Bingo America - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) New Jersey. A decade after the Holland Tunnel, the second Hudson River channel opened on December 22, 1937.
• A2) The Golden Rule. The ethic of reciprocity provides the moral basis for many principles of modern human rights.
• A3) Wisconsin. A wheel of cheese and the cow needed to produce it feature prominently on the state quarter released in 2004.
• A4) The Daily Show. Carell had been with The Daily Show for six years and Helms for four before they joined The Office. Both continued their old roles for a season or more.
• A5) Passions. Although the series has won four Daytime Emmy awards, all of them have been for music or sound.
• A6) Mayonnaise. The name of the condiment derives either from the Spanish town of Mahon or the French word manier, meaning "to blend".
• A7) Harrison Ford. The Falcon was his spaceship in the original Star Wars trilogy, while Air Force One opened in theaters two decades later.
• A8) Mecca. The Five Pillars of Islam also include belief in God and the prophet Muhammad, daily prayers, concern for the needy, and self-purification through fasting.
• A9) Pacific Coast Highway. The name officially refers to the section of State Route 1 between I-5 in Dana Point and U.S. Route 101 near Oxnard.
• A10) Queen. When setting up a chessboard, remember that each queen goes on a square of the same color. The white queen starts on a white square and the black queen on a black square. In addition, remember "white on right"; the near right corner square is white.
• A11) True. Actually, this is False. The singer met the actress in 2002, while the song was written in 2000 and released the following year.
• A12) False. Actually, this is True. Air Force One is always used as the air traffic control call sign of whatever plane the U.S. President is flying in.

This was probably the easiest set of questions ever to appear as a Trivia Why's Random Quiz. Throw in the errors at the end (sadly, during the most important part of the game as far as the contestants were concerned), and you can see why I don't recommend Bingo America.

Bingo America - Random Trivia Questions

This week's random quiz comes from the March 31, 2008 episode (rebroadcast this week) of Bingo America (see my review). The match contained 23 questions, so skipping all of the even-numbered ones leaves the dozen you see (when a round runs long, questions switch format from short-answer to true-or-false [or multiple-choice with two choices]).

Bingo America Questions

• Q1) What state is connected to New York by the Lincoln Tunnel?
• Q2) What rule says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?
• Q3) Which U.S. state is the largest cheese producer?
• Q4) Before Steve Carell and Ed Helms wore ties on The Office, they were correspondents on what fake news show?
• Q5) What daytime soap opera takes place in the fictional New England town of Harmony?
• Q6) What sandwich spread is traditionally made from egg yolk, oil, and lemon juice?
• Q7) Which actor was a carpenter before he took off on Millennium Falcon and Air Force One?
• Q8) According to the Koran, Muslims are asked to make a pilgrimage to what Saudi Arabian city?
• Q9) In 2006, Mel Gibson was pulled over for speeding on what famed California roadway?
• Q10) What is the most powerful and only female piece in the game of chess?
• Q11) True or False: Jennifer Love Hewitt is the inspiration for John Mayer's hit "Your Body Is a Wonderland".
• Q12) True or False: Air Force One is the name of any plane the President flies on.

Bingo America Review

I thought this was going to be a Bingo game when I first heard about it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that it's actually a trivia game in disguise. Bingo serves as the overall theme and allows the audience to participate at home filling out game cards.

Name	Bingo America (originally National Bingo Night)
Original Run	May 2007 to present
Host	Patrick Duffy (formerly Ed Sanders et al.)
Length	Half hour
Currently On	Game Show Network (weekdays at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., weekends at 4:30 p.m.; check your local listings)
IMDB	Current Version and Old Version

Description: Bingo America is a simple head-to-head trivia contest. To win, a player needs to correctly answer a B, I, N, G, and O question to win a round and two out of three rounds to win a game. Each question is preceded by a Bingo ball being randomly drawn from a giant globe, and the letter on the ball dictates what the question will be (the number is used for viewers at home; click on the GSN link above to participate). After the question is read, the players race to buzz in (probably with a Jeopardy!-like lock out system to prevent early clicking) and answer. Correct answers earn the letter on the ball if the player needs it, and the number on the ball is added to the prize pool in dollars.

If the two players split the first two rounds, the third round consists of only five questions, whose answers begin with the letters 'B', 'I', 'N', 'G', and 'O' respectively. Whoever wins three of the five wins the match.

The winner proceeds to a bonus round in which a prize is randomly selected by a process that isn't worth describing. If you think of the shopping round at the end of the original Wheel of Fortune, you have an idea how senseless this part of the show is (well, the advertisers probably like it).

Conclusion: Overall, Bingo America is a nothing-special trivia game that tries to achieve popularity by running a simultaneous contest for home users that has nothing to do with trivia. The questions are fairly simple (approximately $1,000 or lower Millionaire caliber, which makes much of the game a buzzer race), the interruptions for the home game are numerous (before every question), and the prize round is pointless. The show is almost tolerable on a DVR, but its longevity will ultimately depend on Bingo-lovers, not trivia fans.