National Bingo Night is an American game show hosted by Ed Sanders which premiered on ABC on May 18, 2007 with a six-episode order. Sanders is best known for his work on another ABC show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The show was cancelled by ABC, and was repackaged into Bingo America on GSN, and hosted by Patrick Duffy.
The game is an interactive experience for both the studio audience and viewers at home. On NBN, members of the studio audience attempted to win a game of bingo while competing with a solo studio contestant. For Bingo America, it is played as a straight general knowledge quiz format with two players and a home viewer bingo game within.
Home viewers play along with pre-printed game cards that are available from the network website just before each episode airs, and are also eligible to win prizes. For example, on the premiere episode of NBN , prizes included gift cards from show sponsor Kmart, a trip to the Indianapolis 500, a seven-night cruise from Royal Caribbean, a visit to the set of fellow ABC series The View and Ugly Betty and a CD from the music group Rascal Flatts.
The show was expected to return for a five episode run during the week of December 17, 2007. However on November 13, 2007, ABC decided to replace it instead with its new game show, Duel. Afterward, the show was shipped to other networks. Eventually, GSN won the rights, and the game was repackaged into a five-day-a-week 30-minute version with modifications listed below.
General game play
National Bingo Night
Each hour-long episode of NBN was divided into three games, Red, White and Blue. Only cards with the correct designation were eligible to win prizes. Unlike the audience members, studio contestants did not actually have a bingo card. Instead, they participated in stunt games; for example, a simulated automobile race or a simulated wedding. During these games, they took guesses on what the next ball to be drawn from an over-sized bingo drum will be. On the premiere episode, the choices were: higher or lower than the one before it, odd or even, or with red or black decals (later changed to red or black numbers to avoid confusion) like a roulette wheel.
If the contestant successfully completed the stunt before anyone in the studio audience gets a bingo, the contestant wins one of various prizes. If not, then an audience member wins $5,000 (or a prize the studio contestant failed to win on at least one occasion). In case of a tie, the audience member wins. All games were winner-take-all; non-winning contestants did not even receive a consolation prize. The creator of this program, Andrew Glassman, also created the reality television game Average Joe.
Bingo America
The GSN format is still a bingo game, but now involves a quiz format. Two studio players play two games, with a "bank" that starts at a predetermined amount. After a ball is drawn, a question is asked. A correct answer earns the ball's letter, and cash equal to the number of the ball drawn (anywhere between 1 and 75) is added. The game ends when a studio player spells out "BINGO". Winning two games wins the bank. If both players win a game, then a best-of-five tiebreaker is played, with each answer starting with the letters "B-I-N-G-O". The winner then wins the money in the bank, and plays a bonus board worth up to US$100,000 by matching two like amounts of cash or a prize. At home players by matching two of the bonus numbers chosen by the player win $50.
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