''Extreme Couponing'' (renamed ''Extreme Couponing: All-Stars'' for its third season) is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

entertainment series produced by Sharp Entertainment and aired on cable network

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

in the United States and Canada.

History

Extreme

coupon In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in r ...

ing is an activity that combines shopping skills with couponing in an attempt to save as much money as possible while accumulating the most groceries. The concept of "extreme couponers" was first mentioned by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' on March 8, 2010, in an article entitled "Hard Times Turn Coupon Clipping Into the Newest Extreme Sport". On March 25, 2010, ABC Nightline followed up with its Season 3 premiere with a segment entitled "Extreme Couponing Competition: How Far Can $50 Go?" TLC's ''Extreme Couponing'' is a show about shoppers who make extensive and focused use of coupons to save money while accumulating large quantities of goods. It was previewed in December 2010; after surpassing network expectations with more than 2 million viewers, it received a series order and began regular airings in April 2011. On June 6, 2011, TLC announced it ordered a second season of ''Extreme Couponing''. It premiered on Wednesday, September 28, 2011. The third season debuted on May 28, 2012. On November 20, 2015, the show returned to Discovery Family, a sister network to TLC, and was renamed ''Greatest Givers: Extreme Couponing'' for its run during the Thanksgiving season. It now runs regularly on Thursday nights on Discovery Family.

Reception

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' columnist

Virginia Heffernan Virginia Heffernan (born August 8, 1969) is an American journalist and cultural critic. Since 2015, she has been a political columnist at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and a cultural columnist at ''Wired (magazine), Wired''. From 2003 to 2011, she w ...

described the show as "a deceptively simple look at the complex drama of American spending and the paradoxes of parsimony." ''

E! Online E! (an initialism for Entertainment Television) is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniver ...

''s critic Jennifer Arrow called it a "recessionista series" marked by "a lot of tawdry, exploitative 'reality and participants "just doing their crazy best to stretch dollars and provide a little more for their families." Ken Tucker of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' noted that the show "has elicited some extreme reactions", and called it "a canny example of two elements floating through the country right now," citing "a fascination with extreme behavior as it's filtered through reality TV" and "the fact that a lot of people don't have as much money as they used to." The show has come under fire by consumer

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

gers and experts such as Jill Cataldo about potential coupon misuse on the show. Actions such as the use of coupons for incorrect items,Quentin Fottrell
"Extreme Couponing Star: I Was a Scapegoat"
, '' SmartMoney'', May 11, 2011. using counterfeit coupons, and encouraging compulsive hoarding have been cited as reasons to question the show's authenticity.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2010–2011)

Season 2 (2011)

Season 3: ''All-Stars'' (2011–2012)

Shoppers compete in a reality series that features 12 of the best "Extreme Couponing" savers in 30-minute challenges to see who can save the most on $500 worth of merchandise, which is then donated to charity.

Season 4 (2012)

Season 5 (2012)

References

External links

*
TVGuide.com

ExtremeCouponing.com
* * {{Former TLC Programming 2010 American television series debuts 2010s American reality television series English-language television shows TLC (TV network) original programming 2012 American television series endings