Did Ed McMahon work for Publishers Clearing House?

Last Updated: June 8, 2022
Ed McMahon

He didn’t! But why do so many people think this?

Many people might remember actor and comedian Ed McMahon, best known as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. And some people might remember him as the spokesperson or even the founder of Publishers Clearing House, even part of our PCH Prize Patrol! However, it’s not true. He was never employed or paid by PCH in any way. So, why do so many people think that he was? Dave Sayer from the PCH Prize Patrol is here to shed some light on the matter…

This is just an example of the Mandela effect.

The Mandela effect refers to the phenomenon when society has a common false memory — named after the fact that many people remembered South African leader Nelson Mandela passing away in the ’90s, even though he didn’t die until 2013. So why do so many people think Ed McMahon worked with the PCH Prize Patrol? It’s actually pretty understandable!

Ed McMahon worked for a competing publishers’ company.

American Family Publishers had a very similar model to Publishers Clearing House in that they sold magazine subscriptions and had sweepstakes. Ed McMahon, along with Dick Clark, were the spokespeople for AFP, who had their own big checks to give out. Many people confused AFP and PCH! Ed McMahon often appeared with big checks as a guest star in sitcoms like Roseanne and The Nanny. AFP ceased operations in 1998, so many people no longer recall that there were actually two separate companies!

Ed McMahon may not have worked for Publishers Clearing House, but our Prize Patrol is still working tirelessly to get big checks to our winners.

Looking for fun ways to collect tokens and enter PCH sweepstakes? If you take any of our 20-question quizzes at PCHquizzes, you’ll score 200 tokens for each correct answer — that’s a whopping 4,000 tokens per quiz for answering 100% correctly! You can also peruse a short, entertaining slideshow at PCHfrontpage and, if you click through to another slideshow, you’ll bank 1,000 tokens. Pretty easy, right? You’re welcome!