…Minus 081 and COUNTING… Richards stood in the wings with a c

Richards waits in the wings at 6:01 with a policeman on each side while Bobby Thompson introduces him to the studio audience. Although Richards mocks himself for feeling nervous, he cannot dismiss the fear as the show turns him into a public target.

The broadcast displays a retouched image of Richards taken by hidden camera, altering his face into a brutal, threatening caricature meant to frighten viewers. Thompson announces Richards's name, age, and the rewards for reporting or helping kill him, making clear that the Network is shaping both his image and the public's hunger for his death.

The show then displays a doctored still of Sheila, transforming Richards's wife into a degrading, sexualized caricature. Enraged, Richards lunges forward and threatens whoever altered the picture, but the policemen restrain him and drag him onto the stage.

Onstage, the audience greets Richards with furious abuse and demands for his death. Richards understands that his anger and defiance are exactly what the producers want, yet he cannot control them; he denounces the crowd and tries to expose the false image of Sheila, but the audience's screams drown him out.

Thompson presses Richards to predict how long he will survive. Richards declares that he expects to last the full thirty days because the Network has no one who can take him. Thompson turns the moment into a final rallying cry for viewers to report Richards wherever he appears, and Richards responds by giving the audience both fingers before being hurried offstage to avoid an on-camera mob attack.