National Bingo Night
Did anyone make it through the entire premiere episode of ABC’s “Next Big Thing” game show on Friday night?
I caught the last twenty minutes of it. They found a nice way to create some tension — the player on stage calling bingo balls is competing for a prize before someone in the studio audience hits a bingo. They are stupid games — guessing whether a ball will be odd or even, black or red, etc. They have cheesy set-ups for them, almost as bad as the worst of THE PRICE IS RIGHT. (We miss you already, Bob Barker.) And, since this is the internet age, you can play at home by printing out a bingo card off the web site.
It’s also about the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever watched on television. It’s very highly edited, first of all. And the camera shots cut back and forth like nothing this side of a Michael Bay movie. Everything happens at a high level of intensity. The studio audience never stops cheering. The player on stage is always hyper. The host is constantly shouting to the contestant, to the audience, and then RIGHT TO YOU AT HOME.
It nearly made me ill. And since it’s a stupid show that relies on dumb luck over all, it invites the kind of stupid people who like to rub their good luck fanny pack while they pull the trigger for the next Bingo ball. No, I’m not making that up. Imagine the worst of the DEAL OR NO DEAL contestants with the volume cranked up to ten. Since the show employs just about zero strategy, there’s no need for a double digit IQ to play the thing. Every ball that pops up is a 50/50 shot of being guessed right, so have fun and say whatever comes to mind.
One of the prizes on the show was the chance to go behind the scenes at a NASCAR race. If I were a NASCAR fan, I’d be insulted that this show was aimed at me.
I just realized who the host is: Ed Sanders. You’ve seen him on EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION, where he shouts an awful lot less. I don’t hate him for taking this gig. After all, get a load of this clip from his IMDB bio:
While filming “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Sanders stays in touch with family and friends through Apple isight, which allows him to read bedtime stories to his son from the road.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:49 am
Yeah, I watched the whole thing. Well, actually we taped it, and began to fast forward a lot after the first game. We were playing along with cards we printed out from abc.com (nope, didn’t win anything) so we’d just go to the end of the game and see all the numbers that had been picked.
Our favorite moment of the show was when they’d cut over to the “referee” in the studio audience and he’d dramatcially say . . . “NO BINGO” . . . in his thick Indian accent. I swear my boyfriend and I both busted out laughing every time he did that.
It was stupid fun, but I guess it did crappy in the ratings so it probably won’t be around for long. Oh well.
May 21st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Horrid. Made the time-wasting on Deal or No Deal look like a timed chess match.