Review: “National Bingo Night”

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.