Five adds reality to daytime TV schedule with US shows

LONDON – Five has bought the rights to a host of US reality TV shows to liven up its daytime schedule, including Fox's 'Trading Spouses', which is set to be the focus of a copyright lawsuit by 'Wife Swap' makers RDF Media.

Fox's 'Trading Spouses' is almost exactly the same as RDF's 'Wife Swap', sparking a programme cloning war between the two companies that is likely to end up in court.

Fox further angered ABC, the US network the RDF version is being shown on, by moving the 'Trading Spouses' schedule forward so it would appear before ABC's 'Wife Swap USA'.

Channel 4 has picked up the rights to 'Wife Swap USA', which will go out in a primetime slot and give viewers the chance to decide whether Fox ripped off RDF.

'Trading Spouses' is to air on Five at 2.30pm, the slot currently occupied by 'America's Next Top Model', another US reality TV import.

Other reality genres set to hit Five's screens include NBC dating show 'Who Wants to Marry My Dad','The One that Got Away' and ad-sponsored reality shows 'The Restaurant' and 'Blow Out'.

Five has also netted the rights to Bravo's US gay dating show, 'Boy Meets Boy' and has extended its contract with Warner Bros to buy more episodes of 'High School Reunion.'

Five's new celebrity reality TV show 'The Farm', which stars Paul and Debbie McGee, Stan Collymore and Lady Victoria Hervey, to be given a daytime highlights programme this week.

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