Independent Perspective News

Are you sick and tired of your husband and you wouldn't mind changing him for another one, even if it's just for a couple of weeks? This seems to be Wife Swap's offer, the most watched show on Channel 4 in Britain, that has already signed for its second season and is currently getting ready to jump to American TV, on ABC Channel.

Wife Swap, the reality show in which two women exchange their lives and husbands for 10 days, has gradually won new viewers during its two weeks of emission -from the 3.9 million spectators who watched the show since the first week to the 5.1 who started off during the second. Right now, it's this year's top show on Channel 4.

In the first show, a white and racist woman got to share her life with a black and chauvinist man. The swap turned out to be highly appealing for watchers, and became the most popular issue in last week's British conversations.

Last week, the protagonist was a woman who exchanged her lazy husband for another one, who treated her as a queen and didn't let her leave her couch.

These women exchange their diets, lifestyles, children-care habits and even personal hygiene methods, but they don't have sex with their new husbands. Once the challenge has concluded, both families get together to discuss their experiences.

In the latest emission, the mother of one swapped lives with a mother of six. That day, the show reached 5,7 million viewers, 23 % of the audience between 21.00 and 22.00.

In the last twelve months, only Big brother and Jamie's Kitchen had attracted such a large audience. The show's success caused such an impression on Channel 4, that they have already ordered a second edition, before the first one ends.

Meanwhile, the TV production company that owns the format, RDF Media, is already working on the pilot requested by the American channel ABC. In the US, the show will be called The Swap, and it's just another of the 40 reality shows that country's TV is planning to launch this year.

RDF Media is also producing another successful show for Channel 4, Faking It, in which participants have a month to learn a profession different from theirs and must afterwards convince a specialized jury that is the activity they have performed all their lives. Faking It has featured, among others, a cello player who became a DJ; a receptionist at a fire brigade station who turned into a TV director, and a marine who ended up as a drag queen.