Trading Spouses

Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy is an American reality television series broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox). The series ran for three seasons from July 20, 2004, to May 5, 2007. Each episode of Trading Spouses followed two families, often of different cultural or social backgrounds, who swapped mothers or fathers for a week. Both families were awarded $50,000, with the stipulation that the guest mother decides how her host family must spend the money.

Trading Spouses
Genre	Reality television
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	59
Production
Executive producers	Jean-Michel Michenaud Chris Cowan
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Rocket Science Laboratories
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	July 20, 2004 (2004-07-20) – May 4, 2007 (2007-05-04)

The show shares a very similar format to Wife Swap (and its U.S. remake). In 2004, ABC 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.[1] The producers of Wife Swap, RDF Media, claimed Fox stole their concept,[2] 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.[3]

In 2005, Trading Spouses was one of several television programs cited in a class-action lawsuit filed by the Writers Guild of America concerning labor law violations.