Compers on the TV
Extreme Sweepstakers
First of all, those oh-so-subtle Americans delighted us with ‘Extreme Sweepstakers’ on TLC. Riding on the success of ‘Extreme Couponing’, this is a show that’s ridiculously over-dramatic, following three sweepstakes addicts in the US. I set it on a series link but got three recordings of the same show… I heard there was a different one, but couldn’t track it down!
UPDATE: thanks to @LuckCluck on Twitter, I’ve discovered that the mysterious second episode was actually High Stakes Sweepers from 2011, which you can watch in full on YouTube here. It seems the pilot episodes of both Sweepstakers and High Stakes Sweepers were repackaged as two episodes of Extreme Sweepstakers for the UK.
Here’s the trailer from US telly…
Incase you don’t know, a sweepstake (or sweeps) is the US equivalent of our prize draw – and a contest is their version of our competition. I was interviewed for something similar in the UK last year and had to explain to the producer that no, we can’t win holidays and cash on demand. He looked upset and the UK show was never commissioned. I got a free lunch out of it, at least.
Karen is an old school comper. She has comp club meetings at the local mall, hunts out local low-entry comps and, best of all, uses my tried-and-tested technique of sticking stuff all over envelopes and postcards! I like Karen. At the end of the show she gets a WTC (winning telephone call) for $10,000. Cool.
Jessica is more of a timewaster, spending five hours a day entering for anything and everything it seems. Her ‘mentor’ Steve tells her: “You’re spending all your time fishing for sweepstakes when you should be spending all your time entering them – using Roboform you could have a programme that enters them all for you automatically.” Her response? “It takes too much time”. Erm, OK.
Mariah is a teenage sweeper. She’s incredibly enthusiastic about her hobby, and needs a new car. By the end of the show, she’s won one. I like Mariah very much – she wants to go to University and is winning her way there. She’s one of the few young people who genuinely believes comping can change their life, and is very ambitious. I added her as a Facebook friend this week and I’ll be watching eagerly to see where her sweeping takes her next!
Something for Nothing
The important part of ‘Something for Nothing’ was Jane Willis making an appearance. Jane’s a comping hero for many of us – she’s been comping for 28 years and is a regular contributor to Compers News magazine, as well as producing her own comping newsletter, Competition Grapevine. In the show Jane’s busy shopping for on-pack promotions, browsing the internet for comps, blipping Budweiser packs and giving top tips (enter local comps, short-lived comps and comps with lots of prizes). I loved her part of the show – although did find it strange that the production team featured so many ‘purchase necessary’ comps and recommended subscriptions to comping magazines, when the show is about getting ‘something for nothing’! Surely more of a focus on free Twitter, Facebook and online comps would have been better? Harry also told us that Jane spends ‘just an hour a day’ entering comps. Are you sure, Harry? Is this like the interview I did with the Mirror where the 200-300 competitions I told them I did each week ended up as ’20-odd a week’ in print? Still, I thought Jane was great. And no faked wins either – the Bud one was genuine! Good work.
You can watch Episode 1 of ‘Something for Nothing’ on 4OD for the next month or so at www.channel4.com/programmes/something-for-nothing/4od
