Watch TV and Unlock Deals With These Viggle Tips

Viggle pays you one point per minute of the television shows you watch, but you have to confirm that you're viewing the show by holding your phone up to the television with the app open, and then tapping "Check in." The app will listen to the show you're watching and match it, then it will ask you to confirm the check-in. When the show ends, you'll earn the points. If you watch a show that you previously taped using your DVR, you can still get points for it as long as you watch it before 8:00 the next morning.

Although all television shows will reward you with one point per minute of viewing, there are some shows that will also give you bonus points. To find out which programs offer these extra points, tap "What's on" at the bottom of the app screen, and then tap "Featured" at the top. Some shows will give you an extra 50 points, while others may reward you with up to 1,000 extra points, so it's in your best interest to find out which shows are valued high each day.

As shown at left, we collected an extra 100 points for watching Chopped last week.

Some shows will allow you to play "Viggle Live" while your program is on television. You'll answer trivia questions on your phone during the show, and you can earn points for correct answers. We earned 25 points for each question answered correctly during MasterChef, as shown at left.

Important tip: You do not have to be checked into a show to play the Viggle Live games. Therefore, during times when you're away from the television and can't check into any shows, you can still earn Viggle Points by playing along with the trivia contests. This is especially simple when Viggle offers point opportunities for movies like "Star Wars" and "Austin Powers" and you know most of the answers without having to watch the movie again.

In some cases, when you check into a TV show, a banner will come up that offers you extra points for watching a commercial. Tap on the offer, and after the video ends, you'll collect the point bonuses (the commercials usually last 30 seconds or so).

In addition, Viggle offers bonuses for checking into certain live commercials that are on television. For example, anyone who checked into the app during an Oreo commercial shown while SportsCenter aired got an instant 200 bonus points, as shown at left.

If you're watching television with your kids, why not collect a few points during the show? You can check into any program, from children's shows to morning news programs to sports. In fact, many of the best bonus opportunities involve sporting events.

During some shows, you'll check in or watch a particular in-app commercial and a coupon will automatically pop up, as this one from Lowe's Home Improvement did while we were watching TV this week. Take a screenshot​ of these coupons on your phone so you can show them to the retailer to get your discounts.

In addition to pop-up coupons, you can find additional discounts and deals on the app by cashing in your points. For example, you can get $25.00 off of your $75.00 purchase at New York & Company using one of the offers shown at left if you cash in 7,500 points.

After using Viggle for two weeks, we had enough points to get a $5.00 gift card to CVS, and we weren't watching aggressively -- just legitimately checking in every time we watched a show and playing along to the Viggle Live opportunities. This means that over the course of a year, we could most likely qualify for multiple gift cards, saving serious cash just from watching the television.