Back and forth

Quizzers and word games are my favorites, as I've mentioned a few times here. And wouldn't you know, I just bounced back and forth between two of the best. GSN showed one of their 4,356,721 reruns of Bill Engvall's Lingo, while a local station ran an episode of Jeopardy from last season.

The remote came in handy as I flipped between the shows. Thanks to a quick thumb and some timely commercials, I caught a lot of both episodes, including the complete final rounds. I guessed some of the words in the bonus round on Lingo but bombed on the caduceus in Final Jeopardy. (It's the medical symbol with the two snakes.)

Both shows got me talking to the screen, since both are built for play-along value. Lingo has been rerun so often that I remembered the contestants but couldn't remember any of the words. Which is the secret of the show's resistance to GSN's legendary rerun abuse. Didn't have any such issues with Jeopardy. The episode was completely new to me.

One thing became clear really quick: the difference between the hosts. Alex Trebek was scholarly and gentlemanly as always. Bill Engvall was wise-ass as always. At one point Engvall told an attractive but wayward contestant: "It's lucky you're so pretty." Hard to imagine Alex saying that.