some people, they like to watch carols on their televisions during christmas, not me though, wife swap represent.

A competitive police detective who loves excelling in a "man's world" swaps lives with a submissive wife and mother who believes her place is in the home and that her role is to serve her husband and cater to his every need.

The title is a play on the term "wife swapping", a practice associated with the swinging lifestyle, which is not a theme of the show. For the television show, two families, usually from vastly different social classes and lifestyles, swap wives/mothers for two weeks. In fact, the show will usually deliberately swap wives with extreme polar opposite lifestyles, such as a dramatically messy wife swapping with a fastidiously neat one, or an overly strict mother swapping with an overly lax one. Though using a phrase from the swinging lifestyle, couples participating in the show do not share a bed with the "swapped" spouse while "swapping" homes.

During the first week, the new wife must adhere to the exact same rules and lifestyle of the wife they are replacing. Each wife leaves a house manual which explains their role in the family and the duties they hold.

During the second week, the new wives are allowed to establish their own rules, and their new families must adhere to these new household rules.

At the end of the two weeks, the two couples all meet together for the first time, and along with their husbands, discuss how they feel about the two weeks. This often descends into personal insults and has degenerated into violence at least once.