The Quiz Show

I have often wondered about telegenic participants on TV shows and the possibility of the shows being rigged. Why do the participants too often seem well groomed and well rounded, always making the right noises ?. The grooming often appears to be of the instant variety and despite all the careful preparation, you can make out that it doesn't tally with other aspects of their personality that slip through.Well, I stumbled on a movie on precisely the same topic - 'The Quiz Show'(1994) directed by Robert Redford;it is based on a real story, a rigged quiz show in the the 1950s in the US. I found the movie fascinating, maybe because it confirmed some things that I have suspected :-).The Wiki entry lists some of the historical inaccuracies in the movie.

A nerdish and irritating Herbert Stempel keeps winning the quiz week after week, but the program ratings don't improve. So the network(NBC) bosses ask him to take a dive - he agrees reluctantly to lose to the sophisticated blue blood professor Van Duren (Ralph Fiennes) . The professor in turn gets coached on the answers and becomes a celebrity, ultimately making it to the cover of TIME magazine. Meanwhile Stempel,an irritating weasel who fits the character to a T, blows the whistle despite having been coached for the episodes he won. Although the network bosses have the situation under control, a very smart lawyer gets curious about the whole thing and starts investigating and he confronts Van Duren with the facts. Though Van Duren doesn't admit to it then, he forsakes his position when his conscience starts hurting by deliberately giving a wrong answer. The congressional enquiry into the scandal results in the professor confessing. All the participants are smart and well informed - yet their sense of morality seems to collapse when confronted with the prospect of instant riches and fame. Van Duren from the beginning is uncomfortable with the coaching, yet he tamely goes along with the cheating.The movie gets a little melodramatic towards the end during the congressional testimony. But it doesn't spare anyone from the network bosses to greedy middle class folks.