As the world of reality television becomes more and more unintelligible and quite frankly terrifying too with the naked antics of the attention-seeking contestants of this year’s zoo like Big Brother, Wife Swap provides a refreshing and still comprehensible variety of reality television. Although ... Read review
Advantages: Compulsive & Addictive Viewing, Highly Entertaining! Disadvantages: Hard Hitting Issues Raised, Only Lasts 1 Hour!
...year’s zoo like Big Brother, Wife Swap provides a refreshing and still comprehensible variety of reality television. Although more commonly referred to as a documentary what we are actually doing by watching the families every move is turning it into a reality TV programme. And by no means is this a bad thing at all!
For those of you who have somehow managed to avoid seeing Wife Swap or even an advert for it here’s a quick insight ... ...the place of the swapped wife and live within that household, finally getting revenge in the latter 5 days by being allowed to alter any rules so as to run the household how they feel is correct. Now you’re probably all thinking that sounds quite average, what’s so entertaining about it, well what Channal 4 producers do is to choose two completely opposite, and often fairly controversial families so as to ensure that fireworks will go off at all ... more
As the world of reality television becomes more and more unintelligible and quite frankly terrifying too with the naked antics of the attention-seeking contestants of this year’s zoo like Big Brother, Wife Swap provides a refreshing and still comprehensible variety of reality television. Although more commonly referred to as a documentary what we are actually doing by watching the families every move is turning it into a reality TV programme. And by no means is this a bad thing at all!
For those of you who have somehow managed to avoid seeing Wife Swap or even an advert for it here’s a quick insight into it…
Wife Swap is quite self explanatory – 2 wives from 2 different families swap places for a duration of 10 days and there reactions, disasters, etc. are all filmed as they fall into the place of the swapped wife and live within that household, finally getting revenge in the latter 5 days by being allowed to alter any rules so as to run the household how they feel is correct. Now you’re probably all thinking that sounds quite average, what’s so entertaining about it, well what Channal 4 producers do is to choose two completely opposite, and often fairly controversial families so as to ensure that fireworks will go off at all opportunities! The selection process is certainly key, by swapping 2 middle class wives with similar attitudes very boring television would be produced – but by swapping a millionaire and a single mum living in a council flat you can imagine the differences in opinion there!
The actual programme lasts an hour and documents firstly the two families in their settings, giving you a brief indication about their day-to-day life and how they run their house. The two wives are then put into a foreign environment and allowed to explore their new home and also read the manual left by the original wife (so many wives!) to understand how to run the house. Obviously the next step is meeting the family, this is often my favourite bit as everyone’s so polite – by the end of the 10 days it’s completely different! For the 1st 5 days the new wife lives by the families rules and then the 2nd 5 days then family lives by the new wife’s rules – often very contentious! Finally the big banging fireworks are kept to last, when the two families meet up to discuss their experiences – expect swearing, violence and lots of shouting!
Wife Swap began back in January 2003 showing what happened when 20 wives swapped families, equalling up to 10 programmes – and it got the nation hooked! Now, Wife Swap is already back with a vengeance and in it’s 3rd series – already that tells you something about it’s popularity and success. It’s even been awarded a BAFTA for it’s sheer brilliance in the UK and the team are currently filming the first USA series as I write (there’s also a boss swap and husband swap too). The most famous Wife Swap relates back to the tail of Lizzie Bardsley who gave up life with her 8 children and her £37,000 a year benefits to move to a much quieter (2 children household) and more middle class surroundings – follow up’s to this particular show included her posing naked in The Sun newspaper as well as making numerous television appearances (including Back to Reality on channel 5)!
At the same time as the laughs and the giggles there’s always some deep hitting and often coarse truth lurking in the background. Several issues have been raised during the 3 series that have proved both hard hitting and controversial such as the effects of child care when both parents are working versus the live at home parents sponging over the government in the way of benefits. It has also been promotional in pointing out that both parents – not just the mother – should spend time bonding with the children so in some ways it does have positive effects that go beyond merely entertaining the public. So perhaps Wife Swap does more that simply entertain, in it’s own way maybe parenting methods will begin to change too.
For those of you interested in featuring on the programme you can apply at http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/W/wife_swap/apply.html from the channel 4 website (they’re also looking for international applicants so apply soon for your chance to go abroad!). At the channel 4 website you can also gain a bit of info on the current families featuring on the show as well as discuss the hilarious antics in wife swap’s very own forum!
Now for those of you that haven’t yet been introduced into the wonderful and oh so comical world of Wife Swap I’d definitely recommend it – I can almost guarantee that you’ll become hooked! It’s currently showing on channel 4 at 9pm on Tuesday’s – you better be watching tomorrow!
Advantages: compulsive viewing Disadvantages: too much arguing, bad for the kids
Wife swap is basically about 2 families that are the complete opposite. The wives swap places and leave a manual of how they run the house for the other woman to follow. After a week (and plenty of shouting and swearing) the ‘wife’ tells the family everything they cant stand and the rest of the family have to live by their rules for the second week. It invariably ends in tears. After the second week is over the 2 couples meet up to ‘talk’ about how ... ...and swap houses.
The wife is able to wander around the house and read the manual before they have to meet the family from hell with which they have to spend the next 2 weeks. The families come home and meet the substitute wife and everyone is on their best behaviour. Everyone tells the cameramen how lovely these people are, yucky yucky soppy stuff. Then a couple of hours later when the dinner isn’t cooked (or burnt) in exactly the way their wife ...
l1nda 08.07.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wife Swap - Channel 4
Advantages: Gripping television Disadvantages: Not good if you don't like arguments
...for 10 days. Each wife lives in the other wife’s home, by her rules and her routine for the first 5 days. What is it like to cope with someone else’s children or live according to someone else’s daily routine? After 5 days, the new wife can change the household ‘rules’. What impact does this have on the family? After the 10 days are up, both families meet up. They share experiences and discuss what they have learned. What is wrong with the way each ... ...is not the best way. Wife Swap's favourite way of creating conflict is to swap families that contrast strongly with each other.
For example, trading a working-mother with a stay-at-home wife, thereby pitting all those sensitive issues about career vs. family. Another hot conflict is to swap one traditional wife (who does everything around the house) with a modern wife (with the husband helping cook, clean and look after the children). In past episodes, ...
Maia 09.10.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wife Swap - Channel 4
Advantages: Good fun entertainment when it started Disadvantages: Well past it's sell by date
Intro:
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When Wife Swap started on Channel 4 a few years ago it was a very good programme with a very simple but strong format. Sadly the new series, which started on Channel 4 last week with a celebrity episode involving the rather disgusting John McCirick and Edwina 'famous for sleeping with John Mayor' Currie, is definately past its sell by date, with exactly the same stereotypes and arguments. Namely, take one snobby person and swap them ... ...of you not familiar with Wife Swap, the title is pretty self-explanatory. One wife from one family is swapped with one wife from another family. They then live with their adoptive families for two weeks, with the wives having the opportunity to implement their own rules after a week. At the end of the programme, which lasts an hour, the families meet to discuss what has happened and how they can be better families. Sometimes during a particularly ...
bigmike33 11.10.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wife Swap - Channel 4
Advantages: Something different Disadvantages: Samey
...their target audience. But like Wife Swap, the early series were best as they quickly went from "social experiments" to vehicles for people to be just on TV doing the silliest of things. Wife Swap was perhaps the worst for this, soon deteriorating into fat uncouth working-class people slagging each other off between cigarettes and swigging canned lager, inviting a more sneering viewer to tune in. The first two series were interesting as you had middle-class ... ...on it became sink estate wife mixing with upwardly mobile working-class and lots its spark, the couples too samey. There has to be a contrast for these shows to work. Basically these were people plodding along in dead end marriages using the TV show as some kind of therapy to sort out their relationships. We would get to the final showdown bit in the hotel and the two couples were like snarling Rotweilers on the lead ready to go at each others necks, ...
thedevilinme 18.10.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wife Swap - Channel 4
...into a fight as one wife criticises another. Often a wife will deny what she wrote in her own manual. She might have said her husband neglects her if the 'new' wife makes that statement, all hell can break loose . The majority of couples tend to be pretty civil, although a fair few do argue - and even rarer, two couples might become firm friends at the end of it . The wives then go back to their families, and we are then informed of any changes that ... ...£37,500 a year . Following wife swap, she was a little bit of a celebrity, appearing on Kilroy and the Weakest Link,a nd doing lots of interviews for magazines and newspapers. She failed to declare her earnings from these appearances and interviews though,and was charged with benefit fraud , given 30 hours of community service , and ordered to pay back £2400 . Bad publicity for her, great publicity for the show I would imagine . I very much enjoy ...
Thehonesttruth 21.08.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Wife Swap - Channel 4
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