$64,000 QUESTION

What does it take to knock I Love Lucy out of the top spot? That’s the $64,000 question! Ha! (Didn’t see that one coming did you?). But it was only a matter of time before a quiz show made it big on TV. Already popular as radio’s “Take It or Leave It,” Question expanded on the idea, and the original $64 prize, with increasing winnings for the more questions a contestant gets right (sound familiar?).

Unfortunately the show’s reign would be short lived and in 1958, Question would be off the air, a casualty of the TV quiz show scandals. While Question wasn’t one of the shows accused of giving contestants the answers ahead of time, it was yanked from the schedule. For the most networks would stay away from five-figure jackpots until the 1970s.

But nature strives for balance. And the disappearance of the quiz shows would make room for television’s next big phenomenon: westerns.