Charles Van Doren, central figure in 1950s quiz show scandal, dies at 93

Charles Van Doren, one of the first intellectual stars of the television era as a contestant on the NBC show "Twenty One," who quickly became the country's leading villain after admitting that his winning streak on the popular game show had been rigged, died Tuesday. He was 93.

As many as 50 million Americans tuned in to watch who they thought were ordinary people hitting it big on the show. But in fact "Twenty One" had been scripted down to the dramatic pauses and theatrical stutters as Van Doren "struggled" to recall the answers that producers had fed him beforehand.

In a 90-minute confession before a congressional committee, the charismatic Van Doren - whose popularity in the late 1950s had been compared to Elvis Presley's - admitted, "I have deceived my friends, and I had millions of them."

The fallout was nothing short of a morality play acted out on a national stage.

President Dwight Eisenhower called the deception "a terrible thing to do to the American public." The writer John Steinbeck raged against "the cynical immorality of my country." Editorial writers wondered about the