Most people know Lingo I assume, this is the easy midweek-because-I’m-busy-at-time-of-writing show.

Anyway! Lingo began in the US where it wasn’t very successful and began in The Netherlands in 1989 where it’s been running ever since. Currently it broadcasts on the TROS network on the Channel Nederland 1, but it looks like it’s moving to Nederland 2 next year. It’s been hosted by Lucille Werner with Jan Peter Pellemans acting as judge and announcer since 2005.

The format has changed variously over the years, but the main idea is the same – solve word puzzles and then hopefully create lines on your Lingo card for a bonus. For each puzzle you’re given the first letter and must guess a legitimate Dutch word of the correct length. You are then shown which letters are in the correct position and which letters are right but in the wrong position (a bit like the board game Mastermind). Players in a team take it in turns to make a guess, if they take too long to come up with a word or use a word that doesn’t exist or is the wrong length, the opposing team get a chance to steal control and get a bonus letter. Correctly identifiying a word earns money and lets you draw two balls from the hopper to cover some numbers up.

Right now team play three words of five letters for  €15 a pop, three words of six letters for €25 a word, three words of seven letters for €40 a word (the teams can ask for a cryptic clue in this round, although I haven’t ascertained if there’s a bonus or penalty for asking for it) and a final eight-letter puzzle where the teams take it in turns, beginning at (I think) €60 and dropping €10 a guess. Between rounds there’s an on-the-buzzer ten letter word anagram which begins at €70 and drops €10 every few seconds as the puzzle gets easier. Getting a Lingo earns a €100 bonus (and the card is reset). Also in the hopper are a wildcard ball, green jackpot balls (the jackpot accumulates at €100 for every guessed word but starts each show at zero) – getting all three wins the jackpot (not added to the score) and if they find one they can redraw for free, and three red balls which relinquish control of the game. FINALLY, each team can buzz in and interrupt their opponent’s go once per show. If they immediately get the word right, their score is doubled, if they get it wrong it’s halved. I don’t like that rule (although would be happy to let them steal the game once per show), but it’s by the by.

The winners get to play the bonus round. They get 2:30 to get as many words as they can – each correctly guessed word puts €1,000 in the pot and allows them to draw a Lingo ball to complete a line afterwards. There is always one ball from the initial set-up that will complete a line off the bat. If they get a Lingo they win the pot. If they find the silver ball they can opt to stop and leave with half the pot. There’s also a pink prize ball in there. It’s quite odd that the bigger the prize, the better your chance of winning (previously the prize was a flat €5,000).

ANYWAY, here’s episode 5,000 which went out last month. The winning team are surprised to hear the news that they will be playing for €5,000 a word in the end game.

And because we’ve been showing elderly episodes on Youtube this week, here’s an episode from 1998 hosted by Francois Boulange:

Dutch Lingo is probably the most cheerful and least objectionable show currently running on television. Here’s the official site where you can watch episodes. I’m surprised nobody’s tried reviving it over here – if GSN could get years out if it, why not Challenge? It must cost peanuts.

Take On The Twisters frankly stunned everyone when it won Best Studio Based Gameshow at the C21/FRAPA Format Awards at the world’s biggest telly trade show MIPCOM this evening despite getting even lower viewer and critical ratings than the show that won it the year previously.

The candidates for the awards were initially selected by C21Media.net’s community of 35,000 international television executives. Then a panel of buyers voted from 10 selected formats within seven genre categories.

We are sure it will become as big an international success story as previous winners of the award The Bank Job, Epic Win, Pretty Smart, The Encounter and 8 Out of 10 Cats.

This is what we thought of the show.

I’ve just bet my house on The Million Second Quiz winning it next year.

Here are the other awards for what they’re worth.

Per Seconde Wijzer (The Second Hand) takes its roots from a French show called Pas une seconde à perdre (Not a Second to Lose) from 1967. It ran for three years before being revived in 1988 by VARA, which broadcasts the show on Thursday nights (although is currently out of season). Journalist Kees Driehuis has been fronting it for 25 years.

Two contestants play each episode, but they’re not playing against each other in the main, they play an individual game and come back on a weekly basis (not unlike The $64,000 Question with Bob Monkhouse).

Each contestant picks one of five categories their round will be played on (modern times, history, art, science or sport). Each round consists of four questions, and each question nine answers. Simply the contestant must match the nine given clues to each answer. Each clue fits one answer. Simply match the clue to the answer when they come up. They can change answers if they like but must do it from memory – if they use an answer a second time then that blanks out the first clue they use it for unless they remember to declare the swap before they stop. They are up against the clock, they have 200 seconds to get through all four questions.

In the first week they must get five or more correct answers for every question, each one worth €20. Week two six at €25, week three seven at €30 and the final week they must get every single question right at €35 each which if successful will also double their entire pot. They can walk away after a successful week with the money won, if they fail they leave with a lovely clock and museum vouchers. To help them they have jokers. They begin with two and earn an extra one every time they get nine out of nine. They can be deployed after they’ve finished the round but before any answers are revealed, doing so will correct a wrong answer if they have any but also knock 16 seconds off the clock. For the final week the contestant gets any left over time from previous weeks as well.

Finally to guarantee some money gets won on an episode, the two players take part in a buzzer quiz. The pot starts at €10 for every correct answer given during the show. Both players are shown nine answers and must buzz in when they think they know which one fits the clue. Again each answer is used only once. At the end of the round each player is scored the pot +€50 for each right answer given, but -€50 for each wrong one. Whoever has the most money takes it home.

Here’s an episode from 1989! They don’t play the final game here.

In terms of gameshows featuring horror there’s a fine line between Fort Boyard and The Door really. It’s in the world and it’s in the tasks. In the feel. Estate of Panic = right side of the line. Scream If You Want To Get Off = wrong side of the line.

Hoping to stay on the right side of the line is the upcoming Release the Hounds on ITV2, and it’s certainly scoring full marks for setting:

They seem to be going for a striking Blair Witch feel. We really want this to be good. It’s “due out” as a one-off with a view to a series around Halloween on ITV2.

Today something that you could probably turn into something for BBC4, 2 Voor 12 (2 To 12) had a ten year run beginning in 1971 then returned in 1991 and has been going strong ever since, currently it can be seen on Thursday nights through VARA on NED2.

Hosted for the last 22 years by Astrid Joosten, 2 Voor 12 challenges two teams of two to find a twelve letter word against the clock consisting of the initial letters from the answers to twelve long-winded questions, often involving a piece of short film. Each team has fifteen minutes to answer the questions and work out the word (the final two minutes of the game are always given over to this bit, hence “two to twelve”). Each team plays by themselves – the second team wait backstage whilst the first team play, but the first team gets to watch the second team play from a sofa.

To help each team has access to encyclopedias and other reference material but using them costs the team money – they begin with €600 and are docked €1 for every two seconds they’re thumbing through a book (this penalty doesn’t seem to apply when using the computer – Dutch chums?) once they have finished they ring a bell to stop the countdown. It is usual for one player to take questions whilst the other researches an answer to an earlier question. The players may go back and change answers, but are not told which ones are right or wrong. The viewers are told, and the graphic for wrong answers comes up with a black background.

The final two minutes are used to find the word. The contestants ask for a letter to be placed (for example, “the ‘A’ from question eight”). If they got the answer right, the computer will reveal whereabouts in the mystery word that letter is. If they got it wrong then the position is revealed but filled in with a question mark. Each request to place a letter costs €10. If they find the word within the time they score a bonus of up to €100 depending on how many wrong answers they gave. Not finding the word means a score of zero.

The winning team gets to come back the following week to face a different team with a minute less on their clock. To win all the accumulated money they need to win a third match with a further minute knocked off. There seems to be some multiplication aspect to the prize money, although I haven’t worked it out.

Here’s an episode from 1993. Like yesterday it’s in guilders so the money and timings are slightly different but the game is basically the same. As you can see it looks mid-80s BBC2-tastic:

Of course you can also watch more modern episodes on the gemist service. Similar old-skool style low-key production, much more colourful set.

I think it may appeal to the sorts of people who quite like Only Connect, the biggest issue is the dead air that only watching people thumb through encyclopedias can provide, the contestants don’t seem to be encouraged to think out loud particularly. It gets around a million viewers which in the Netherlands is fairly good going, especially for what is a fairly intellectual quiz that’s been running on and off for forty years.

Lekker! This week Bother’s Bar goes Dutch where Monday to Friday we hope to showcase some interesting (and long running) Dutch quizzes and games that you can watch online. Dutch catch-up services for their main channels seem rarely geoblocked. For the latest Dutch format news we recommend visiting Squared Eyes’ It’s All About Television blog.

Today Met het Mes op Tafel (With a Knife on The Table), probably the most successful and longest-running poker-based quiz in the world. It is hosted by the actor Joost Prinson, who also invented it with John Cook. It has been going on and off since 1997, currently two series a year are broadcast on NED2.

Three people are staked €750 in actual real looking money. Each round begins with an ante (beginning at €10, doubling through each round until being capped at €80). Four questions are asked and contestants write their answer on a telestrator. The first player (rotating after each round) must either bet (between €10 and €50) or fold. Subsequent players my fold, call (match) the bet, or raise it up to the €50 limit. Joost then reads out the answers, then another round of betting. If more than one person remains, the first player to act must reveal how many answers they’ve got, then there is a further round of betting. Finally, if there is more than one person still in, the pot goes to the person with the most answers – if there’s a tie, a showdown sudden death buzzer question is played.

The lowest scorer is eliminated after round four leaving with nothing. The game continues heads-up until round seven which is all or nothing – the person behind has to go all in and the leader must match it. Another round of four questions, but after they’ve been asked the leader can choose to have one question replaced by another in the same category. The person with the most money at the end is the winner and gets to take it home. Each series is a tournament with 9 heats, three semi-finals and a final, with a large bonus for the ultimate champion.

(Questions to Dutch friends – if the person going into the final in the lead loses, do they keep the money they would have had in front of them? And conversely if the losing player had so little that the final pot still wouldn’t put them in front, do they do anything to juice it up?)

There’s not much on Youtube, here’s a clip from 1997. It plays basically the same but the cash and betting limits are slightly different because it’s played with guilders.

The first thing to strike you is how low-key the whole thing feels – the opening sequence does not shout “game show” at you. It properly feels like a backroom of a public house, albeit one with its own bar and piano player (Martin van Dijk, with barmaid Mylou Frencken providing vocals). Joost Prinson seems rather eccentric. As a sort of world it’s quite enticing and wouldn’t feel out of place as a show that would fit right in late night ITV circa mid-nineties, except they’re still making it for Friday evenings in 2013.

The game is interesting. As a no limit poker player myself I thought the betting structure seemed a little odd, but it is simple to grasp and it means the show doesn’t finish within two questions. When I first heard about the show ages ago I remember there was a suggestion that instead of a buzzer showdown there should be an estimated guess question. I was completely down with that right up until actually watching it for myself, whilst I think you’d get more poker out of it it’d also add a lot of extraneous work – if you asked them to do it as part of the set of four, they’d only be resolved once or twice per show. If you do it at the end then you’d be adding two rounds of betting to a round. I’m not quite convinced, although I’m sure there might be a better solution than the buzzers.

Anyway as promised you can watch episodes in full right here. The official webpage is here.