Twenty-One is an American game show originally hosted by Jack Barry that initially aired on NBC from September 12, 1956 to October 16, 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. The 1994 film Quiz Show is based on these events. A new version of the show aired on NBC and PAX from January 9 to May 28, 2000 with Maury Povich as host.
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.
The winner of the game received $500 for each point of the margin of victory (e.g., a 21–15 win paid $3,000). Whenever a game ended in a tie, the stakes were raised by $500 per point and a new game was played. After each victory, the champion could choose to leave the show with all winnings earned up to that point or to play again, basing the decision on a small amount of information about the next challenger. Leaving after a tie game was not permitted. If the champion was defeated, the winnings of the victorious challenger were deducted from their total. Contestants stayed on the show until they either chose to leave or were defeated.
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.A mistake occurred during an early episode wherein Povich informed the second contestant that his opponent had lost and that all he had to do now was answer a single question to win the game. The contestant promptly requested and successfully answered a 1-point question (the easiest question possible), accompanied by the applause of the audience and a clear expression of chagrin and horror on Povich's face as he realized the mistake he had made (as he was not supposed to say anything until after the question choice was made). Immediately after a commercial break, Povich acknowledged his mistake in revealing to the contestant that his opponent had already lost, but explained that the only effect had been essentially to give a "gift" to that contestant since his opponent had already lost the game and was not affected by the mistake.
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. In 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.
Payoff Losing challengers received $1,000 as a consolation prize. Rather than receiving a dollar value multiplied by the point difference after winning each game, champions received progressively larger amounts for each opponent defeated. Game numberPrizeJanuary 2000February–May 2000 1 $100,000 $25,000 2 $200,000 $50,000 3 $300,000 $100,000 4 $400,000 $250,000 5N/A$500,0006$750,0007$1,000,000
All amounts are cumulative; in the first playout structure, winning four games would be worth $1,000,000. After winning a fourth game, the contestant started the chain again at $100,000 for defeating a fifth opponent, $200,000 for defeating a sixth, and so on. After a few early episodes, the number of matches required to win $1,000,000 increased; winning seven games would now be worth at least $2,675,000. As before, any contestant who defeated a seventh opponent started from the beginning of the chain.
When the new prize structure was adopted, the returning champion had won one game and $100,000 in his appearance on the final show under the old one. Instead of being "grandfathered" under that structure, he played and won his second game for $250,000 (the next amount after $100,000), and played but lost his third game for $500,000.
Under both prize structures, champions remained on the show until being defeated, as in the original version. However, unlike the original show, new champions' winnings were not deducted from the totals of dethroned ones.
Contestant selection During the first six episodes, the audience chooses the winner's next opponent. The audience would be presented with two potential challengers to face the current champion, and the audience would vote for an opponent using keypads. The person who received the higher vote played against the champion; the other person would be one of the two potential challengers to be voted upon for the next game. In the first episode, there were three potential opponents to face the champion. After the sixth episode, the process was changed to a random selection. At the beginning of the show, six potential challengers would be introduced and would be selected randomly from that group for each new game. People who had not been selected by the end of the show were not guaranteed to return on the following show, although some did appear on the show multiple times before being selected to play.
Bonus round: Perfect 21 The champion was asked a maximum of six true/false questions in a single category, starting at one point and increasing by one per question, to a maximum value of six. After any correct answer, the champion could stop playing and receive $10,000 per point; an incorrect answer ended the round and forfeited this money. Correctly answering all six questions won the top prize of $210,000.
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."Twenty-One' Quiz Dropped by N.B.C.— TV Show Under Scrutiny of Grand Jury Here Will Be Replaced by Sponsor", by Val Adams, The New York Times, October 17, 1958, p. 58 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.