Most people know Lingo I assume, this is the easy midweek-because-I’m-busy-at-time-of-writing show.
Anyway! Lingo began in the US where it wasn’t very successful and began in The Netherlands in 1989 where it’s been running ever since. Currently it broadcasts on the TROS network on the Channel Nederland 1, but it looks like it’s moving to Nederland 2 next year. It’s been hosted by Lucille Werner with Jan Peter Pellemans acting as judge and announcer since 2005.
The format has changed variously over the years, but the main idea is the same – solve word puzzles and then hopefully create lines on your Lingo card for a bonus. For each puzzle you’re given the first letter and must guess a legitimate Dutch word of the correct length. You are then shown which letters are in the correct position and which letters are right but in the wrong position (a bit like the board game Mastermind). Players in a team take it in turns to make a guess, if they take too long to come up with a word or use a word that doesn’t exist or is the wrong length, the opposing team get a chance to steal control and get a bonus letter. Correctly identifiying a word earns money and lets you draw two balls from the hopper to cover some numbers up.
Right now team play three words of five letters for €15 a pop, three words of six letters for €25 a word, three words of seven letters for €40 a word (the teams can ask for a cryptic clue in this round, although I haven’t ascertained if there’s a bonus or penalty for asking for it) and a final eight-letter puzzle where the teams take it in turns, beginning at (I think) €60 and dropping €10 a guess. Between rounds there’s an on-the-buzzer ten letter word anagram which begins at €70 and drops €10 every few seconds as the puzzle gets easier. Getting a Lingo earns a €100 bonus (and the card is reset). Also in the hopper are a wildcard ball, green jackpot balls (the jackpot accumulates at €100 for every guessed word but starts each show at zero) – getting all three wins the jackpot (not added to the score) and if they find one they can redraw for free, and three red balls which relinquish control of the game. FINALLY, each team can buzz in and interrupt their opponent’s go once per show. If they immediately get the word right, their score is doubled, if they get it wrong it’s halved. I don’t like that rule (although would be happy to let them steal the game once per show), but it’s by the by.
The winners get to play the bonus round. They get 2:30 to get as many words as they can – each correctly guessed word puts €1,000 in the pot and allows them to draw a Lingo ball to complete a line afterwards. There is always one ball from the initial set-up that will complete a line off the bat. If they get a Lingo they win the pot. If they find the silver ball they can opt to stop and leave with half the pot. There’s also a pink prize ball in there. It’s quite odd that the bigger the prize, the better your chance of winning (previously the prize was a flat €5,000).
ANYWAY, here’s episode 5,000 which went out last month. The winning team are surprised to hear the news that they will be playing for €5,000 a word in the end game.
And because we’ve been showing elderly episodes on Youtube this week, here’s an episode from 1998 hosted by Francois Boulange:
Dutch Lingo is probably the most cheerful and least objectionable show currently running on television. Here’s the official site where you can watch episodes. I’m surprised nobody’s tried reviving it over here – if GSN could get years out if it, why not Challenge? It must cost peanuts.
The show is indeed moving to NED2 from 2014 onwards; the series goes back per week from 5 episodes to 4 (Monday to Thursday), however, the amount of episodes per year stays equal. There will be longer runs and less repeats.
Fun fact: announcer & judge Jan Peter is also the main mentor/coach for the contestants of ‘The Mole’ during production on location.