Opening Spiels[]
1986 Pilot: MICHAEL: "Can you guess this five letter word beginning with the letter 'P'?" LADY: "Price, P-R-I-C-E." MICHAEL: "That's not it, but those squares around the letters P, C, and E mean that those letters are in the word, and in the right position, the I and R are not in the word at all. Try again." LADY: "Place, P-L-A-C-E." MICHAEL: "That's the word! Now, guess this five letter word beginning with the letter 'S'." LADY: "Skirt, S-K-I-R-T." MICHAEL: "No, it's not skirt, but the squares tell you the S and R are in the right place, and those circles, they mean that the K and T are in the word, but in different positions. Try again." LADY: Stork, S-T-O-R-K." MICHAEL: "That's right! Hi, I'm Mike Reagan and that's how you play LINGO!"
1987 Premiere: MICHAEL: "Can you guess this five letter word beginning with the letter 'P'?" DUSTY: "Price, P-R-I-C-E." MICHAEL: "That's not it, but the squares around the letters P, C, and E are in the word, and in the right position, the R and I are not in the word at all. Try again." DUSTY: "Place, P-L-A-C-E." MICHAEL: "That's right! Now, guess this five letter word beginning with the letter 'S'." DUSTY: "Skirt, S-K-I-R-T." MICHAEL: "No, it's not skirt, but the squares tell you the S and R are in the right place, and those circles, they mean the K and T are in the word, but in different positions. Try once more." DUSTY: "Stork, S-T-O-R-K." MICHAEL: "That's right! Hi, I'm Mike Reagan." DUSTY: "And I'm Dusty Martell." MICHAEL: "And that's how you play television's most challenging new game show." BOTH: "LINGO!"
1987 Version (A): "MICHAEL: "Can you guess this five letter word beginning with the letter (insert letter)?" DUSTY: "(insert guess)." MICHAEL: "That's not it, but the squares around the letters (insert letters) are in the word, and in the right position. The circles mean the (insert letters) are in the word, but in a different position. Try again." DUSTY: "(insert guess)." MICHAEL: "That's right! Hi, I'm Mike Reagan." DUSTY: "And I'm Dusty Martell." MICHAEL: "And that's how you play television's most challenging new game show." BOTH: "LINGO!"
1987 Version (B): RALPH: "Margaux, Can you guess this five letter word beginning with the letter (insert letter)?" MARGAUX: "(insert guess)." RALPH: "That's not it, but the squares around the letters (insert letters) mean those letters are in the word and in the right position. The circles around the (insert letters) mean those letters are in the word but in a different position. Try again." MARGAUX: "(insert guess)." RALPH: "That's right! Hi, I'm Ralph Andrews." MARGAUX: "I'm Margaux MacKenzie." RALPH: "And that's how you play television's most challenging new game show." BOTH: "LINGO!"
Woolery Version (2nd Season Only sometimes): RANDI: "America's favorite word game/It's not just letters, it's Lingo. And here's your host, Chuck (sometimes, Randi spells "C-H-U-C-K") Woolery."
Woolery Version (3rd Season Only): STACEY: "Let's/Get ready to play Lingo. And here's your host, (insert something crazy), Chuck Woolery."
Woolery Version (4th Season Only): (self contestant intros). CHUCK WOOLERY: "Hi, I'm Chuck. Let's play Lingo."
Woolery Version (5th and 6th Seasons): "(self contestant intros). CHUCK WOOLERY: "Hi, I'm Chuck. Today, the jackpot is worth (insert amount). Let's play Lingo."
Engvall Version: "(insert something crazy). Let's play some Lingo!"
REST OF SPIEL: (Season 1): "Hi, everybody. I'm Chuck Woolery, and welcome to Lingo. We have two teams playing today, for a chance to win (up to) $5,000 in cash and prizes." – Chuck Woolery
(Season 2): "Thanks, everybody, and welcome to Lingo. We have two teams playing today, for a chance to win more than $5,000/$15,000 in cash and prizes." – Chuck Woolery
(Season 3): "Thank you, Stacey. Thanks, everybody, and welcome to Lingo. We have two teams playing today, for a chance to win $5,000, and a fabulous Harrah's Vacation Package." – Chuck Woolery
(Seasons 4-6): CHUCK: "I'd like to welcome everybody to the/our show today, and wishing our contestants good luck. And let's welcome/say hello to (my/our co-host,) Shandi (Finnessey). Hello/Hi, Shandi." SHANDI: "Hello/Hi, Chuck." – Chuck Woolery
Catchphrases[]
"Here's how we play Lingo: The team in control gets up to five chances to guess a Mystery Word. We'll start with the first letter of the word. Players take turns making guesses, and our board will indicate if the letter is correct, and if it's in the right place. A correct answer is worth 25 points. But if at any time you give us a word that doesn't fit, isn't a real word, or you take too long, control passes to the next team and they'll have a chance to win those points. Now, the team with the correct guess then gets to draw two Lingo Balls with corresponding numbers to their own Lingo Board. All you have to do is (try to) complete a row of numbers, either five across, up and down, or diagonally. Each Lingo is worth 50 points. That's how you play the game." – Chuck Woolery explaining the rules of Lingo in Season 1.
"Here's how we play Lingo: The team in control gets up to five chances to guess a Mystery Word. We'll start with the first letter of the word. Players take turns making guesses, and our board will indicate if the letter is correct, and if it's in the right place. A correct answer is worth 25 points. But if at any time you give us a word that doesn't fit, isn't a real word, or you take too long, control passes to the next team and they'll have a chance to win those points. Now, the team with the correct guess then gets to draw two Lingo Balls with numbers that correspond to their own Lingo Board. All you have to do is (try to) complete a row of numbers, either five across, up and down, or diagonally. Each Lingo is worth 50 points and a free letter during Bonus Lingo. That's how you play the game." – Chuck Woolery explaining the rules of Lingo in Season 2.
"Here's how we play Lingo: The team in control gets up to five chances to guess a Mystery Word. We'll start with the first letter of the word. Players take turns making guesses, and our board will indicate if the letter is correct, and if it's in the right place. A correct answer is worth 25 points. But if at any time you give us a word that doesn't fit, isn't a real word, or you take too long, our judge Stacey will let us/you know and control will be passed on to the next team and they'll have a chance to win those points. Now, the team with the correct guess then gets to draw two Lingo Balls with corresponding numbers to their own Lingo Board. All you have to do is (try to) complete a row of numbers, either five across, up and down, or diagonally. Each Lingo is worth 50 points and a free letter during Bonus Lingo. That's how you play the game." – Chuck Woolery explaining the rules of Lingo in Season 3.
"Here is/comes your first/next puzzle/word. Starts/Begins with (insert letter)." – Chuck Woolery.
"How about a/an (insert letter)?" – Stacey Hayes/Shandi Finnessey (when announced the first letter of the word)
"No help." – Chuck Woolery (when nothing happened in the word)
"(Insert letter) drops/falls in." – Chuck Woolery (when a letter is in the correct position)
"(Insert letter) out of place/position." – Chuck Woolery (when a letter is in the word, but in the wrong position)
"Found a home for (insert letter)." – Chuck Woolery (when a letter is in the correct position after the wrong position)
"(descending scale) "(That's) Not a word/Spelled wrong/incorrectly/Misspelled/(That's) (Way) Too much/many letters." – Stacey Hayes/Shandi Finnessey (when a team spelled the word wrong, guessed that it isn't a real word, or the letters ran out of space during the game)
"(descending scale) (That's) A proper word." – Stacey Hayes/Shandi Finnessey (when a team guessed a word that could was only a proper noun, proper nouns used as common nouns were acceptable)
"Reach in there, and get your couple of Lingo Balls." – Chuck Woolery.
"(insert number)!" – Contestant
"(insert number[s]) for a Lingo." – Chuck Woolery (Seasons 1-2 only) and Stacey Hayes/Shandi Finnessey (Seasons 3–6) reminding the controlling team that there's only one space away from getting a Lingo.
"Lots of options for a Lingo." – Chuck Woolery (Seasons 1-2 only) and Stacey Hayes/Shandi Finnessey (Seasons 3–6) reminding the controlling team there's more than one space away from getting a Lingo.
"That's a Lingo!" – Chuck Woolery (when the controlling team reaches Lingo)
"(descending scale) Oh, the (dreaded) Red Ball/Stopper." – Chuck Woolery (when a contestant draws the Red Ball)
”Everything doubles in Round 2 of Lingo!”
"Welcome back to Lingo. And here's your host, (insert funny quote), here's Chuck." – Shandi Finnessey (at the start of Round 2, coming out of the second commercial break)
"This round, points are doubled. Meaning a correct word is now worth 50 points, a Lingo is worth 100 points. We've also added three Question Mark (?) Balls, and they act as wild cards and can be used to cover any number. The team in the lead/most points at the end of this round will go on to play Bonus Lingo for a chance to win up to $5,000/$15,000 in cash and prizes. – Chuck Woolery at the start of Round 2 in Season 2.
"This round, points are doubled. Meaning a correct word is now worth 50 points, a Lingo is worth 100 points. We've also added three Question Mark (?) Balls that Stacey has, and they act as wild cards and can be used to cover any number. The team in the lead/most points at the end of this round will go on to play Bonus Lingo for a chance to win $5,000 and a fabulous Harrah's Vacation Package." – Chuck Woolery at the start of Round 2 in Season 3.
"This round, points are doubled. We've also added three Question Mark (?) Balls. The team in the lead/most points at the end of this round will go on to play Bonus Lingo for a chance to win $10,000." – Chuck Woolery shortened at the start of Round 2 in Season 4
"This round, points are doubled. We've also added three Question Mark (?)/Wild Card Balls. The team in the lead/most points at the end of this round will go on to play Bonus Lingo for a chance to win a Progressive Jackpot of (insert Jackpot)." – Chuck Woolery shortened at the start of Round 2 in Seasons 5-6
"Here's your chance to win cash and prizes. Here's how it's gonna work: I'm gonna give you two minutes to guess as many words as you can. You'll have up to five guesses for each word. For every word you get it right, you'll get $100 and a Lingo Ball. You want to get as much money and as many (Lingo) balls as possible/you can, because you'll need those (Lingo) balls/numbers to try to complete your Bonus Lingo card in order to win your cash and prizes." – Chuck Woolery explaining the rules of Bonus Lingo in Season 1.
"Here's your chance to win up to $5,000/$15,000 in cash and prizes. Here's how it's gonna work: I'm gonna give you two minutes to guess as many as five-letter words as you can. You'll have up to five guesses for each word. For every word you get it right, you'll get a Lingo Ball, which you'll use to try to complete your Bonus Lingo card in order to win that $5,000/$15,000 in cash and prizes. You have (insert total bonus letter count) Bonus Letters; (insert number of bonus letters for main game Lingos) for the Lingos you got in the game, plus one for winning the game." – Chuck Woolery explaining the rules of Bonus Lingo in Season 2.
CHUCK: "Stacy/Shandi is gonna tell you how many Bonus Letters you have." STACEY/SHANDI: "You have (insert total bonus letter count) Bonus Letters, (insert number of bonus letters for main game Lingos) for the Lingos you got in the game, plus one for winning the game." – Chuck Woolery (about Bonus Lingo in Seasons 3–6)
"The clock is gonna start as soon as you see the first two letters of the first word. Good luck, and here we go." – Chuck Woolery (to start Bonus Lingo)
"If you're a Lingo fan, there are two ways to get in the game. You can play along with this show online and every time Lingo airs. You can also be part of an online Lingo Tournament, where for a small fee, you could compete for cash, prizes and a chance to be a contestant on a future episode of Lingo. All you have to do is logon/go to gsn.com/Lingo and we'll give you all the details." – Chuck Woolery telling the viewers about the Lingo Interactive after the contestant interviews and before Round 2 in Season 4, and before the game starts in Seasons 5-6.
Taglines[]
"We'll see next time, when we put little circles and little squares around letters, challenging you to play Lingo. For Dusty Martell, I’m Mike Reagan. Bye, everybody!" – Michael Reagan (1) (1987–1988)
"Our Lingo words for the day are, (insert words and sentence). For Dusty Martell, I’m Mike Reagan. Bye, everybody!" – Michael Reagan (2) (1987–1988)
Lingo is a Ralph Andrews Production and a Bernstein/Hovis Production!” – Dusty Martell (1987-1988)
"Remember, it's not just letters (sometimes language), it's Lingo! See you next time. Bye-bye." – Chuck Woolery, Stacey Hayes, and Shandi Finnessey (2002–2007)
Notes: Chuck Woolery said the entire tagline on his own from 2002-2003.
Stacey Hayes said the final two words from 2003–2004.
Shandi Finnessey said the final two words from 2004–2007.
End-of-Show Disclaimer[]
“All cash prizes are in Canadian currency.” - (1987-1988)