Finally: a game that takes less intelligence than DOND to play -- mostly because there has to be a serious lack of insight (or major delusion) for the player to think they might win.

Anyone up for a light touch of math? Any of the so-called games for the player have the same rig factor: in the long run, a maximum of half their pulled balls will count for their total. The 200 people playing regular Bingo and trying to beat them get to count any ball that would apply to their cards. So the player is working with, at best, half a load of ammunition, while the competition needs just a touch of luck to fire off five in a row. Two hundred against one means that someone in the two hundred is going to win a lot more often than the one. And if the audience member wins, with their prize being a tenth of the player's potential jackpot -- just how little did ABC want to spend on this series, anyway?

A twenty-five foot bingo ball chamber. Home-printable cards that were pre-rigged to deliver a given number of Rascal Flatts CDs whether you wanted them or not. A host who's drugged up enough to think this is exciting. Anyone who's one number away standing up and looking at the player like a jury about to render a guilty verdict. And a judge in the stands watching people to see if anyone can count to five.

Maybe I should rephrase that first sentence. 'Finally: a game that takes less intelligence than Big Brother to play.'

• RE: National Bingo Night,Colonel Zoidberg, 10:35 AM, 05-28-07
  • How cheap can they get?,Estee, 02:25 PM, 06-04-07
• RE: National Bingo Night,Fishercat, 06:16 PM, 06-04-07
• RE: National Bingo Night,Cygnus X1, 11:23 PM, 06-08-07
• RE: National Bingo Night,foonermints, 01:54 AM, 06-09-07

Lemme put it this way. My wife loves bingo. She plays Yahoo! bingo and once got a little Tiger bingo game that she sat glued to for hours on end. She envisions herself as one of those old ladies who hangs out in bingo parlors playing into the night (and she's 22 right now.) She'd never pass up an opportunity to play.

And she thought the show was stupid. And I mean just flat-out dumb. She wouldn't even bump it up to "aggravating," the ways she does with shows like TAR (which we've agreed stands for "The Aggravating Race.")

They're still adjusting the odds, and now the audience is really getting the long end of the stick. Apparently on the last episode, a fifty-fifty game that previously needed seven correct contestant guesses to win was up to ten -- and there was a second game where the only way a contestant's pulled ball would count was if there was a five on it. That one made the whole thing backfire: she pulled fives out so quickly that no one in the audience or America made Bingo. (They had to draw an extra ball just to give the home group some winners.) But even so -- it's getting harder and harder for the contestants to win this no-strategy, all-luck, no-hope game...

Hey, ABC? It's not like they're playing for a million dollars.

I'm actually missing Bob Saget and the 1 v. 100 crew right now. I know it's a different network. I don't care.

Oh, my heck. Ladycub and I watched about 10 minutes of this dreck, and it was obviously 10 minutes more than necessary.

We saw this game that was reminiscent of "Card Sharks" where this actress woman was trying to determine whether the next ball called would be higher or lower than the one before; if the sum of the ones she guessed correctly added up to 500, she would win $50K. Her reactions were of the over-the-top variety not seen since the days of "The New Treasure Hunt" with Geoff Edwards.

And somehow, she won. Guess it's an easier way to $50K than eating (insert disgusting animal part here) for Joe Rogan.

Ehhhh, I'd rather watch "Card Sharks."

I used to call Bingo at my old parish. Do NOT sit in one of The Regulars' Seats!