Wife Swap USA wins Sunday slot

In the US, ABC and UK-based indie producer RDF Media are breathing sighs of relief as the sneak preview of Wife Swap USA won its slot among 18-49ers on Sunday night.

Much was hingeing on the success of the reality life-switch programme, post-Trading Spouses, but the long-awaited show secured a total of 11.3m viewers, plus a winning 5.3 rating/13 share (18-49) at 22.00.

With Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as its lead-in, Wife Swap contributed to ABC winning the first Sunday night of the new season, with an evening average of 12.6m viewers, 5.2 rating/14 share among 18-49ers, said the Nielsen numbers.

However, the show – based on RDF’s Channel 4 series of the same name – did lose a lot of its Extreme Makeover: Home Edition lead-in bonanza, shedding over 7m viewers from Makeover’s 21.00-22.00 average of 18.6m and 8.1/19 in the key demo.

Nonetheless, RDF’s director of programmes Stephen Lambert said that the company is more than satisfied with Sunday’s numbers and that it bodes well for the upcoming transmission of the 20-hour series, which settles into its Wednesday night 22.00 slot from tomorrow.

“It’ll be much tougher on Wednesdays, as we are up against two of America’s most popular drama series: Law & Order and CSI: New York. Our hope is that these monstrous dramas cancel each other out and we get everyone who doesn’t want to watch a cop show,” he added.

Wife Swap’s Wednesday slot will be even tougher, given that its lead-in, dating show pioneer The Bachelor, isn’t performing too well these days and is seen by some as coming to the end of its life.

Regarding Wife Swap’s loss of 7m viewers, Lambert explained: “Nobody expected our show to hold on to the huge audience for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s big two-hour special, and everyone is encouraged by the fact that we not only won the slot among the 18-49 demographic but our share grew over the hour.”

Across the industry, TV execs – including ABC’s reality chief Andrea Wong – have been voicing their angst that Fox’s Trading Spouses might kill off the RDF production, and thus “jeopardize the entire transatlantic format trade”. These fears will be calmed to some degree by Sunday’s numbers, and RDF is now looking to use the stats to grow its stateside business.

“As a company we trade on reality formats that take viewers into people’s homes, rather than some Survivor-like fantasy setting,” said Lambert. “If Wife Swap’s success continues it’ll hopefully make ABC and others more interested in our other reality formats.” RDF already has Boss Swap and Husband Swap piloting at ABC.

But it won’t just be ABC and RDF that are celebrating the early signs of successs for Wife Swap USA. British producers in LA are banking on the show to build a US appetite for UK-style docusoap formats.