Bingo Fest

The Lingo Round

The main game play is nearly identical to the original version’s, except that the object is to score the most points instead of being first to get a Lingo. The team in the left (yellow) podium begins the game. A correct guess scores 25 points. The team has five guesses at the word, though if the team does not guess correctly, the opposing team is given control of the word and granted a bonus letter. Control of the word is also given to the opposing team if any of the following situations occurs: the team runs out of time, does not spell a legitimate word, does not give a word acceptable in the English language, does not guess a five-letter word, guesses a word that has already been tried, does not start their guess with the established first letter, or guesses a word that can only be a proper noun (though proper nouns that are also ordinary words are acceptable.) A bonus letter will not be given if four of the five letters have been identified, as this would reveal the entire word. If both teams miss a word at the point where it only has one missing letter left, the word is thrown out and a new one is played (which only happened once).

The all-time record for most points in the first round is 300, set by contestants Danny and Katherine in an episode airing May 23, 2007.

Lingo board

Play is again similar to the original version, except that ten numbers instead of seven are marked off for each team at the start of the game. (The 10 pre-marked numbers are chosen in such a way that no more than three spaces are marked off on any row, column or diagonal.) When a team forms a Lingo on their board, they score 50 points and immediately receive a new Lingo card (with 10 numbers marked off) and a new hopper of balls. The other team then gets control of the next mystery word. Like the original version, red balls (now called “Stoppers” by Woolery; presumably an allusion to a similar gameplay device used in his old show Scrabble) cause the team to immediately stop drawing and lose control. Unlike the original version, there are no prize balls.

Round Two

Lingo cards carry over from the first round. The team with the lower score starts the round. If the teams are tied, the team that did not begin the first round starts round two. Point values are doubled, meaning a correct word guess is worth 50 points and a Lingo is worth 100 points. Also, three “question mark” balls are added to each hopper; they can represent any number of the team’s choice. After the second round is over, the team with the most points wins the game and advances to Bonus Lingo.

The all-time record for most points scored in the second round is 600, set by contestants Dawn and Stephanie in an episode airing August 24, 2005.

The all-time record for most points overall is 675, set by the team of Dan and Joe in the fifth season premiere episode.

On two occasions, a team lost the game without scoring any points.

The all-time record for lowest winning score was 150, occurring in the third season.

“Seven Letters” tiebreaker

If there is a tie at the end of the second round, a tiebreaker called Seven Letters is played. A mystery seven-letter word is shown and the first and last letters are displayed. To advance to the Bonus Lingo round, teams must ring in and say the correct word. An incorrect guess locks out the team and gives a free letter to the opposing team. If that team does not know it, their opponents are unlocked and anybody can guess. If nobody knows what the word is, another letter is revealed; this continues until a team correctly guesses the word.

The main game rarely ends in a tie, however. This only happened three times in the series.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The winning team plays a bonus round called “No Lingo”. The team is shown another Lingo card filled with even numbers. Sixteen numbers are covered before the start of the round, arranged in a star shape along the diagonals, middle row and middle column; the center space, where the free space is on a normal bingo card, is left uncovered. The hopper is loaded with 37 numbered balls (all the even numbers from 2 to 74–this is unlike the main game in which only the numbers that actually appear on the Lingo card are loaded into the hopper), plus one gold ball. The contestants are given $500 to start. They can choose to simply take this $500 and stop or risk it by continuing on. The team is shown a five-letter mystery word with the first letter and one of the other four letters shown. The team is given the usual five chances to guess the mystery word; for each guess they use, they must draw one Lingo ball. If they fail to guess the word in five tries, they must draw an extra two balls, for a total of seven balls. If the team draws a numbered ball that appears on the board, that board space is covered and the ball is discarded, just like it would be in the normal game; if this forms a Lingo, the team immediately loses the bonus round and the prize money. If the team draws a numbered ball that does not appear on the board, nothing happens; the ball is simply discarded. (This is good for the players, since the object of the round is to avoid forming a Lingo.) If the team draws the gold ball, they are immediately allowed to stop drawing, their prize money is doubled and the gold ball is returned into the hopper.

If they manage to draw the required number of balls (or draw the gold ball) without completing a Lingo, they double their money to $1,000. The team can then take that $1,000 and quit, or try to double their money again by guessing another mystery word using the same rules. The Lingo board remains as it was, and any previously drawn numbered balls are still out of play, so the risk of forming a Lingo increases as time goes on. The team can try up to a total of five words, with the prize money doubling after each word; so the team can win $16,000 by trying all five words.

If the team wins the main game a second time, they start their second attempt at the “No Lingo” round with $1,000, so they can win a total of $32,000 by surviving all five words. If the team wins the main game a third (and final) time they start the “No Lingo” round with $2,000 and can increase it to $64,000 by surviving all five words. Teams during that time can win more than $112,000.

Even later, when the prize structure changed for the main game, the main game prize was the opening stake for the bonus round. Up to five words were played, which made the top prize $16,000 after making a horizontal or vertical Lingo in the main game, $32,000 after making a diagonal Lingo in the main game and $64,000 if the main game was won with a Double Lingo. Six balls (instead of seven) were drawn if a word was not guessed in five tries. Additionally, teams were not limited to three wins or eliminated by a single loss; they played until they were defeated twice in the main game.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The game is played between two teams of two players each. At the start of the game, each team is given a “Lingo” card with 25 spaces on it. The champion team’s card contains even numbers and the opponents’ contains odd numbers. Seven numbers on each card are automatically covered at the start of the game (the opponents’ numbers are covered by red circles, while the champions’ numbers are covered by blue circles).

The team in control (beginning with the challengers) is shown the first letter of a five-letter mystery word (randomly selected by the show’s Amiga computer), after which one team member must try to guess the word and then spell it out. After each guess, a red square is placed around letters that are in the correct position and a yellow circle is placed around letters that are in the word but not in the correct position. If the team in control guesses the word on the first try, they win a $1,000 bonus. Otherwise, the other team member takes a guess, then the first team member takes the third guess and so on.

If the team fails to identify the word within five guesses, fails to answer at any time within the five-second time limit, or gives a misspelled or nonexistent word, or a word that doesn’t fit, the other team gets a chance to guess. If there is more than one letter unrevealed, one of those letters is revealed and the team is given five seconds to make a guess. If there is only one unrevealed letter in the word, it is not revealed, but during the five seconds of thinking time, the team is allowed to confer–this is the only time when conferring between teammates is allowed.

The team that correctly guesses the mystery word then gets a chance to pull two Lingo balls out of a hopper in front of them. Eighteen of the balls are labeled with numbers corresponding to the numbers on their Lingo board; when a numbered ball is drawn, the corresponding space on the Lingo card is covered. Also in the hopper are three prize balls; when one of them is drawn, it is put aside and the player who drew it gets to pick again. Winning with one ball wins $250 in Traveler’s cheques, winning with two also wins a trip and winning with all three is worth a jackpot which starts at $1,000 and increases by $500 every game the jackpot isn’t claimed. Later in this version, there were only two prize balls. Winning with one got the trip and winning with both won the jackpot. Even later, the trip was phased out and the team had to draw both of the prize balls in order to win the jackpot. Prizes can only be claimed if the team wins the game.

Normally, after drawing their balls, the team keeps control and may guess at the next mystery word. However, the hopper contains three red balls as well; a team drawing one of these balls must immediately stop drawing and loses control (the opposing team gets to guess at the next mystery word). Once balls are drawn, they are discarded (prize balls are placed in a stand on the team’s podium as a reminder that the prize is in play), so the same ball cannot be drawn twice in one game.

The first team to cover numbers on their board that form a Lingo – five numbers in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal row – wins the game, $250 (along with the prizes from any prize balls they drew) and the right to play in the “No Lingo” bonus round. Later in this version the prize was $500 for a vertical or horizontal Lingo, $1,000 for a diagonal Lingo and $2,000 for a Double Lingo (two lines completed with the same ball).

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.