''Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy'', or ''Trading Spouses'', is an American

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

in which two families, usually of different social classes, swap wives or husbands for a week. Each family is awarded $50,000, with the stipulation that the guest mother decides how her host family must spend the money. The title of the show is a play on the idiom ''Trading Spaces''. The show shares a very similar format to '' Wife Swap'' (and its U.S. remake). In 2004,

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

showcased their upcoming ''Wife Swap'' show including projections of its popularity. Weeks before the show's debut, Fox introduced ''Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy''. The producers of ''Wife Swap'',

RDF Media Banijay (formerly Banijay Entertainment and later Banijay Group) is a French television production and distribution company which is the world's largest international content producer and distributor with over 120 production companies across 22 ...

, claimed Fox stole their concept, while Fox argued that TV shows have always borrowed from one another and that Fox simply beat ABC to delivery. The show completed airing its third season on May 3, 2007. On February 27, 2008, Fox announced that it had sold the rights to ''Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy'' to CMT, effectively ending the series. In 2005, ''Trading Spouses'' was one of several television programs cited in a

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

filed by the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Guil ...

concerning labor law violations.

References

External links

* at CMT.com * {{Former TLC Programming Fox Broadcasting Company original programming American television series based on British television series 2000s American reality television series 2004 American television series debuts 2007 American television series endings American dating and relationship reality television series CMT (American TV channel) original programming English-language television shows Television series by Rocket Science Laboratories