Bingo Fest

In Bonus Lingo, the winning team tries to guess as many mystery words as possible within two minutes. In each mystery word, two letters are initially revealed – the first letter and one of the remaining four letters, just like in the original version’s endgame. If the team fails to guess any word in five tries, the word is revealed and the team moves on to the next word.

In the first season, a Lingo card was then revealed with 13 numbers marked off and the hopper contained 12 balls (one for each uncovered space on the card). The team was allowed to draw one ball for each mystery word successfully guessed. Forming a Lingo won a $4,000 prize package consisting of an Argus digital camera, a Borders gift card, a Croton watch and a Cassiopeia EM-500 Pocket PC. Win or lose, the team won $100 for each correctly guessed word.

In the second and later seasons, during the two-minute speed round, the team could now use bonus letters. When a team member called out “bonus letter”, the first unknown letter of the mystery word was immediately revealed; this does not count as one of the team’s five guesses for the word. The team received one bonus letter for winning the game, plus one for each Lingo they completed during the game; beginning in the fourth season, celebrity teams received an additional bonus letter because they were playing for charity. Also, the draw was changed. Twelve spaces, instead of thirteen, were marked off the Lingo card (so there were now thirteen balls in the hopper); the twelve pre-marked spaces were chosen so that there would always be exactly one row, column or diagonal with four spaces marked off, so that a Lingo could be formed with the first drawn ball (called a Super Lingo).

Beginning in the second season, the prize for forming a Lingo was $5,000 cash, but a Lingo on the very first pull would award a grand prize. If the team formed a Lingo on the first draw, the team won the $5,000 plus a trip. For the second season, the prize was a Jamaican vacation package worth over $10,000, for a total value of more than $15,000. In the third season, a trip to Harrah’s Entertainment in Lake Tahoe plus $5,000 was at stake. For the fourth season the prize for a first-draw Lingo was changed to $10,000 cash. A team that failed to form a Lingo still won $100 per word successfully guessed.

On celebrity episodes, a first-draw Lingo won $25,000, a regular Lingo win $10,000 and $2,500 was awarded for no Lingo. However, on other episodes this varies. One episode in the show’s fourth season saw Trista Sutter and Rachel Hunter awarded $30,000 for getting a bonus-round Lingo. Typically the consolation prize for a losing celebrity team is $2,000, but in the above mentioned episode, the losing team of George Wallace and George Wendt received $5,000.

Beginning in the show’s fifth season (April 2006), a cash jackpot was added to the bonus round, won if a Lingo was made on the first draw. The Progressive Jackpot started at $10,000 and went up by $1,000 for each show on which it wasn’t won. It took only two episodes for the jackpot to be won for the first time, at $11,000. The jackpot was won only three times in the season; the other two times were on May 3, 2006 (during Fiesta Week) for $31,000 and on June 9, 2006 for $35,000.

The jackpot was won five times in the sixth season. On April 24, 2007, contestants Amy and Laura Kelly won the biggest progressive jackpot in this version of Lingo, sharing $41,000. On May 10, 2007, contestants Luc and Bay won $21,000; on May 22 a father/daughter team won $17,000; and on May 31 a team won $16,000. The fifth jackpot win of the season came on June 8, worth $15,000.

Given that there is only one way (not counting rotations and reflections) in which 12 of the 25 numbers are marked off at the beginning of Bonus Lingo, the expected number of draws before a Lingo is achieved can be easily calculated to be 3.86. Since many players earn 5 or more pulls during bonus play, winning Bonus Lingo is quite common. The probability of winning Bonus Lingo after earning N pulls is shown in the chart below.

On the third episode of Hawaiian Week (first aired on January 1, 2007), the winning team (Robert McKee of Fort Worth, Texas and Heather Gunn of Thousand Oaks, California) solved ten puzzles, ending the round prematurely with 12 seconds left on the clock. They then pulled the winning Lingo ball on the first draw, winning $10,000. This happened a second time in the first episode between the on-air winners and the online champs (first aired on May 22, 2006), completed with one bonus letter remaining unused. However, this rule is new, as seen in two earlier third and fourth season episodes when a team got ten words correct in Bonus Lingo (and then the two teams did get Lingo on their first ball as well), but the first two letters of an eleventh word appeared as time was called. Contestants are now told that earning 10 balls is the maximum rather than the record and that they are guaranteed at least $1,000 at $100 per ball. Left unsaid is the guarantee of $5,000, given the odds explained above.

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

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.

The first version aired from September 28, 1987 to March 25, 1988 with repeats airing until September. It was produced by Ralph Andrews (in association with Bernstein/Hovis Productions) in Canada for syndication by ABR Entertainment in the US. Versions of Lingo were subsequently produced in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Quebec (see Lingo (Quebec game show)), France, Norway, Sweden, Poland and The Netherlands.

On August 5, 2002 Game Show Network started airing the first episodes of its version of Lingo. The first 20 episodes were recorded in the Netherlands on the set of its Dutch counterpart; subsequent episodes were produced in the U.S. Five more seasons, filmed in Los Angeles and each consisting of 65 episodes, began in December 2002, December 2003, August 2005, April 2006 and April 2007. GSN held back five unaired Hawaiian-themed episodes from the fourth season, but these episodes did not make it to the air until January 1, 2007.

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

Format Game show
Created by Harry de Winter
Presented by Michael Reagan (1987-1988), Ralph Andrews (1988), Chuck Woolery (2002-2007)
Starring Dusty Martell (1987-1988), Margaux MacKenzie (1988), Stacey Hayes (2003-2004), Shandi Finnessey (2005-2007)
Narrated by Randy Thomas (2003), Stacey Hayes (2003-2004)
Country of origin Canada (1987-1988), United States (2002-2007)
No. of episodes 475

Lingo is an American television game show with multiple international adaptations. The first American version, which ran from 1987 to 1988 in syndication, was hosted by Michael Reagan. A revival of the show, hosted by Chuck Woolery, ran as an original series on GSN (formerly Game Show Network) for five seasons from 2002 until 2007. The show’s format comprises two teams, who attempt to guess a five-letter word given the first letter and place numbers on a 5×5 Lingo board to achieve five covered spaces in a row.

Links

• Official website
• Lingo at the Internet Movie Database

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