Million Dollar Neighbourhood premieres January 22 on OWN

From a media release:

New Series Million Dollar Neighbourhood Challenges 100 Families to Find a Million Dollars in 10 Weeks

• New series premieres Sunday, January 22 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada)

This January, Corus Entertainment’s OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada) presents the premiere of the new original series, Million Dollar Neighbourhood, an unprecedented social experiment set in Aldergrove, British Columbia in which 100 families have only 10 weeks to raise their collective net worth by $1 million. Produced by Force Four Entertainment Inc. in association with OWN (Canada), this series premieres Sunday, January 22 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

In the face of crushing debt, massive credit card bills, rocketing housing costs and out-of-control spending, the families step out of their comfort zones to tackle their financial problems together. The one-hour series is co-hosted by financial expert Bruce Sellery and clinical psychologist Dr. Joti Samra, who help the Aldergove neighbours address their personal problems with tough love and uncompromising directness.

In each episode, neighbours take on a community challenge and an individual challenge. To reach the community’s million dollar goal, every family must see an average $1,000 net worth increase each week. They will need to dig deep, downsize, earn, barter, share, swap, scrimp, save and collaborate with their neighbours in ways they never could have imagined, and if all one hundred families in this community can do it, they will truly become a Million Dollar Neighbourhood. To raise the stakes even higher, if the community makes their $1 million goal, they’ll choose one family to win the life-changing sum of $100,000.

In the premiere episode on Sunday, January 22, Sellery and Dr. Samra roar into town in the back of an armoured truck to issue the Million Dollar Neighbourhood challenge to the Aldergrove community – to save or earn $1 million in 10 weeks. First up, the neighbours have to surrender their credit cards, then they must head home and search for their “hidden money” – everything from loose change to five-figure savings on past years’ taxes courtesy of H&R Block’s Second Look SM program.

Inspired by the prevalent spending themes on the series, OWN (Canada) launched today a Facebook contest to determine the most common type of spending personality in Canada. Whether they are a status seeker, emotional over spender, indulgent parent, adrenaline junkie or bargain hunter, Canadian Facebook fans have up until Sunday, January 15 to ‘Take the Million Dollar Neighbourhood Challenge’ by going to www.facebook.com/owncanada and identifying their personality for a chance to win great weekly prizes.

To view a trailer of Million Dollar Neighbourhood and for more information about the series, please click here.