Who Do You Trust?
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Who Do You Trust? was a fairly popular game show during the 1950s and 1960s emceed by Johnny Carson. Trust is commonly referred to as a Newlywed Game-esque game. It aired on ABC at 3:30 in the afternoon on the East Coast, a time slot which helped garner a significant number of young viewers coming home from school.
Johnny Carson's career was in serious disarray in the wake of the cancellation of his 1955-56 prime time CBS variety series The Johnny Carson Show when he became a daytime game show host. In actuality, Who Do You Trust? was fairly similar to Groucho Marx' You Bet Your Life. Announcer Ed McMahon would introduce pairs of players, nearly always a man and a woman chosen for their unique backgrounds. Carson spent more time interviewing the contestants than quizzing them. In the quiz portion, Carson would tell the male contestant the category of the upcoming question; the man would then have to decide whether to answer the question himself or "trust" the woman to do so. Three questions were played per couple, and three couples competed on each show. The questions were worth $25, $50, and $75; if two or all three couples tied in the cash winnings, they were asked a question involving a numerical answer; the couple coming closest to the correct answer moved on to the bonus game.
One major difference between Carson and Groucho was that Carson often participated in demonstrations of the contestants' interests or hobbies. On one memorable show he tried his hand at driving a miniature race car (and crashed into a wall); on another, he donned scuba gear and dived into a tank of water. Groucho, on the other hand, almost never left his desk, letting his announcer, George Fenneman, take part in the demonstrations.
As was often the case in daytime television programs of the era, including soap operas and even children's shows, all of the background music on Who Do You Trust? was supplied by a single organist.
From 1957 until the quiz-show scandals in 1959, the bonus round pitted the day's winners against the winners from the previous day. One partner from each team, usually the man, was placed in an isolation booth and asked a question with several answers. The one who got the most correct answers won $500 and the right to return the following day. After the scandals, in which Who Do You Trust? was not involved, the bonus round involved the winning couple attempting to unscramble a name or phrase in fifteen seconds.
When Carson and McMahon left to do The Tonight Show in 1962, they were replaced by comedian Woody Woodbury and announcer Bill Nimmo, who had preceded McMahon as the show's announcer. The show continued until December 27, 1963.
Who Do You Trust? was originally a CBS prime time show titled Do You Trust Your Wife? and emceed by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. That version lasted from January 1956 to March 1957. When it returned as a daytime show on ABC in September 1957 it kept the original title, adopting the more familiar title in July 1958.
In April 2007 CBS announced plans for a semi-revival of this show, titled Do You Trust Me?, with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson as host. The format is designed to test how well total strangers work together (see Mediaweek for the week of April 16, 2007).
