04.02.04
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Prime puts wife-swapping on the box
Ever
played that game when you imagine your friends swapping partners
- the obsessively tidy wife of one, dealing with the slovenly relaxed
husband of another? Wife Swap (21:00, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Prime, DSTV, Thursdays
from 12th February) is one of the most daring reality TV concepts
ever and, having glued the British to their TV screens (generating
audiences of over seven million), it's about to hit South Africa.
The
concept is simple. Each week two wives from very different backgrounds
swap lives (not bedrooms - this is about far more important things
than sex) and run each other's households for two weeks. For the
first week they have to do it according to a manual left by the
departed wife but in the second they can make changes and impose
some of their own rules and values.
Not
surprisingly, this is where things can start to unravel. Men used
to slumping in front of the TV suddenly find themselves washing
up, cheeky children are told where to get off, and working wives
suddenly have to deal with an army of children at the end of their
day. And what happens when they return to their respective families?
How will it affect their relationships? If they realise that they've
been running themselves ragged while their families have lived the
life of ease, will the wives finally put their foot down?
At
the end of each programme the two couples get together to discuss
the experience - and, in at least one case this leads to the biggest
screaming match since John Robbie interviewed the Health Minister.
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Prime Head of Programming, David Weiland, said, "Wife Swap
is riveting television and became the appointment to view on UK
television. It generated massive audiences, created national headlines
and was the talking point around every water-cooler in every office
in the land."
This
week, Wife Swap, was awarded the UK Broadcast Best New Programme
Award with the British Press describing the show as 'magnetic viewing'
and as having 'more human drama, laughter and tears in one hourΒ….
than you'd see in a month of soaps'. So, if you want to get a table
at your favourite restaurant try going on a Thursday night. No one
else will be there.
Wife
Swap is produced by the same team who brought the hit reality series
Faking It to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Prime across Africa in 2003.
Wife
Swap debuts on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Prime (Channel 40 DSTV) on Thursday 12 February
at 21h00. It is a 10-part series.
Notes
to Editors:
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
PRIME is broadcast to over 800,000 subscribers in Africa on DStv,
and to a further 13 million subscribers in Europe and the Middle
East. It offers the best of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ programming from comedy and drama
to films and documentaries. Over 2200 hours of new programming are
transmitted each year, including Parkinson, Top of the Pops, EastEnders,
and The Weakest Link. This flagship British cable channel shows
the best of the award-winning programmes from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ - the world's
leading programme maker.
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