In 2011, I participated in a pilot episode of a show called High Stakes Sweepers on TLC. (SPOILER ALERT: It wasn’t picked up as a series.)

Why?

Here are my guesses:

  1. we were not odd, weird, or nuts enough for their viewing audience and,

  2. you can’t win on cue!

I think the second point is the most valid, as it took all the participants weeks to explain to the producers how this hobby actually works.

They wanted a casting tape of each potential participant, and as part of our discussions, I received this email (edited to protect the innocent):

Hey Carolyn-

Before you send the video, can you please make sure to give us a tour of the house and show us all the things you have won on the tape? The network really wants to see that. If you have any prizes piled up in a room or corner of the house, that would also be great to see. Please make sure to answer the questions that we sent you. The answers are what the network is looking at, combined with the footage of what you have won.

Also, tell us if there are any big prizes that will be delivered soon or any contests for large prizes that will be announced soon. We are looking to see if any grand prizes you have entered in will be ending between May 30 through June 10, or any past grand prizes you have won will be delivered during that time.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to getting the video.

Have a great weekend,

OH BOY!  They really didn’t get it.  I don’t have piles of prizes around the house, and I can’t predict what I am going to win.

Here was my response:

Hi,

There are no piles of prizes in our home. The biggest prizes I have won have been trips. Many other items have been consumed, such as: food prizes, gift cards, movie passes, concert tickets… All the other items have been integrated into our lives, such as clothes, small appliances, DVDs, etc. Sometimes, I even forget that we won it; it’s been around for so long.

I don’t know any “prize pigs”. I know the network wants dramatic or extreme footage to get the viewers, but most sweepers are normal people who win like I do.  By looking at my home, you could never tell what I won and what I bought.  (Well, except for the giant bean bag chair in the family room with the Dr. Pepper logo, LOL!)

I have not won anything “big” since January 2010. My husband won a trip to the British Open that he went on last June. (If you want to know what I have won exactly, please review the spreadsheets I sent over earlier this week.)

There are always large prizes being drawn. You can never predict what you will win or when. This is the reason why many who start the hobby give up after a few months. They don’t see big results right away, begin to think it’s a big waste of time, and give up. Big mistake, because you never know when you will win a “biggie”!

The only way you can guarantee you will be able to film the grand prize winner is to start at the other end of the promotion. TLC is running a CAKE BOSS contest closing at the end of May. If you read the rules, you will discover there is a clause regarding publicity.  Legally, you can film the prize winner as they pre-agreed to using their name, likeness, etc. You can also look to see what other promotions/sweepstakes Discovery is running.

I hope this helps.
Carolyn

To make it more exasperating, I took my daughter’s PIN code hunting (that will be a whole ‘nuther blog post) and hoped some of the codes we found would net us an instant prize on camera. So we set up in my office with my computer and my cellphone (all logos covered up and taped off) to see if I could win on cue.

I entered all the codes from the caps online. Nothing. We had a code from an ice cream bar that I had saved, so I thought I would give that a go. It was a text-in-to-win. I couldn’t get the code to work.  Very frustrating. (To read the full version of what happened with the PIN code, I blogged about a Sweeper’s Persistence.) In the end, when the cameras were busy filming my friend Katherine in another part of the house, I tried again, and with much finagling, I won.

When they were finished, I called the director and let her know what had happened. She couldn’t believe it. They came up, took an image of the instant win screen. It never made it into the show. Even with the camera feet away from me, it shows you can’t win on cue!