Lingo is a television game show that aired in the Netherlands between 1989 and 2014 on public television, and returned in 2019 on commercial television where it was broadcast until 2023. The format consists of a word game that combines Mastermind and Bingo. The television game show was broadcast weekly in the beginning, but it later became a daily program.
From 1989 to 2014, the show was broadcast by public broadcasting associations. From 1989 to 2000, it was broadcast by VARA and from September 4, 2000, it was broadcast by TROS (later renamed to AVROTROS). October 2, 2014, the last episode was broadcast by AVROTROS. The show was brought back on air August 26, 2019 by Talpa TV on the commercial channel SBS6. The last episode aired on Net5 on June 9, 2023.
Origins
The original version of the American game show Lingo debuted in syndication in 1987 with Michael Reagan as host and Ralph Andrews as executive producer. Though it ran for only one season, Dutch producers Jan Meulendijks and Harry de Winter were interested in bringing the show to their country.
Eventually, Harry de Winter bought the rights to the show and brought it to the Netherlands in 1989, where it became a massive hit. De Winter later used his earnings from the Lingo series to start his own production company. He devised the format and bought the global rights to the show. International versions subsequently appeared in several other European countries and French-speaking Quebec.
Robert ten Brink was the first host of the show in the Netherlands. He was already well known for hosting the youth news show Het Jeugdjournaal. When Ten Brink eventually decided to leave the show, he was succeeded by François Boulangé, the show's editor. Boulangé thought hosting was not very important, seeing himself as a judge, rather than a host.
Gameplay
Two teams of two contestants each try to guess and spell words, after being given a letter that's in the word and the length of the word. The game begins with the winners of a coin-toss (the new team if there were champions) making their guess. The length of the word that has to be guessed varies from five to eight letters.
Guessing words
Originally, each team had to guess five-letter words Monday-Friday, and six-letter words on Saturday. From 2002, the game was played with six-letter words every day, and from 2006 on Fridays, seven-letter words. As of February 6, 2012, games start out with five-letter words, then progress to six- and seven-letter words, and finish with a word that contains eight letters (reduced to seven as well as of February 2014).
The starting team is given the first letter of an unknown word, after which they have eight seconds to verbally make a guess on the word. The guess must be a valid Dutch word that is spelt correctly, contains the correct number of letters, and begins with the given letter. The guess must then be spelt out. The word, however, does not have to be the same as the word called out as long as the spelling is correct. The only time conferring is always allowed is on the final word.
If the word is spelt correctly within the eight seconds, the word is shown in a 5×5 grid. Letters of the guess that are in the same position as that of the unknown word are shown in red. Letters that appear in the unknown word but are in the wrong position are shown in a yellow circle. Any correct letters which are in the correct position are automatically copied into the next line.
If a player fails to say a word in time or gives an invalid one, the opposing team gets a turn. That team is then shown the next correct letter in the unknown word (unless there is only one space left); this will also happen if the correct word isn't guessed within five turns. In this sixth turn, the opposing team may now confer, but if the word isn't guessed at this point, it's revealed and control goes back to the first team.
Unusual words such as verb conjugations (e.g. "speaks") are considered valid words for a team to guess for the sake of giving themselves clues as to the real word but are never the correct answer.
From 1989 to 2001, correct answers were worth ƒ50. Prior to 2013, each word was worth €25 except for the last word which scored €40. From 2013 on, teams earned €15 for the first three five-letter words, €25 for the next three six-letter words, then €40 for the three seven-letter words after that. This was followed by a final eight-letter puzzle (seven letters as well as of February 2014) where the teams take it in turns, beginning at €60 and decreasing by €10 after every guess. On the 2019 revival, each word scores €15.
From 2008 to 2014 a new rule was added: the opposing team could guess the word, even when it was the other team's turn, but they could only do this once per game. If the opposing team thought they knew the word, they could press their button and guess it, doubling their score if correct, and halving it if incorrect.
Drawing balls
If the word was correctly guessed, the team which guessed the word correctly may draw two balls from the ball basin. Each team had a Lingo card with 25 numbers on it (odd numbers for one team, even for the other) with eight numbers crossed off before the game started. Each team's goal was to cross off numbers on the Lingo card by drawing the appropriately numbered ball to obtain a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of five numbers. In that case, the team was said to have achieved a Lingo.
Each team had a ball basin, each with 17 blue numbered balls, 1 blue ball with a question mark, 3 green balls and 3 red balls. The numbers on the balls corresponded to the numbers on the Lingo card and were crossed off the card if that ball was drawn. The question mark acted as a wildcard: if this ball was drawn, the team could choose any number from the Lingo card to be crossed off. However, the ball with that number on it remained in the ball basin, and should it be subsequently drawn, the team had effectively wasted a turn.
If a green ball was drawn, it was placed above the ball basin and the team could draw another ball. If a team drew all three green balls, they won a jackpot that increased with each correctly guessed word (but didn't count towards the score). From 1989 to 2000, the jackpot increased by ƒ50, and carried over from show to show; as of 2000, it started at €0 and increased by €100 (ƒ500 from 2000 to 2001) per word but reset to €0 for each show, as well as when it was won.
If a player drew a red ball, their team's turn was over and play continued with the other team. Red balls were discarded after having been drawn so they didn't return to the ball basin.
If a team obtains Lingo, that team received bonus money and was provided with a new Lingo card with new balls. Green balls carried over to a new Lingo card, but red balls did not. Thus, at the start of a new Lingo card, there would again be three red balls in the ball basin. The three green balls were only put back into the basin once the team has won the jackpot, allowing them a chance to win it at least twice in the same episode.
From 1989 to 2001, a Lingo won ƒ100, but as of 2002, a Lingo was worth €100. The team obtaining Lingo received a new card and control passed to the opposing team. In early shows, however, obtaining Lingo did not pass control to the opponents, and both teams received new cards.
Early Saturday night episodes where 6-letter words were introduced did not use the green balls at all. Other episodes during Nance's tenure as emcee involved the green balls having numbers of them; this was a tie-in to the Postcode National Lottery, where home viewers won cash and prizes based on what numbers on the green balls were revealed.
On the 2019 revival, instead of drawing numbers, the team draws balls with letters in a scrambled word with 11 letters, plus one more for each new word. Each drawn letter is placed in its correct position and guessing their word scored €100. The red balls are still there, but control now also passes to the other team if they attempt to guess the word (regardless of whether or not they were correct). Additionally, there are only two green balls per team, but there's no jackpot; drawing one now awards another €10, and if both teams draw their green balls, everyone in the audience wins €50. The green balls were removed from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ten-letter word From 2002 to 2006, a new letter would be revealed in a ten-letter word after every turn and the first team to guess the word scored €100. From 2007, every three turns, the teams had to try guessing a ten-letter word from a given anagram (using the same color code) with three letters in place at the start. As time passed, the letters switched so that more letters were in their correct place. If a team guessed the word within a few seconds, they received €70. As time passed, the word's value was reduced by €10 with each letter in the correct place.
The original versions of the 1990s and the 2019 reboot don't use ten-letter words.
Tiebreaker In the first episodes of Lingo (before the introduction of the National Postcode Lottery), it could occur that the two teams were tied at the end of the game. In that event a tiebreaker was played, the game continued the same as with a regular word, except that turns switched after each guess. Conferring was allowed for the entire word. Guessing the word correctly won the game but was worth no money and teams were not allowed to draw more balls.
Later on in the series, the tiebreaker was replaced by the ten-letter word (played on the same basis as above). Because this word was worth more money than a regular word, ties were no longer possible.
In 2019, the tiebreaker returned to the game. If there is a tie after the last word, a seven-letter word is played in the same way as the last word.
Final round The team with the highest score after the last round goes to the final. The other team receives, apart from the won money prize, a consolation prize. From 1989 to 2014, the consolation prize was a Lingo-branded bag. As of 2019, it's a pair of Lingo socks.
First version See also No Lingo Bonus Round from the 1987-88 North American version.
In the original version of Lingo transmitted by VARA, the final round was based on the "No Lingo" round in the original 1987 North American version. The team guesses up to five words in this round and must draw numbers from their hopper for every guess they took. This version lasted until 2001.
At the beginning of the finale, the team received a 25-number Lingo card, and 16 numbers were crossed off. The center space was left uncovered; this number would always make a Lingo when drawn. The hopper is filled with 35 odd- or even-numbered balls and one gold ball.
The finale was played with five words. The team guessed a five-letter word, as per normal gameplay. For each attempt, they had to draw one ball from the hopper (e.g., if a word was solved in four attempts, four balls had been drawn). If the word wasn't guessed, a one-ball penalty was applied (for a total of six balls). If a numbered ball is drawn that wasn't on the board, nothing was crossed off and it was discarded. If a numbered ball was drawn that was on the board, it was crossed off, and the ball was discarded as well. If the team drew the gold ball, they stopped drawing and their money was automatically doubled. If they managed to draw the required number of balls (or the gold ball) without completing a Lingo, the team's money was doubled. If at any point a number was drawn that formed a Lingo on the board, the game ended and the team lost all their winnings. After every word, they could risk their money and play on or stop and take the money accrued thus far.