I survived a Pinoy game show

D: What are you doing tomorrow?
Me: I have a meeting. What's up?
D: You wanna do Pinoy Bingo? I have to bring seven friends.
Me: Uh...
D: Come na.

Me with (clockwise from left, standing) Migz, Angel, Boom, Gali, Meli, and Nica. Behind us is the Pinoy Bingo Night version of a tambiolo!

What the heck. In the spirit of embracing new experiences, I fixed my sched and agreed to go. This was probably my only chance to ever be on a game show so might as well!

The next day, we were at the studio at the given call time. Apparently, TV is a lot like the Warriors in that there's a fake call time. "Be there by 5:00," D told me the day before. But we didn't start until 9:00 pm! Wished I had a good book with me, but we ended up hanging at a nearby Dencio's for a bit, before continuing our wait in the dressing room. As Nova Villa played during the first part of the show, the rest of us sat in that little room, doing nothing. (Meli, who needed some energy after a tiring day, was munching on some sugar--raw sugar!--which she nicked from a sugar bag outside.)

Pinoy Bingo Night is a new game show hosted by Kris Aquino. It's basically a contestant versus the audience, but while the audience plays regular bingo, the contestant plays something a bit harder. On that day, D had to play "crossword bingo":

1) Before he pulled the lever to release a bingo ball, he had to say either "odd" or "even."
2) If the ball comes out bearing his choice, then he's credited. E.g., He says "even," and "B4" comes out. In this case, one of his two Bs lights up.
3) The audience gets to mark whatever number comes out off their cards.
4) If D gets is wrong, none of his letters light up. If he gets it right, but the letters corresponding to the ball are already lit up, he doesn't get credited for it.

In theory, it's harder for D to win because he could make the wrong guess all the way and not win, while someone from the audience, no matter what, would win. Hence, D was playing for a million while the audience was playing for P50,000--but if, say, four people win, they wouldn't have to split the pot; they would each get the fifty grand.

D was tasked to bring seven people, a panel of coaches to help him decide between odd and even. His chosen seven: girlfriend Angel, best friend Meli, "brother" Gali, teammates Nica and Migz, director Boom, and myself. We were supposed to support his every choice and kind of play against the audience--like if someone was namumuro, we had to go "Wala! Wala!" Only Migz and I were kind of emphatic about this though. Haha. Sumusunod lang kay direk!

We walked into the studio which was actually pretty awe-inspiring. Boom mentioned how he took a tour of game show sets in the US--Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, which I totally envy him for--and none of them were as tricked out as our Pinoy game show sets. There was that huge clear ball containing mini-balls with the Bingo numbers, a lever which controlled the air and sucked in the balls, a huge screen to show which letters D already had. And backstage, a crew member who was sleeping through the racket.

D--lookin' all Tiger Woods-y in his yellow shirt and black jacket, and that sunny-side-up cap that drives me nuts--ended up losing. He had two Os left before two people from the audience yelled "Bingo!" He didn't ask two or three of us for help, which was totally fine--at least I had nothing to do with his loss! Haha.

I would say that it's another thing I could check off my list, but really, I never even thought to put "appear on a game show" on my list! Would've been fun to sit in the audience and play for real though!