"Winning For a Living" Documentary Airing on Canadian TV Next Week

CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, is broadcasting an interesting documentary called "Winning for a Living" on Thursday, March 6th at 9:00 PM (9:30 PM NT). The documentary is a look at the sweepstakes hobby through the eyes of four passionate sweepers - or, as the documentary calls them, contesters. It gives a look at how these four handle sweepstakes entry, including tips and some of their theories about improving their luck. It also talks about how sweepstakes have changed their life, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse.

For example, one of the four is Mike Smith, who has won a quarter of a million dollars worth of prizes over the last 30 years. However, the constant focus on sweepstakes and contests has put a strain on his marriage. Rosemary Chiu used her sweepstakes winnings to help create a better life for herself and her three sons after a divorce left them destitute. However, she was embarrassed at times to say that the food she was able to give her family had come from entering sweepstakes. Fern Corraini said that she was too embarrassed to tell her family and friends that she enters sweepstakes - at least, until she started winning big prizes. Carolyn Wilman, however, says that she looks at entering sweepstakes as a way of teaching her five-year-old daughter about the power of positive thinking and hope.

The documentary also shows the marketers' perspective of sweepstakes, and how "professional" contesters - people who spend hours and hours entering - can sometimes defeat the purpose of the sweepstake. At the same time, the documentary shows that using sweepstakes as a method of advertising works, among "pros" and casual sweepers alike.

The CBC was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the documentary to review. For more information about my impressions, visit my Winning for a Living Review. If you have access to the CBC network, be sure to catch the documentary when it premieres on March 6th or during its repeat showing on Newsworld on March 8th at 10 pm ET/PT. Be sure to come back and tell me what you thought of it, I'd love to hear your opinions as well.