 1958, amid plummeting ratings.

Barry did not host another national TV show for more than a decade, and Enright moved to Canada to continue his production career.

The scandal also caused the Federal Communications Commission to mandate the sale of Barry-Enright's radio station in Hollywood, Florida, WGMA (now WLQY).

During his tenure as head of Mutual, Little hired Larry King to host an all-night phone-in talk show Little had created.

In the pilot, a bonus round was introduced, which consisted of a flashing display showing random numbers between 1 and 11.