He used a family connection with philosopher Mortimer Adler, editor of the Great Books series, to land a job as an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Van Doren slipped into obscurity and moved to Chicago. When asked outside a courtroom what he planned to do after the legal proceedings were over, Van Doren responded, “For me it will never be over.” The judge, who could have sent them to jail for a year, said that their exposure to national scorn was punishment enough. Almost all of the quiz show producers lost their jobs and were unofficially blacklisted for years. Van Doren and nine other contestants who had appeared on one of three NBC shows - “Twenty One,” “Tic Tac Dough” and “High Low” - pleaded guilty to perjury but were given suspended sentences.