Or, maybe the question should be does anyone know that ABC broadcasts National Bingo Night on Friday night? The answer to both questions is 'apparently not'. At least according to the most recent ratings, that is.
Last Friday's episode came in fourth place in its time slot, garnering a measly 3.3 million viewers. It lost to a rerun of TV's Funniest Moments on FOX. If you break it down to age demographics (18-49 year-olds, to be precise) National Bingo Night came in fifth place behind shows being broadcast on Univision. If this show were on during the regular season it would have probably been yanked after its first half-hour.
I'd like to know where the producers are getting the $50,000 grand prize that can be won each week with such poor ratings. I'm guessing some of it comes from K-Mart, who provides a $10,000 gift card as a prize. If you were a sponsor, would you continue to advertise on a show like this that has very little promotion and such a small audience?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-06-2007 @ 1:39PM
vacelts said...
The real question is who would want to watch bingo. It's kind of like watching paint dry.
Sure playing bingo can be some fun (not really my cup of tea, but my grandmother loves it), but who wants to watch it?
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6-06-2007 @ 2:00PM
Guy said...
It is so boring. Since you could actually win stuff, I thought it would be cool. Thank God I have a TiVo. We taped it, got out our bingo cards, and hoped to win money. I hit fastfoward and didn't listen to word of it, and 30 second skipped where no numbers we being drawn and it was possibly the 20 most mind numbing moments of my life. I would rather be stuck in a waiting room for 5 hours with no magazines or TV. Atleast then I could fantasize about something, here I had to actually pay attention to the show.
Hint: If you want to try to win money, but don't want to waste an hour of your life and become less intelligent from the lack of brain activity, print out your bingo cards then, after the show try to claim each card and see if they win. No need to watch, the website does it all for you.
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6-06-2007 @ 3:49PM
Sam G. said...
If I wanted to see people playing bingo I'd walk to my synagogue.
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6-06-2007 @ 4:37PM
yanosh said...
My wife & I started playing it when it premiered and - call us crazy - we enjoyed. It was interactive, competitive all in the privacy of our home. We are going to my 93-year-old aunt's on Friday so that she can play. It has a place in the American TV scene, in my humble opinion.
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6-06-2007 @ 10:36PM
Cody said...
I watched the first one without having any clue what it was ahead of time or that there was an interactive component. I was floored by how terrible the contestants are. The format of the game goes like this: a 200 person audience plays Bingo while a contestant plays a Bingo-related mini-game. In the first one, there were three contestants and three mini-games: high-low, odd-even, and red-black. In all three games, a competant person could have really quickly calculated the optimal move to play. In the red-black game, you could even predict which numbers were which color (they weren't random yet in the first one) so you could take one look at the board and immediately know which color had more left! But the contestants were so stupid that I couldn't bear to watch.
The first guy was just unlucky though. I did a little math with the help of Tivo, and figured out that even had he played a perfect game and picked the best possible moves on every ball, he could not have possibly won.
It's a good show to watch drunk, because it is really fun to yell at the people when they make the wrong move. At least it's not as terrible as Deal or no Deal.
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6-15-2007 @ 10:36PM
Donna said...
I found "National Bingo Night" on accident on Friday night. Despite your rude comments, I immediatly fell in love with the contestants and the high adrenaline nature of the show. The colorful lights, balls, and confetti kept my interest, as well as the interactive aspect. I don't have a printer, but I quickly copied a card from ABC.com and joined in on the action at home. It was so fun. Also, featuring an Indian as referee on the show has noble respect for cultural diversity that prime time so needs! His hilarious antics are something special. A real diamond in the rough this show is, with all the mindless trash out there these days.
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6-21-2007 @ 5:07PM
Heather said...
I love this show. My friends and I watch from different states. I love bingo of any kind!
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6-21-2007 @ 5:14PM
Heather said...
We discuss it here:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/national_bingonight/
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6-22-2007 @ 8:26PM
Jim said...
I love this show, I think it should be on TV on Saturday nights in the winter time when there is absolutely nothing else to watch on TV, I enjoy it and I have friend who doenst have a computer and I print off bingo cards for her and her whole family, they watch it as a family and the kids really get into it. Dont we need a little more family TV watching together?
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6-27-2007 @ 5:00PM
Larry said...
According to the "official" website today, you can no longer print out cards & play has been suspended.
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7-03-2007 @ 1:02AM
barbara koziel said...
My family loved the show especially the grandchildren. Where can you go & play bingo for free. The kids loved it when the commissioner said NO BINGO. Sorry to see its no longer on we couldn't wait til Fri night. Barb
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