I set my DVR and recorded this game show and found it to be entertaining as most game shows are. The premise is easy as the game of Bingo is known to just about everyone, so it’s a very shallow learning curve -- a good strategy for any game show. Trying to explain how a game works while the contestant (and home audience) gets glassy-eyed is usually not a good move!
The TV version is a high-energy and glitzy production which uses the bingo game (and bingo balls) as means to win big prizes. The selected contestant must play the game successfully before any studio audience member gets a Bingo.
Home viewers can go the ABC.com to print out unlimited free bingo cards to play along at home for a prize of $50,000 cash. (A FAQ for printing cards is at the bottom of this article) Each printing yields three cards, a Red, White and Blue card (with three games each on them) for each episode. If you think you have won at home, log onto ABC after the show and put in the serial number on your card anytime up to the Monday following the show. That means you can record the show and play later!
1. Print out your cards before the Friday broadcast. Cards are available right after the previous Friday show.
2. Set your TiVo, DVR, or VCR to record the show on Friday 9-10 PM Eastern / 8-9 PM Central on ABC.
3. Play before Monday; if you win, claim your prize (input the serial number) before Monday at 6 PM Eastern.
To win, you need to get all the numbers in one line, all the spaces in that one line filled horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to be eligible for the grand prize drawing for that game.
Being able to play later once you have the cards in hand is a nice feature and it shows that someone over at ABC was thinking! The game however, is not really exciting, no matter how you glitz it up. Trying to accomplish your task using the Bingo ball numbers before someone else gets Bingo does not hold one’s attention very well either.
The best part of the show is the referee guy, Sunil Narkar, the “NBN Commissioner.” He is the one who declares “No Bingo” or verifies a claimant’s card. It doesn’t sound like he does very much, but when he does it, it is with Style!. I love this guy! Somebody snap him up before the show disappears, as it should.
Find another show on Bingo Night.