Shows like National Bingo Night come once in a lifetime. It’s one of those shows that needs to be marked in the record books. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a show that makes Deal or No Deal look like Jeopardy!. In this show, three contestants will play during the hour long show. They will play various Bingo games while the audience marks off all balls that are selected. If the udience gets a Bingo before the player, the player leaves with nothing and the audience members win the house jackpot of $5,000. In reality, all of the games are a 50/50 chance of the player being right. It’s a pick of one or the other.
I never thought I’d honestly see a show that makes Deal or No Deal look like Jeopardy!. It’s mind-blowing. This show has not a tiny bit of actual risk that causes thought. Every show should have some level of risk. Right now a player just says “Choice A!” or “Choice B!”, a total 50/50 chance, press a button, and hope it works out well. The show just seems cheap for primetime TV. You can win $50,000 or a few grand more in prize value max. The host is loud and annoying. The set and music are, to be honest, rather lousy. I never got the feeling that there was an actual contestant. They tried, but it just didn’t work. I’d love to give this a longer review but there’s nothing to continue talking about. The show is all glitz and no game; more than any show in recent memory far and away. If this show is to be successful, it will be solely on the play-at-home factor, and even I doubt that will work because Bingo does not appeal to people that are younger than 50 on average. As much as I blasted Show Me the Money, at least they had hard trivia questions as the show went on. Yes, the prizes were way too high and the game was, quite frankly stupid, but tough trivia wins to pressing a button to get a ball. I’d take a dancer for an answer any day of the week over this. This show isn’t the worst thing ever and not the worst thing in my memory of game shows, but it’s easily the poorest attempt since Millionaire came out in my eyes. Man do I miss that show.
31 Responses
Well, to parody a 9th Dimension song, “This is the dawning of the age of Stupidity.” The “dumb” game shows are back in. Do you want to know what might work? “It Pays to Be Ignorant”. Now that’s a really stupid show. However, it was really funny. If you we’re feeling down or something, this show made you feel better. A good laugh always works. Maybe they ought to replace this Ed Sanders guy with Larry the Cable Guy (maybe in glasses). That’s what made Jeff Foxworthy look smarter.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 11:33 am
It was a okay show it wasnt must watch tv. Abc is trying to put anyshow on the air to have ratings like regis millionaire had. If they never abused regis millionaire it could of been a hit to this day
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Gene, I agree…I don’t think ABC knows what they want, esp. from looking at their Fall 07 primetime schedule. It’s like they want to find their identity (not to be confused with Penn’s game show lol), and are just throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks. I think with the unexpected success “Grey’s Anatomy” has had, they’re trying to emulate the style of that show with their other projects (not counting the spinoff).
The way they handled Millionaire was the biggest mistake they could’ve ever made. The way Meredith’s daytime version has performed, a weekly Super Millionaire would be a perfect fit for a Friday night.
Would love to see NBC take a stab at getting the show, to air in a 2-hour block with 1 vs. 100.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I haven’t give an “F” grade for a show since USA Network did “Strip Poker” with Graham Elwood back in the late 90s. National Bingo Night sucks plain and simple. By the way, what person would want a date with Fabio for a prize? The show steals from other game shows and is horrible at doing it. Ed Sanders yelling constantly over every little decision = Patrick Wayne’s “Youuuu winnnnn!!!”
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
This looks like one of my game show ideas… guess it’s back to the drawing board! Who did the editing work on this show, a chimp?!
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Well, I saw the show. A lot of yelling and a lot of nothing. Too much suspense for one show. Ed is constantly yelling, and I hate it. Of course, when you have 200 people and $50,000, who wouldn’t be screaming? The audience won the first 2 games. Why does the audience play for $5,000 while the player goes for $50,000? That’s unfair! The 1st guy should have won the cash. I think they made up those rules on purpose just to build the suspense.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I agree that I hated the fact that the first guy got his 500, but was still null-and-void b/c of the Bingo. Offering a small incentive for doing so, whether it’s a smaller cash prize, or the gifts he racked up (in this case, the jewelry) would’ve been a nice gesture. That just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Unlike everyone it seems, I really enjoyed National Bingo Night, and here’s why. I printed off a ton of cards and got together with a big group of friends to play along. As people got close to getting bingos, excitement started to build and, at the show’s end, we really had a good time and a fun hour of entertainment. None of us even paid close attention to the contestant’s play; it was more fun to see how many people in the audience got “one away” at the same time as one of us did. We also loved the referee’s “No Bingos!”. All in all, the real strength and entertainment aspect of the show was not the 50/50 games — instead it was the fun and camaraderie that the show served as a medium for.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Well what do you know? P.T., you’ve found the perfect use for this show. A party game. This ought to make the DVD game release much easier.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
DVD version? They already have the home version out, just without the words “National” and “Night” on the sides of the box.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
NOOOOOOO RATINGS!
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Darnit, the HTML didn’t appear.
<Commissioner Sunil> NOOOOOOO RATINGS! </Sunil>
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
I know. This craze is so popular, they have a song now. And I bet you want to know the lyrics.
“There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.”
If this show bombs (and knowing ABC’s post-Millionaire record), it’s going to be yet another installment of “Grey’s Anatomy” on Friday nights. It’s a shame how the Alphabet network is owned by one of the biggest entertainment groups in the world, and yet it can’t hold a game show on their schedule for at least a full season. I wouldn’t be surprised if next week Ed Sanders is going to spend an entire hour apologizing about this week’s show.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Editing sucked, the rules are flawed, Sanders was loud, yet, to me, it all wasn’t nearly as bad as “Show me the Money.” SMtM was the first game show I ever said at the end of the first episode: “I’m NEVER gonna be exposed to this S*** AGAIN!” >:(
I didn’t say that at the end of NBN, so it couldn’t have been as bad. It’s not appointment TV by any means, but if it comes back for another episode, and there’s nothing else on TV, I’ll tune in again…
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I also do not think it was fair that the first contestant to play didn’t get the $50,000 because he got to 500 points and the same time as the player who said bingo. I think they should’ve both won their prizes. Really to be honest I did not like any of the minigames, I think the on stage contestant should play bingo like everyone else. If the contestant get through with a task like the one in the blue card game did, none of the people who are playing bingo will get a chance to win. This is especially the at home players as well. Bingo should be played equally across the board without any of the extra prize games.
I however enjoy playing along with show which is a plus.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Well, as we’ve seen with Lingo (and The Moneymakers, for those old-timers/Page O’ Clips viewers), it IS possible for bingo to be fun. And as we’ve seen with many Bob Stewart games (and even the new Twenty-One), rules can be changed for the better while the show is still on the air. Let’s hope the producers of NBN see the reasons why the pilot didn’t work, and create an idea that is truly outside the box.
Posted on May 20th, 2007 at 12:06 am
IMHO, it wasn’t as bad as I hoped it would be. Although there are some kinks to be worked out, this is a fun little hour of entertainment.
Posted on May 20th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8kk9SwDGM3k
NATIONAL BINGO NIGHT SPAWNS NEW SERIES:
Film At 11
Posted on May 20th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Well promoted, but poorly executed. I was kinda looking forward to this – a giant BINGO cage isn’t a bad gimmick, but as others have noted, it looks pretty cheesy and is HORRIBLY edited.
I think this show misses one of the fundamentals of BINGO – a GREAT caller along with the master “BINGO” board. The on-stage/contestant game isn’t BINGO, it’s “flip the lucky quarter.” And it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out each game is based on the outcome of about 14 calls before someone probably has a five-in-a-row BINGO; that last game (in which the contestant won) got *incredibly* lucky on five straight calls.
I don’t understand why the on-stage contestants have to play some cheesy game. If you wanted to make it REALLY cool, make it LIVE, and play (for example) one or two games of BLACKOUT. Winners phone an 800-number when they blackout, and the caller stops calling numbers after you’ve called a sufficient number to guarantee that a blackout is possible. You can still have an in-studio game for a “special” prize.
Heck, a local TV station here in Oklahoma used to do precisely that, gave away free bingo cards at stores all over town, and had a ratings winner for close to two years before it finally faded. Surely a network could make the same kind of thing work on a grander scale, like 23-call BLACKOUT for, say $10 million….the odds are next to impossible, but you’ve got people paying $1 a shot to play worse odds in the lottery…
-David
Posted on May 21st, 2007 at 10:26 am
Oops..minor error on my part: 23-call blackout is impossible; I was thinking about 25-call blackout. But the point remains the same…tease an unfathomably huge jackpot against unfathomable odds, but let people play for free and you might have a ratings juggernaut…
-David
Posted on May 21st, 2007 at 10:29 am
NBN wasn’t a good show, but quite frankly neither is Millioanire now. The appeal of Millionaire has wore off cause no contestant has the guts to keep playing the game. At least NBN made you played till you won the promised prize, or you lost.
Posted on May 22nd, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Trying to find National Bingo Night numbers for 5/24/07. Can anyone help?
THANKS!
Posted on May 25th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
The play at home game is rigged! Since the show is pre-recorded, they already know the numbers that are drawn. When you print out your cards to play at home, they already know whether you won or not. They also have one number in each game that is called and doesn’t appear on ANY of the home cards. For example, on today’s game, N-37 was called and I did not have that number on any of my 60 cards! I guarantee that only those people with winning cards had N-37 on it! Besides, it will end up costing more than $5 to print out the cards just to win a $5 gift card at Kmart! I’m done with it. I do, however, want my phone’s ring tone to be “NOOOO BINGO!!!!!” in that Indian guy’s accent!
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 12:21 am
I had N-37 on my Red Card! It just wasn’t called in the red game.
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 9:01 am
My family and I had about 60 cards as well and, funny enough, only ONE card had N-37…and, sure enough, that was the only card to make a BINGO! Too bad tho that it was on the Blue game where the only thing I won was an entry into a drawing.
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 11:08 am
The show is rigged. I printed off 333 cards (3 red/white/blue games per card makes it 1000 chances at each red/white/blue game) Of those, I received 0 wins on the red game, 0 wins on the white game, and EXACTLY 50 wins on the blue game, both weeks. What happens is, Kmart doesn’t want to give out $5 gift cards to a bunch of viewers, so since the show is pre-recorded, ABC doesn’t put out any winning cards for the red game, except for the 1 person who will win the $10,000 grand prize (which is predetermined). Same for the white card. Nearly everybody who prints off a large number of cards wins a blue game, which is only an entry into their jackpot. But since there are people out there who literally have nothing to do all day but print cards, your chances of winning are more than 1000X worse than your local lottery.
Remember, the terms & conditions DO say “This Sweepstakes is a seeded instant win game; it is not a state-sanctioned bingo game.” In other words, ABC already determined who will win, and people at home are playing along just for the fun of it.
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
You’re absolutely right! Well, I could have won with a B-15 or an I-28 on the white game. Some idiot got Bingo and ended the whole thing. I’ll have to play along next week. BTW, how did you keep track of marking off all those Bingo cards?
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I don’t play along with the show. I just jot down the numbers while doing something else, and then take time on the weekend to go through the cards.
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Cool!
Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
This game is sooo rigged! Obviously the show is taped and they already determined how many people win the 5$ certificates. And ill tell you, there arent many of those out there. Just for the heck of it I printed out 2000 cards with the help of my friend, guess how many red cards won ? “THE SUSPENCE” NOOOO BINGO! White NOOO BINGO! BLUE ? PLZ ? 239 BINGOS. Now how is that humanely possible since the red game had about 10 numbers drawn and the blue game 10 numbers drawn and somehow only the blue ones won and no red ones? Complete RIGGAGE to make people watch the commercials!
Posted on June 15th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Also heres a fact for you that the audience is rigged also and the contestants too. Ok so here was the white cards game, so far only 5 numbers called, 4 of them were from the I row and 1 from the G row. Now PAY CLOSE ATTENTION! He asked for people with 1 away to stand up. 8 people stood up. Ok fair enough for me. Next number to come out was from the G row! He asks how many people with 1 away to stand up? 10 more people stand up making 18!!! WTF ? THERE IS NO WAY that a number from the G row would make ANYONES cards one away from Bingo! Im sorry but this show is just sad and pathetic, at least please do a better job with your dam actors next time because thats pathetic!
Posted on June 15th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Add A Comment