AS A nation of game show lovers, we are often rooting for the players on screen and wanting them to walk with the grand prize.
But family-friendly shows including The Chase and Bullseye have thrown up some jaw-dropping controversies behind the scenes.
This week, a row broke out over a contestant on The 1% Club who was accused of cheating after viewers claimed to have spotted a “secret signal.”
Jason Duckett and wife Rowena were appearing on the show when host Lee Mack asked the question: “To which body part can you add one letter at the start to make it the word for the job is does?”
The correct answer was “ear” and “hear” — and Jason was then spotted rubbing both lobes.
He later laughed off the claims, pointing out that both he and Rowena were out at this stage, adding “There was nothing to gain for either of us.”
But the claims begin to pale into insignificance next to some of the scandals which have rocked game shows in the past.
From the Bullseye serial killer to a £53k fraudster and a fugitive on the run when he appeared on TV, here are the most bizarre game show controversies.
Stole from the dead
In 2022, it was reported that a former winner of The Chase made away with more than £53,000 from the accounts of dead people.
Daniel Hodgin, 48, who appeared on the popular show in 2017 and was a banker at Halifax, went on a stealing spree after “living beyond his means” and finding himself in debt, according to a judge.
He also duplicated a payment for funeral expenses to give himself £4,500.
Hodgin had appeared on The Chase in 2017 where he won a share of a £14,000 prize.
In November 2022, he was handed a 20 month sentence suspended for 20 months at Preston Crown Court.
Dating game killer
In 1978, Rodney Alcala appeared on the US dating show The Dating Game as Bachelor No1, with the host describing him as a successful photographer.
He competed with two other bachelors for a date with contestant Cheryl Bradshaw – Alcala eventually won but she refused to go on a date, saying she found him creepy.
The following year, he was arrested and convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl on her way to a ballet class.
Alcala later confessed to at least eight more murders and was a suspect in many more from 1968 to 1979.
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The serial killer and sex offender was sentenced to death but died in 2021 aged 77 of natural causes while incarcerated.
Fugitive who faked wife’s death
Under the name Patrick Quinn, a convicted felon and fugitive was able to win a staggering $58,000 over four days on US show Super Password.
It turned out that his name was actually Kerry Dee Ketchum and he was wanted in three different states after faking his wife’s death to claim a $100,000 insurance policy.
An investigation into Ketchum was launched when a viewer recognised him on the show and informed the authorities.
When he showed up to collect his prize money, he was arrested and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison.
‘Cheated’ out of £700k
When Gabe Okoye and his girlfriend Britanny Mayti appeared on the US version of Million Pound Drop, they had $880,000 (£700,000) in the bank after a string of correct answers.
But they lost it all on a question asking whether the Sony Walkman or Post-it notes were sold in stores first.
Gabe said the latter, which producers insisted was incorrect – to the outrage of viewers who knew that he had actually given the correct answer.
Although the show’s executive producers said the couple would be invited back for a chance to win back their money, the show was cancelled before they could return.
Bullseye killer
When he appeared on the popular game show Bullseye, in 1989, John Cooper had already murdered siblings Richard and Helen Thomas, four years earlier.
The same year as the show he also murdered elderly couple Peter and Gwenda Dixon in a spree which became known as the “Pembrokeshire Murders”.
But his appearance on the show, in May 1989, was later used as evidence against him, as witnesses were able to compare his image with a sketch of a suspect in the Dixons’ murder.
In May 2011, he was convicted of all four murders as well as the rape of a 16-year-old girl and the sexual assault of a 15-year-old and was sentenced to life.
Cheating Major scandal
IN 2001, Charles Ingram was stripped of his £1million Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Prize after a coughing scandal emerged.
During his stint on the show, Ingram answered 15 questions correctly and as a result scooped the £1million prize jackpot – but was found to have cheated in a sensational coughing scandal involving a member of the audience.
Suspicions were immediately sparked – and the cheque was taken from him as he left the studio.
Following a backstage row with his wife, which alerted the production team to the couple’s unusual behaviour they began trawling through the tapes.
They discovered a pattern of coughing which came from the audience – where fellow contestant Tecwen Whittock was sitting.
Major Charles and his wife Diana went on trial for fraud in 2003 and were both given an 18 month prison sentence suspended for two years, while Whittock received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.
£1.2m fine
Gameshow Marathon was broadcast on ITV for two seasons from 2005 and hosted by Ant & Dec and Vernon Kay.
It came under intense criticism when it was determined that producers had adopted an unfair method of picking winners for its Prize Mountain segment.
They were being chosen based on their suitability to be “lively” on-screen and were not selected at random like the show’s terms and conditions stated.
Ofcom’s investigation concluded that contestants who “sounded ‘lively’ and whose geographical locations were relatively proximate, so that they could be visited at the same time” were favoured.
Eventually, the regulator fined broadcaster LWT an astonishing £1.2million for the breach.
Uk game shows' biggest winners
- In 2012, carpenter Graham Fletcher, then 32, pocketed Britain’s biggest ever cash prize on British TV of a staggering £1.5m.The carpenter from Berkshire, won the cash on the spin of a giant roulette wheel on ITV game show Red or Black?
- Professional poker player Ian Woodley scooped £1m on Christmas Eve, 1999 when he appeared on the Someone’s Going to be a Millionaire section of Chris Evans’ Channel 4 TV show TFI Friday.
- Sarah Lang, a housewife from Newport, Wales, won £1,033,100 as the first champion on PokerFace, hosted by Ant and Dec, in 2006.The internet trivia quiz fan also won £32,000 when she appeared on the National Lottery programme In It to Win It in 2005.
- Clare Barwick, from Worthing, West Sussex was 35 when she became the first person to win £1m on a British quiz show, in December 1999, when she appeared Chris Evans’ Virgin Radio Show.
- In 2000, Judith Keppel became the first person to win the million-pound cash prize on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
Fictitious winners
In 2007, Channel 5 was hit with a £300,000 fine when it was discovered that its show BrainTeaser had announced faked names as winners on three occasions.
In two other instances, production staff had even posed as winners.
The scandal came after a string of controversies surrounding shows in which viewers were urged to call in to win prizes.
According to the channel, the winners were faked because it “had failed to find a winner within the time available and therefore wanted to bring the competition to a close.”
The scandal led to the cancellation of the show after five years.
Benefit fraud
Caroline Banana, a previous winner of Deal or No Deal, admitted to six counts of benefit fraud in 2011.
Although she won £95,000 on the show, she failed to declare it in official forms and continued to claim income support, housing benefit, and council tax benefit.
The mum from Staffordshire at the time, was sentenced to do 215 hours of unpaid work by a judge.
She was also ordered to hand over money to the Department for Work and Pensions and Stoke City Council after being overpaid around £7,200.