Lingo is a Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 game show that ran for 439 episodes on Radio-Canada

Télévision de Radio-Canada

Télévision de Radio-Canada is a Canadian French language television network. It is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, known in French as Société Radio-Canada. Headquarters are at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal, which is also home to the network's flagship station, CBFT-DT...

, from 1998 to 2001. It was hosted by longtime actor and radio/TV host Paul Houde.

Main game

The object of the game is the score the most in order to win the match. The team gets five guesses at a mystery five-letter word puzzle. If at any time they make a mistake, such as taking too long at a guess, misspelling a word, spelling a word that doesn't exist, spelling a word that is not five letters in length, repeats a word already guessed, or the word does not start with the established first letter, control passes over to the other team and is given a free letter unless only one is missing. The team that guesses the correct word will receive $

Canadian dollar

The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

50.

Lingo board

At the start of the match, both teams receive a Lingo board, with the red team playing with odd numbers and the green team playing with even numbers. 8 numbers are marked off each of their boards. Once a team guesses the right word, they get the chance to pull two numbers (one per player) out of a hopper. Once they complete their Lingo board, by getting 5 in a row across, up or down, or diagonally, they get $100. If however they pull a black ball out, they lose their turn and control passes over to the other side. (The black ball is called in French "L'infâme boule noire!", which translates to "infamous black ball".)

End of match

At some point during the match, a bell will go off, signifying the match will end after the current puzzle in play. After the puzzle is solved and two balls pulled out, the team with the most money become the day's champions and goes on to the "No Lingo" game. (The match will also end when either: (A) a team solves the puzzle but cannot make a Lingo as a new board requires Lingo to be made in as few as 3 pulls, or (B) when nobody solves the puzzle.) The runners-up receive a consolation prize.they will win at this point in the game.

Tiebreaker

If the match ends in a tie, another five-letter puzzle will be played with the teams alternating lines until one of them correctly guesses the word and wins the match.

No Lingo

The champions get to play the "No Lingo" game in which they are presented with a new Lingo board with 12 numbers marked off. Before the first puzzle, they are guaranteed $50 regardless of what happens afterward. That $50 is doubled to $100 for the first puzzle. Puzzles in this part of the game contained 2 letters, the first letter of the word and a second letter somewhere else in the word. Each line used adds a Lingo ball to be drawn. If they fail to guess the word after the fifth line, they have to draw 6 balls (1 per each line plus an additional penalty ball because they completely missed the word). Once they make the required number of draws without getting Lingo, or getting a gold ball (known in French as "boule d'or") at any time (which ends that round of draws, but the ball goes back in the hopper for a future draw), they are given the option to take the $100 and quit, or continue on and play for double, going through the same procedure as before, right on up to the $1600 level. Should they avoid getting a Lingo at this point, they will return the next day to defend their championship. If there is any time left in the show, a "sprint" game for $100 a word will be played with only the first letter of each puzzle showing. However, if they do get a Lingo, they lose all the money they accumulated and go all the way back to $50, and then play the "sprint" game to build up as much money as possible until show's end. Also, by virtue of getting a Lingo here, they are retired as champions and two new teams compete the next day.