Lori Loughlin's YouTube star daughter is at the center of a second 'cheating' episode over allegations that a TV game show she took part in was rigged to let her win, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Lifestyle vlogger Olivia Jade Giannulli, 19, took on fellow influencer Marissa Rachel and singer Rydel Lynch in a 2016 episode of Tap That Awesome App for a now defunct Verizon mobile phone channel.
But when Rachel was declared the winner in front of a live audience she says studio execs mysteriously stepped in and ordered producers to re-shoot the final few questions.
When the trivia contest resumed Rachel and Lynch were under orders not to buzz in with the correct answers, leaving Giannulli to take home first prize, a $5,000 donation to a charity of her choice, it's alleged.
‘I have nothing against Olivia, I’ve met her on several occasions and she’s perfectly nice. But what happened just didn’t seem right to me,’ Rachel told DailyMail.com. ‘I definitely won by a significant amount.’
Lifestyle vlogger Olivia Jade Giannulli, 19, took on fellow influencer Marissa Rachel and singer Rydel Lynch in a 2016 episode of Tap That Awesome App. DailyMail.com has obtained screenshots that show Olivia taking part and trailing Marissa 175 points to 200
When Marissa (second from left) was declared the winner in front of a live audience, studio execs mysteriously stepped in and ordered producers to re-shoot
‘I have nothing against Olivia, I’ve met her on several occasions and she’s perfectly nice. But what happened just didn’t seem right to me,’ Rachel told DailyMail.com. ‘I definitely won by a significant amount.’
The bizarre episode has emerged just days after Jade's parents, Fuller House star Loughlin and the designer Mossimo Giannulli, were accused of paying $500,000 to get her and her sister Isabella into the University of Southern California.
The couple - worth a reported $100 million - are facing federal mail fraud charges along with dozens more wealthy parents accused of bribing officials to secure places at the nation's top schools.
Thanks to her famous mom and prolific posting, Giannulli was already a well-known influencer when AwesomenessTV invited her to their LA studio in November 2016 to appear on celeb quiz Tap That Awesome App.
Host Hunter March posed a series of pop culture questions to the three contestants, with Giannulli, Rachel, who is another rising social media star, and Lynch, a singer and actress, competing to win money for charity.
'They competed in the first round and Marissa Rachel won,' a production source dished to DailyMail.com.
'She answered the most questions right and was declared the winner in front of a live studio audience of about 25 people as well as dozens of other crew members.
'The host announced her as the winner and everyone applauded and cheered.
'But right after Marissa was declared the winner, two studio executives suddenly came on set and stopped the shoot and said, "we have to film it again with Olivia as the winner."
Loughlin, 54, appeared in a Los Angeles federal courtroom Wednesday after flying back from Vancouver where she had been filming for The Hallmark Channel. Olivia Jade, Loughlin's youngest daughter, was on a multi-million dollar yacht in the Bahamas which belongs to the USC board of trustees' chairma
'Everyone was confused. Marissa Rachel said: “But I already won".'
The unnamed execs are said to have explained to the crew that they made a mistake with the scoring and that Giannulli was the genuine winner.
California-based Rachel, who has 1.7 million subscribers to the YouTube channel she jointly runs with her sister Shanna, was left 'visibly upset’.
'While they were re-shooting, Marissa and Rydel were instructed not to buzz in with the correct answers so that Olivia could answer and win,' the source added.
'They then re-filmed the scene with Olivia announced as the winner, and instructed the studio audience to cheer and clap for Olivia.’
Rachel confirmed the source’s version of events and said she was never given any explanation for the supposed mix-up.
‘They announced me as the winner then the production stopped and a middle-aged producer comes up to me and says “Oh sorry you didn’t win, it was a mistake, Olivia won”,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘I really didn’t get any sort of an explanation. I was pretty upset, mostly because I was so disappointed
