# Trading Spouses - For Real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226 "2004-06-14T02:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lando\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Lando\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lando_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/1 "2004-06-14T02:22:06Z")
Am I the only one who noticed the very vague commercial for “WifeSwap” during the NBA finals tonight? Looks like another crappy (hilariously crappy?) reality show that I’ll be suckered into watching. Anybody have more info on it? ---
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/2 "2004-06-14T02:37:41Z")
I was just wondering the same thing. [ABC.com says this.](http://abc.go.com/primetime/schedule/2004-05/wifeswap.html) > [@](#): > > Already a smash hit in the UK and most recently awarded a BAFTA, the UK’s most prestigious television award, “Wife Swap” gives two families the rare opportunity to witness what it’s like to live someone else’s life and experiences. Two matriarchs from two households trade places for 10 days. For the first five days of the challenge, they must obey the rules of the new family’s lifestyle and adopt their daily routine - parenting, shopping, housework, creating budgets and social life. For the remaining five days, these women get to run the new house their own way - a radical shock to both families. This intense new series taps into America’s voyeuristic tendencies and desires to judge how others run their households, raise their children and treat their spouses. Never before has a reality series taken such an honest inside look at the American family. Scary. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lando\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Lando\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lando_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/3 "2004-06-14T02:53:32Z")
Darn. I was really hoping for something more Dave Chappelle-ish g-g-g-g-g-g-G-uNIT! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/4 "2004-06-14T03:27:41Z")
Take my wife – please! (Somebody had to do that.) ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/5 "2004-06-14T03:48:06Z")
> [@Lando Griffin](#): > > Darn. I was really hoping for something more Dave Chappelle-ish > > g-g-g-g-g-g-G-uNIT! 😛 G-g-g-g-g-g-get yo’ ass in the car! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/6 "2004-06-14T20:35:41Z")
MMmmmm…titty residue… ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/7 "2004-06-14T21:05:38Z")
One thing that **harmless** blurb doesn’t mention that I read somewhere is that the two wives/mothers are from extremely disparate economic backgrounds, so while one gets her hands dirty doing chores she usually delegates out to her cleaning staff, the other confronts a family who may not be used to pulling their weight of responsibility helping around the house. We’ll see… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/8 "2004-06-14T22:28:03Z")
They’re also advertising a new show called something like “Dissatisfied Wives” or something equally noxious, about women having affairs with other men. How far down this path is the country going to go before crying “enough!”? ---
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/9 "2004-06-14T22:32:25Z")
Trust me, I’m crying already! ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trading-spouses-for-real/250226/10 "2004-06-14T23:05:12Z")
WifeSwap is generally horribly unfair. That’s just part of the deal. They have to pre-arrange the conflict, because otherwise people would get on. They have to guarantee tears and screaming matches. One of the best ever episodes was (I think) the very first, in which a bizarrely unhealthy, ignorant, loudmouthed, obnoxious working class family, who the programme makers had convinced to say that they didn’t approve of mixed marriages, were swapped over with a smart young black couple with good jobs and lots of self-discipline. See, the problem was that it was sold as just being about white people and black people, when really there was a vast gap of education, financial standing, and self-awareness. It was a very, very funny episode (if you like seeing idiots totally humiliate themselves by getting enraged to the point where they forget what they’re angry about - I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but it is). Another was a sad little episode where a very well-off working mum who barely sees her kid swaps with a poorer family with six kids and little money, but, y’know, loads of love… the end result being so obvious that I couldn’t help feeling the programme-makers must have _goaded_ the two wives into their slanging match at the end. In that one you really just wanted them to let the poor woman go home.