A new show that started CBS in the US last night, which everyone seemed to be suggesting would be ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!! but is basically felt like a safe, corporate version of Latino-ism really, it’s literally just bingo with a sexier accent. Pick a number off the board, if the symbol behind it is on your card mark it off and earn some cash, the first to get two lines of three goes through to the million dollar endgame. Occasionally there’s a bonus game with some quite easy questions with an element of music and dancing, but there’s not enough brass and not enough dancing throughout really.
The endgame is mildly interesting, at least mathematically – now you’ve got a 4×4 board, you pick numbers off a board of twenty. Behind 16 of the numbers is a symbol on your card and some cash, behind the other four are red skulls. Every time you complete a line you win $25k to add to your stash and have to decide there and then whether to take your money or play on, the risk is that if you hit a skull your bank is halved and if you uncover all four skulls you leave with nothing. However if you get all 16 symbols and fill your card you win a million. If you’re willing to risk, your chances of winning the million are actually very reasonable, my gut says it’s at least 20%, maybe a bit higher (if you choose a number at the beginning, avoid picking it, and there is a skull there you can’t fail). If you’re not willing to risk, getting out as soon as you’re able after $100,000 feels like the optimum play, you’d need to fill two more lines to get the money back up if you hit a skull, the rewards don’t really outweigh the risk unless you’re intent on going all the way to the end. Also there’s a weird bit where a challenge came up but they’d only add the money if the symbol was on your card, and unless they were going to waste an entire segment by putting a challenge on a skull space wasn’t worth the tension build, because otherwise the task would be unwinnable.
I didn’t hate it, Jamie Camil is good, but there’s not much to it.