Lingo was the game show that tested ones knowledge of five letter words. Each game consisted of two teams with two players on each team. Each team was given an electronic "Lingo Card", which as you may have already figured out, resembled a bingo card. Champions always played with even numbers and the challengers used the odd numbers. The object of the game in the end was to get a bingo by getting 5 numbers in a row, either across, up and down, or diagonally. Seven numbers were already covered up at random, at the start of each game for each team.

The challenegers would start by being given the first letter of a five letter word. If the word wasn't the correct one, a square would appear around any letters that were in the word, and in the correct position. A circle was placed around the letters that appeared in the word, but were not in the correct position. For example, if the word given was "Paint", and the team said "Piano", a square would appear over the letter "P", because it was in the right place, and the letters "I" and "A" would have circles around them, because I and A are in paint, but not in the same positions as piano.

If the team correctly discovered the word in question, they had the chance to pick out numbers from a vat in front of them. If they couldn't get the word after 5 tries, the other team had a chance to guess the word. In the vats in front of them were balls with the numbers on them that were on their electronic card. Balls with prizes were also in the vat, as well as "red balls", which caused the team to lose control of the game. (Later on, these so called "red balls" kind of became the shows unofficial catch phrase, where the contestants would scream, "No red balls!" as they would pick a number from the vat.) The first team to cover a line of 5 numbers won the game as well as $250. The losing team went home with one hundred dollars.

The bonus game was played the exact opposite as the original maingame. While you still needed to guess the five letter words, the object was to not get 5 lines in a row on the number card. Sixteen numbers were on the board, and 32 game balls were in the vat. The number of balls that had to be chosen was determained on how many guesses it took to get the word identified. If you won the bonus round, an additional $1000 was earned.

And as I am typing this, I think that the show wasn't very generous with the money, now was it? Perhaps that is why it didn't last as long as it could have, eh? Well, later on a jackpot was added to the bonus round, but by then, the show had done the damage and was too late to save.