We finally have a brief look into the rules of GSN’s new original game show, Bingo America. This was taken from GSN’s press page and from an audience member who wished to remain anonymous.

It looks to be entirely different than ABC’s National Bingo Night which is a good thing. We have a legitimate game now. Mix that with the huge bingo hopper and I’m all smiles. Essentially, a ball comes out and at-home players mark it off their cards. In-studio players answer a question. If they are right, the ball’s dollar value is placed into the round’s bank and the player is given the letter on the ball. First to spell B-I-N-G-O wins the round. First player to win two rounds wins the game, the bank, and plays the Bingo Bonus Board for $100,000. No idea how the dollar values for the balls work yet, though. Logic would tell me the number on the ball becomes the dollar total, but I’ve seen pictures with a bank over $1,000. That would take quite a bit of time, wouldn’t it?

The winner faces the Bingo Bonus Board. The board is shown in this post. Basically, a player just picks a number off the board, with the corresponding letter obviously. There are prizes from $500 to trips to $100,000 on it. The winner keeps picking until they get a matching pair. Whatever is matched first is what you take home. Yeah, it’s very hard to win, but at least it’s remotely possible. It’s not as impossible as, say, Deal or No Deal’s big money Hershey Kiss game. When at-home players print off cards, they have bonus numbers at the bottom. If their bonus number matches what a player selects, the at-home player gets a separate cash prize.

It looks to be interesting at least. It’s no Grand Slam (where’s the renewal on that anyway?), but it’s something interesting. They transformed a lousy ABC game show into a pretty decent game with a big money end game. I’d just wish the end game was a little more bingo oriented. To switch to a matching game out of no where is a bit silly to me. What do you think of the rules? Remember, just reading them is going to be different than watching, so be sure to check it out on March 31st at 7:00PM ET on GSN. A new season of Lingo would really complement the hour block well.