Twenty One

Gameplay

Two contestants, typically a returning champion and a challenger, entered separate isolation booths and donned pairs of headphones. The arrangement of the booths and the studio lighting prevented the contestants from seeing or hearing each other or the audience. At any given moment during the game, one booth would be "open", meaning that the occupant could hear the host in the headphones and could speak using the booth's microphone. 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 to prevent him or her from learning the outcome of the opponent's turn.

The game was played in rounds, with Barry announcing the category for each round as it was dispensed from a machine on his podium; there were over 100 possible categories. The challenger played first in each round, with their booth open and the champion's closed, and selected a point value from 1 to 11. Higher-value questions were more difficult, and questions often had several parts. If the challenger answered correctly, the points were added to their score; a miss subtracted the points, but the score could never go below zero. The challenger's booth was then closed and the champion's opened so that the champion could take a turn. Barry would not tell either contestant about the other's score or performance.

The goal was to earn a total of 21 points. If the challenger reached this score first, their booth was left open to hear the champion's turn, but the challenger would be cautioned not to speak or give away any information. Barry would not tell the champion that the challenger had already reached 21 unless the champion asked for a question that would tie the score if answered correctly. If the champion failed to match that score, the challenger won. The champion won by reaching 21 first on their turn. If a round ended in a 21–21 tie, the scores were erased and a new game was played. Contestants were given extra time to think about any question that would bring them up to 21.

After two rounds, both booths were opened and the contestants were given a chance to stop the game. If either asked to do so, the contestant in the lead would be declared the winner. The game was automatically stopped after five rounds.

2000 version

Questions were still worth 1 to 11 points, but all main-game questions were multiple-choice, with no multiple-part questions. Questions worth six or fewer points had one correct answer out of three choices. Questions worth seven to ten points had one correct answer out of four choices; for ten-point questions, "all/none of the above" was an option. Questions worth 11 points had two correct answers out of five, and both were required. As with the original series, host Povich did not tell either contestant about the other's score or performance.

Incorrect answers no longer deducted points from a contestant's score. Instead, contestants received a strike for each incorrect response (or for failing to provide both correct responses on the 11-point questions); accumulating three strikes resulted in an automatic loss. This rule change meant that games could end without a winner, as the rounds were played to completion. If one contestant had struck out on their turn and the second contestant had two strikes the latter could also lose the game on an incorrect answer. However, a contestant did not know how an opponent had struck out unless explicitly told so by the host.

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. An incorrect response on a Second Chance penalized the contestant with two strikes instead of one. If the challenger struck out, and the champion had either one or two strikes and had not yet used their Second Chance, the round was played to completion because the champion could still strike out. n the event of a challenger's strikeout, the champion automatically won if that player had no strikes, or had one strike and had already used the Second Chance.

Games were still played to a maximum of five rounds, and beginning with the second episode, contestants had the option to stop the game after the second round if neither contestant had reached 21. If time ran out during a game and at least two complete rounds had been played, the contestant in the lead was declared the winner and advanced to the Perfect 21 bonus round at the beginning of the next episode.

Unlike the 1950s version, if the game ended in a tie, no new game was played. Instead, the contestants would be asked one question, and the first to ring in could answer. A correct response won the game and the opportunity to play the bonus round; an incorrect answer gave the opponent a chance to respond. If both contestants missed the question, a new one was asked, with play continuing until a winner was determined.

Big winners

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.

David Legler won $1,765,000 over six wins with the new payout structure, and was the top winner in American game show history until 2001; as of 2025, he is the 12th-highest winner.

Broadcast history

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. The series finished at #21 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1957–1958 season. In 1958, Elfrida von Nardroff won $220,500 on the game show Twenty-One, more money than any other contestant on the show. After starting the 1958–59 season with an 8:30 Thursday night time slot, Twenty-One ran on October 2 and on October 9 before being abruptly canceled. An announcement broadcast a few hours before the scheduled October 16 program informed viewers that it would not be seen. A spokesman for Pharmaceuticals said, "Twenty-One was dropped because of a decline in ratings. We must admit that the investigation had something to do with this decline," after the October 9 show had the lowest rating in its history. 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 revived the show in 2000 with talk show host Maury Povich as host, featuring a live orchestra, after ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, FOX's Greed, and CBS' Winning Lines proved that big-money game shows had once again become viable prime-time network fare. NBC aired first-run episodes through the end of May sweeps, after which the network declined to renew the series.

Scandal

The initial broadcast of Twenty-One was played honestly, with no manipulation of the game by the producers. That broadcast was, in the words of Enright, "a dismal failure"; the first two contestants were not successful at answering questions. Show sponsor Geritol, upon seeing this opening-night performance, reportedly became furious with the results and demanded improvements.

As a result, Twenty-One became not only rigged, but almost completely choreographed as well. Contestants were cast almost as if they were actors, and in fact were active and (usually) willing partners in the deception. They were given instructions as to how to dress, what to say to the host and when, which questions to answer correctly or miss, and even when to mop their brows. The producers could shut off the air conditioning to either booth in order to make the contestants sweat more, making them appear to be under great stress.

College professor Charles Van Doren (1926–2019) was introduced as a contestant on Twenty-One on November 28, 1956, as a challenger to champion Herbert Stempel (1926–2020), a dominant contestant who had become somewhat unpopular with viewers and eventually the sponsor. Van Doren and Stempel played a series of four 21–21 games, with audience interest building with each passing week and each new game, until Van Doren eventually prevailed.

The film Quiz Show depicts the turning point as a question for Stempel, asking him to name the film that won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture for 1955. Stempel knew the correct answer to be Marty, as it was one of his favorite films. The producers ordered him to answer the question with 1954's Best Motion Picture winner, On the Waterfront.

Stempel later recalled that there was a moment in the booth when his conscience and sense of fair play warred with his sense of obligation. He almost disrupted the scripted outcome by giving the correct answer. 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. Stempel was finally defeated in the next game. The surviving kinescope of the broadcast shows Stempel failing to come up with the title of William Allen White's August 15, 1896 editorial in the Emporia Gazette titled "What's the Matter with Kansas?" After the missed question, Van Doren quit with 18 points, which was enough to win. 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.

1982 pilot

An unsold pilot was made in 1982 with Jim Lange as host and Charlie O'Donnell announcing, but it was not picked up. In the pilot, a bonus round was introduced, which consisted of a flashing display showing random numbers between 1 and 11. The contestant would decide whether he or she wanted the number or preferred that the computer take it, with the object of the game to either score 21 exactly first (or be closest to 21 without going over), or get the computer to bust by going over 21. Once the computer hit 17 or more, its score froze for the rest of the game, but this rule did not apply to the contestant. The bonus-round prize was $2,000 and a trip.

Licensed merchandise

A board game based on the original 1956–1958 version was released by Lowell in 1957.

A paperback quiz book featuring 1–11 point questions in each of the 45 categories was released by Pyramid in 1958.

International versions

Twenty-One is one of only three Barry & Enright game shows known to have foreign adaptations, the others being Tic-Tac-Dough and Concentration.

Episode status

Thirty-two episodes are held by the Library of Congress. The episode on which Van Doren defeated Stempel was released as part of a retail home-video compilation featuring other game-show episodes.