Idaho Falls sisters to compete on national TV game show ‘Lingo’
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IDAHO FALLS — Sisters Christina Stutzman and Ali Wilde of Idaho Falls recently had a ball recording an episode of the popular television game show ‘Lingo.’
“I was actually applying for a different game show called ‘Push Your Luck,'” Wilde told EastIdahoNews.com. “I was watching it one day, and thought, ‘Why not?’ I really wanted to be on that show.”
A few weeks later, she was contacted by the casting department.
“I had kind of forgotten about it,” Wilde admitted, laughing.
The studio wasn’t casting for ‘Push Your Luck’ but producers asked Wilde if she would like to be considered for ‘The Cube,’ a show that required a partner.
“I was so excited,” Stutzman recalls. She didn’t hesitate for a moment to agree when Wilde asked her to try out with her.
Although they were eventually cut from that show, and Wilde was cut from ‘Password’ with Jimmy Fallon after that, it wasn’t long before they were given another opportunity. It was for ‘Lingo,’ hosted by RuPaul.
‘Lingo’ is a lot like Wordle — just bigger. The idea of the game is to guess the word in as few tries as possible. Contestants are given the first letter of every word and have five attempts to guess the correct word.
“(The producers) had told us, ‘This is not a for-sure thing. We can still cancel,'” Wilde recalled.
“I didn’t quite have my hopes up,” Stutzman admitted. She knew the casting process could be long.
Producers finalized the taping just ten days before they flew to Manchester, England. They still weren’t guaranteed a spot on the show but were thrilled to have a free trip to England and two days to sight-see and explore.
“We probably walked 20,000-plus steps in one day,” Stutzman said, laughing.
Their third day in England was spent taping. All contestants had to surrender their phones so they couldn’t leak information or post pictures.
“We were just having a blast filming with RuPaul, hanging out with the other contestants, and eating all the snacks backstage,” Stutzman said.
“We’ve loved gameshows pretty much our whole lives,” Wilde said.
After a long day of taping, the sisters flew home to Idaho, safe and sound.
The duo can’t say if they won, but are excited for the episode to air.
“We’re excited,” Wilde said. “It will be a fun night.”
And to anyone thinking about applying for a gameshow, the sisters say, “Just go for it. You might as well. You have nothing to lose.”
The episode airs Wednesday, March 15 at 8 p.m. on CBS.
Watch our interview with the sisters in the video player above.