Do you miss watching people clear shelves to buy 60 bottles of mustard just because they can? Couponers whose hauls are so huge they cause the cash register to break down? Or shoppers who misuse coupons and even use counterfeit ones, just to make their savings look even more impressive?
Well, buckle up then, because three years after airing its last original episode, “Extreme Couponing” is back!
Sort of.
The love-it-or-hate-it reality show returns to TV this week. But if you’re a fan (or foe), don’t get too excited (or angry) about a possible permanent return.
“Greatest Givers: Extreme Couponing” is set to air at 9pm (8pm CST) this Friday, November 20th on Discovery Family Channel, a sister network of TLC, the series’ original home. The special is part of the network’s “Project Thank You” campaign, which features “gratitude-focused programming” for the Thanksgiving season.
The campaign kicked off with the debut of treasure-hunting reality show “Lost & Found” last week, followed by “Greatest Givers: The Lottery Changed My Life,” a special that “takes a look back at some of the most generous lottery winners featured on the hit series.” In a similar vein, the Extreme Couponing special “revisits the good deeds done by the super shoppers of Extreme Couponing.”
During its original two-year run, from 2010 to 2012, Extreme Couponing attempted to strike a balance between greed and goodness. For every shopper whose stockpile looked more like a hoard, there were others who were shown donating their hauls to the less fortunate.
All the better to help insulate the show from some of the criticism it received, for showing some shoppers bending and breaking the rules, using coupons for the wrong items, and even using confirmed counterfeits.
So the new special aims to focus on the positive, less objectionable, moments of the series. The network hasn’t released a full description of the show, but it reportedly contains a mix of old and new segments. “Melissa” from season 2 (and from the All-Stars specials) says she’ll be in it, as does the founder of Operation Troop Aid, a military charity that received care-package donations from “Nathan” in season one.
Discovery Family is seen in far fewer homes than TLC, and with the special airing on a Friday night, it’s unlikely to bring in boffo ratings. So chances are pretty good it won’t generate a groundswell of support for a series revival. Discovery Family, after all, bills itself as having “a clever mix of original series (and) programming from Discovery’s non-fiction library.”
“Programming from the library”, in other words, means repackaged reruns.
With 47 episodes that have already been run and rerun ad nauseum, the “Greatest Givers” special is a chance to breathe a bit of new life into the Extreme Couponing concept, and generate some cheap “new” programming. And the charitable focus puts a warm and fuzzy sheen on the franchise, just in time for Thanksgiving.
But remember, after Thanksgiving comes Black Friday. The tide quickly turns from counting your blessings, to trampling other shoppers and doing whatever it takes to get all the best deals. So once the season of giving transforms into the season of getting, if the special has whet your appetite for more televised couponing, there will be plenty of time to catch up on Extreme Couponing reruns.
Because giving to charity is nice – but you never know when you’re going to need 60 bottles of mustard.
Looking at all the exposes about coupon frauds, I am disappointed real people can’t coupon in Canada. I see differant ways to coupon here, but who wants to buy a paper for a dollar for “maybe” a chance to get a dollar off something.Hoestly , I’m not spending money for coupons, how is that saving? Just like a certain store in my city where they want you to pay for an anual membership to get discounts. Are you kidding me? I’m not paying for discounts! Especialy when I hardly shop your store. I have received some very good coupons for free at differant websites but I find them hard to come by. Good luck to the lucky ones, I wish I was one of them. I’ll stick to the better points programs available without catches.
Why not show a new kind of extreme couponing where people don’t necessarily save 100%, by buying 100 bottles of hot sauce, but saving as much as they can for simple everyday shopping. Extreme that is more realistic.
Hello,
I’d Like You To Know I Loved That Show Extreme Couponing. I Wish You Would Bring That Back On TLC I Thought Maybe You Could Put Them On Saturday’s Or Sunday’s My Channel Is (623)HD I’d Even Like To See New Episodes If You Can. Please Let Me Know.
Please Please bring back Extreme Couponing. Such great ideas and help in our everyday life. We may all not be able to accomplish what these fabulous shoppers have done but it gets us motivated to at least save money and shop wisely.
I hope the show comes back on with new episodes and season. I enjoy watching the show. I watch the reruns all time.
I wish we could extreme coupon in the real world again. Seems so far away now that the greedy retail giants have taken double coupons away and stopped releasing coupons that actually matter. The golden era is sadly over. Now we’re reduced to living off of dollar store merchandise to survive. An Albertsons was turned into a Market Street here in Texas and the good sales and coupons have been eliminated. As well as 200 jobs from the United they closed down to open it. But hey, their sales have tripled because they slapped some paint on it and put in a hardwood floor with fragrance running through the building. I wish I was kidding. We, the couponers, have lost every battle since 2013.
I hope the “Greatest Givers” episode will feature the CPG budgets that extreme couponers leverage to fund their generosity.
Calling extreme couponers “greatest givers” is a bit like giving the FedEx guy sole credit for all the Christmas presents you received.
I wish there would be a new season of Extreme Couponing. Love the show & I watch the reruns all the time!