Seinfeld who? David Letterman what? Move over boys ’cause it’s looking like there’s a new king of the boob tube and his name is Wink Martindale.

As the man who captivated audiences in past game shows “Tic Tac Dough” and “Can You Top This,” Martindale has made a comeback to national television with Lifetime’s latest incarnation “Debt.”

Now, don’t feel too bad if you haven’t seen “Debt” yet — it is less than a year old (though you’d never guess it from first glance at the set).

The playing field is designed much like the game shows of the early ’80s and is complete with a very bland logo with the word “Debt” (which sort of resembles a gas station logo).

“Debt” opens with each of the three contestants telling how they got into debt and is often the most amusing part of the show. There is the “I’m in debt because I like to shop too much” and the “I’m in debt because my husband spends too much money on golf.”

And, of course, my all-time favorite, “I’m in debt because I spend all of my money on CDs.”

Following the contestant introductions, the name Wiiiiiiink Martindale is announced and the camera pans to this Dick Clark look-alike guy casting a John Travolta pose behind a blue curtain.

Martindale then skips his way to the host’s podium and introduces the game: “The country’s in debt, you’re probably in debt and most importantly, these three contestants are in debt.”

The opponents’ debts are then equalled out to one number and the competition begins.

In the first round, the players answer questions from five different zany categories, each involving some form of pop culture. What About Bob, for example, would be all questions about famous Bobs in the entertainment world.

Perhaps the best part of “Debt” is most of these questions have a huge clue within the question — making the game easy to play (much unlike “Jeopardy”).

As an example, the question may be “Not an old major-body-organ, but this actor had his own show in the mid-’80s.” (OK, so that was a stupid example. You’ll just have to watch the show.)

With each correct answer, the contestants have a portion of their debt eliminated. After the first round, the two players with smallest debt advance to round two — what I like to call the Prove It Round.

The leading contestant is given a category and is asked how many out of five he or she can get correct. The other opponent then has a chance to either try and answer one more or make their opponent prove it.

This segment in the show is particularly entertaining when two egotistical males (which is not to say women aren’t egotistical) are up there saying, “Oh yeah, well I can answer four,” or “You think so, well than PROVE IT (insert players name here).”

The winner from this round then has a chance to have their entire debt paid off.

The third round consists of answering 10 questions from the same category in 60 seconds and is usually pretty easy. (Although a chick on Friday didn’t know “Louis and …” in a category of Clark questions.)

If the player is able to answer 10 questions correctly, a very angry- looking bodyguard comes onto the set with a suitcase full of $10,000 which could be the contestant’s if he or she chooses to advance to the final round.

The final round’s category is picked by each player before the game and is supposed to be their specialty category (in other words, for me it would be Vanilla Ice). If they get the often very difficult question right, they win the cash. If they get it wrong, they go back to their original debt.

Even if the contestant decides not to go for the cash (which is rare), the question is asked to see if he or she would have gotten it right.

The show ends with Martindale giving the consolation prizes (“Debt” piggy banks) to the losers.

On the official “Debt” Website, Martindale explains the show’s “play along factor” and how it is what makes “Debt” so successful. Basically, “Debt” makes the dumb, but pop cultured person feel smart. Perfect.

“Debt” is aired on Lifetime (the channel with all of the tampon commercials) every Monday through Friday at 12:30 and 5:30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m.

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Corey Moss is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.