Wife Swap (U.S. TV series)
| Wife Swap | |
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| Genre | Reality |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 124 (original series) 40 (Celebrity Wife Swap) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 42 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 26, 2004 – August 13, 2010 (original run) March 21, 2013 – May 2, 2013 (revived series) January 2, 2012 – September 2, 2015 (Celebrity Wife Swap) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Wife Swap is an American reality television program that was first broadcast on the ABC network in 2004. In the program, two families, usually from different social classes and lifestyles, swap wives/mothers – and sometimes husbands – for two weeks. The program will usually deliberately swap wives with dramatically different lifestyles, such as a messy wife swapping with a fastidiously neat one, or a wife who only cooks vegan swapped with a non vegan wife, documenting the cultural and social differences that the two families discover with the new family member. A spin-off series featuring celebrities debuted January 2, 2012 under the title Celebrity Wife Swap. On March 2, 2013, ABC confirmed that original Wife Swap would return March 21, 2013.
During the first week, the new wife must adhere to exactly the same rules and lifestyle of the wife she is replacing. Each wife leaves a house manual which explains her role in the family and the duties she holds. This helps to determine what rules the wives will apply at the "rules change ceremony".
During the second week, the new wives are allowed to establish their own rules, and their new families must adhere to these new household rules. It usually takes a while for the families to adjust to this policy, meanwhile the wives disburse a sum of money to the family they have become involved with, to do what the wives see fit to spend it on.
At the end of the two weeks, the two couples all meet together for the first time, and the wives, along with their husbands, discuss how they felt about the two weeks. This often descends into personal insults and has degenerated into violence at least twice. More often than not, however, both families reach toward a middle ground and express that they have learned from the experience. Sometimes, the table meeting is a very heartfelt and emotional time for the two families who sometimes have complete and mutual respect for each other. A few weeks later the cameras return to record what changes have occurred since the swap.
In early 2004, ABC announced a U.S. version of the British show Wife Swap, to be called Trading Moms, having outbid Fox Network for the rights for the format in the U.S. In June the same year, Fox publicized a program with an almost identical format to Wife Swap entitled Trading Spouses, which it began broadcasting on July 1.ABC then reverted to the original UK title for their series, which began on September 26. In December 2004, RDF Media sued Fox for copyright infringement for reproducing the Wife Swap format without their permission. In 2008, FOX sold the rights to the show to CMT, ending the run.
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