Television is always in search of programs that are drawing people by the millions to watch them. This is one the reasons that the shows are rated using certain systems that calculate how many people have tuned into their show. In an effort to achieve higher ratings and have greater viewership, many television channels have now shifted their attention to reality programming and game shows. Bingo has often remained as one of the more popular games worldwide. The fact of the matter has always been that more popular the game or the people taking part in it, more are the ratings and viewership associated with that show. Lingo, a very prominent name in several parts of the world was one of the first game shows to take advantage of the Bingo sensation and offered the audience whole load of entertainment.
Lingo was first broadcast in the late 1980’s where it was famously hosted by Michael Reagan, the son of Ronald Reagan. This was one if the ways the show created a good load of attention and popularity among the viewers. Lingo had its very own method of play that was slightly altered from the basic principles that formed the classic game of Bingo. Lingo basically had two teams competing with each other to achieve top prizes. The opponent’s team and the champion’s team as they were called had to guess the complete mystery word that appeared on screen. Initially the job of choosing a random mystery word was performed by a computer fondly called as Amiga. IN other game shows the general format is for a computer to randomly select a mystery word. Now, the mystery word’s first letter is revealed to the players.
The 5×5 arrangement of cards that the players possess have both red and blue markings, indicating the markings of words that are there in the mystery word. This card is known as the Lingo card. Red indicates that the word is in the correct position as it is in the mystery word. Yellow indicates that the letter is there in the word but not in the correct position. Now the teams have the tough job of guessing the word based on the cards they possess. The team that guesses the word first has prize money on offer. Guesses keep rolling from one team to the next until the word is got. Once the word has been found, the team is allowed to pick two balls from a random selection of balls from a box in front of them. These balls have numbers indicating their position on the Lingo card. Special prizes are given to people who have won with three balls. Lingo became such a sensation on television that the show was made in several parts of the world. There are also several versions of Lingo available in UK, Australia etc. There have also been special episodes that have been made for the show, one of them featuring playboy play mates.
The Lingo TV show has made it big in several parts of the world and its popularity remains a testimony to that fact.
