Wife Swap

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Wife Swap, airing on ABC on Mondays now that Monday Night Football has moved to ESPN, is a remake of the popular show with the same title that aired on the DuMont Network during the disco era. The original Wife Swap, of course, followed the lives of families which had, in fact, permanently swapped wives with each other. As attitudes toward such stuff have changed, the FCC would never let a current network {not even Cinemax) air such racy programming today. Thank you, religious right (sigh).

In the current version of Wife Swap, the producers choose two women whose families are too busy, stoned, or just plain clueless to notice their absence. The two families switch wives, and the first family to notice wins valuable prizes. If nobody notices within two weeks, the producers of Wife Swap offer to pay the attorney fees for a divorce settlement, if the women wish. So far, the families are batting about .500, with a third of the "losers" ending up in divorce court. The constant family fighting that occurs in the current Wife Swap does bring in viewers, but polls indicate that most viewers prefer the original format of the show.