Lingo is a British game show. The original iteration of the programme was made by Thames Television and Action Time for ITV and is based on the American version, it ran for a single series with host Martin Daniels from 12 May to 14 July 1988. A revived version based on the Dutch version has been airing since 1 January 2021 hosted by Adil Ray.
In the revival version, Objective Media Group revived Lingo with new presenter Adil Ray. The bingo element has been eliminated in the revival, focusing instead entirely on the word guessing game. In September 2022, ITV1 premiered the spin-off Celebrity Lingo, with RuPaul (who is hosting a U.S. revival of Lingo for CBS that is also being filmed in Salford) as host.. As of 2026, future Celebrity editions were presented by Adil Ray but kept the original Celebrity format.
The game is played between teams of two contestants, tasked with solving mystery words. The team in control is given the first letter of each mystery word and receives five attempts to guess and spell the word. After each guess, the team is told whether their guess contains letters that are in the mystery word and whether or not they are in the correct position. The two members of the team alternate taking each guess.
If the team fails to identify the word within five guesses, fails to make a guess within the 10-second time limit of each line on the grid, gives a misspelt or otherwise invalid word (each word is checked to ensure that it appears inside an unnamed dictionary approved for use by ITV), control is passed to the opposing team and one of the correct letters is revealed.
Contestants who are deaf or hearing-impaired are allowed to have an interpreter on the set, who may interpret between spoken words and sign language. However, the interpreter will not help with solving the words.
Each team solves four four-letter words (three four-letter words in Series 1) worth ã200 each, followed by a nine-letter Puzzleword (ten-letter Puzzleword in Series 1) worth up to ã300 but its value decreases by ã60 per letter after the first one as more letters are revealed.
Each team solves three five-letter words worth ã300 each, followed by a ten-letter Puzzleword (eleven-letter Puzzleword in Series 1) worth up to ã500 but its value decreases by ã80 per letter after the first one as more letters are revealed. In this round, failures can be stolen by opposing teams. The team with the least amount of money after Round 1 goes first and the team with the least amount of money at the end of this round is eliminated.
One member of each team is assigned to four-letter words and the other member of each team is assigned to five-letter words respectively with each member receiving two words alternately. Each word is worth up to ã500 but its value decreases by ã50 for each attempt. The four-letter word games are followed by an eleven letter Puzzleword, and the five-letter word games are followed by a twelve letter Puzzleword worth up to ã750 but its value decreases by ã130 per letter after the first one as more letters are revealed. Again, in this round, failures are passed on to the opposing team. The team with the least amount of money before each of the two games in this round goes first and the team in the lead at the end of this round advances through to the Final.
The winning team has 90 seconds to solve three more words in order to claim their winnings. If the team cannot solve a word, they may pass and receive a new one. The team must first solve one four-letter word to claim half of their winnings, then one five-letter word to claim the entirety of their winnings and then one six-letter word to double their winnings or as of Series 3, at this point, the team is given the option to risk their winnings on a seven-letter word instead of the six-letter word to win a ã15,000 jackpot; however, the team may not pass on this one and they lose all of their winnings if they fail to solve the word, as of Series 4 there is a twist: the winning team returns for the next show, However, a team can only appear up to three shows, even if they win on their third appearance. This means that a team can win a maximum jackpot of ã45,000 across all three appearances. The highest prize won so far is ã25,185.
Puzzlewords appear at the end of each part of each round excepting the final round.
In the 1988 version (which was based on the original U.S. syndicated version), the game was played between two teams. They were each assigned a 25-space "Lingo card" (similar to American bingo) with ten numbers on each card already marked (such that two were marked off on each horizontal row and two on each vertical column). The blue teamâÂÂs card contained only odd numbers, while the green team played with even numbers. Each word was five letters in length and each correct guess awarded ã50. Upon guessing correctly, the team would draw two balls from a hopper containing balls with the 15 remaining numbers on the card, two white surprise balls and three red balls. Drawn numbers were marked off on the team's Lingo card, and surprise balls awarded the team a prize. Drawing a red ball immediately ended the team's turn and passed control to their opponents. Forming a "Lingo" line of five numbers in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally awarded a ã100 bonus.
The team with the highest score at the end of the game advanced to the bonus round "No Lingo"; the team was given a new card with 16 spaces covered, arranged in a star shape along the diagonals, middle row and middle column (but excluding the centre space). Unlike the main game, the objective was to avoid forming a line of five in a row. The team once again had to solve mystery words (given the first letter and one additional letter) but were required to draw one ball afterward for each guess taken. If they failed to guess after five attempts, they had to draw two additional balls as a penalty (seven total). The hopper initially contains 39 numbered balls consisting of the even figures from 2 to 80 (but excluding the ball corresponding to the centre space) and one silver ball.
If the team drew a numbered ball, it was discarded and marked off if it appeared on their card. If the team drew the silver ball, they no longer had to draw any more numbers for the round and the silver ball was returned to the hopper. After each successful round, the team's pot is doubled and they are given the option to leave with their winnings or play another round. If the team forms a Lingo at any point, the game ends and the team's bonus winnings are reduced by half. Up to five rounds could be played, beginning with a base pot of ã100 and progressing to the grand prize of ã3,200, beginning with the second round, the ball corresponding to the centre space is added to the hopper.
On Celebrity Lingo, the rounds' values are increased to ã500, ã750 and ã1,000 for words and ã750 (ã100), ã1,000 (ã150) and ã1,500 (ã200) for puzzles (played with eight-letter, nine-letter and ten-letter words respectively). Unlike the civilian version, losing teams receive a consolation prize of ã1,000.