Community Chat

[rolen]

I just read an article in a local paper about the start of the new season of Extreme Couponing. The columnist said she was always having readers ask her why she did not explain to them how to get the same results as people do on the show.

She said that what they film on the shows was not honest and there is no way a regular shopper could attain the same results. She then explained that when she checked into the details of the show, she discovered that it was much more about 'entertainment' than 'reality'. She specifically mentioned several stores (one was a Kroger, the other two seemed to be local stores) that did not double coupons for their regular customers despite what was shown on the TV show. She talked to the owners and they admitted that they did not normally double coupons nor did they allow customers to use hundreds of coupons in one trip. They all basically said they allowed it just for the publicity of having a TV show taped in their store. One manager said something like - I did it to show how 'coupon friendly' we were.

One of the stores also admitted that they also allowed the TV show customers to use coupons for items that were not what the coupon were for. Again, they frankly said they allowed it so the show would tape the program in their store. One manager did admit that he now regretted allowing the show to tape in his store. He said he had such negative calls and comments from his regular customers about the fakeness of what they saw and the fact that they were not allowed to do the same things as the TV customer.

What a sleazy production in all aspects. The producers of the show acting like the shoppers really could get all those deals, the shoppers going along with it, and the stores themselves knowingly changing rules for the show.

I don't think there is much reality in Reality TV anymore. The majority of House Hunter and My First Home type of shows are totally fake with the prospective buyers having already bought the house and just acting like they are really still looking.