The Big Surprise is a television quiz show broadcast in the United States by NBC from October 8, 1955, to June 9, 1956, and from September 18, 1956, to April 2, 1957. It was hastily created by NBC in response to the ratings success of The $64,000 Question, which had premiered on CBS in summer 1955 and almost instantly became a hit. The Big Surprise offered a grand prize of $100,000.
The series was originally hosted by Jack Barry through March 3, 1956, after which he was replaced by Mike Wallace for the rest of the run. Barry would return to NBC a few months after leaving The Big Surprise with his own co-creations Tic-Tac-Dough and Twenty-One.
The show was initially produced by Louis G. Cowan, Inc., who soon changed its name to Entertainment Productions in 1956 before the show was cancelled.
In late 1959, The Big Surprise was one of the shows admitted to have been controlled by its producers and staff, under the umbrella of the 1950s quiz show scandals.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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