The show is called Swaps, and it died an unnoticed death after two, count 'em, two months of syndication in 1995-96. After watching an episode on YouTube, I can understand why the grim reaper (who turns up in the episode, by the way) claimed a game show victim so quickly. The show offered nothing that Newlywed Game, Dating Game, Love Connection and a bunch of other relationship shows didn't do a lot better.
But it wasn't terribly terrible, as in screamingly, horribly, Burt Luddin's Love Buffet terrible. All that happened on Swaps was that three ex-couples tried to guess things about each other. If they guessed right, they got some money for a "date bank." Most of the things were relatively tame by the relationship sub-genre's standards. No, it's not the most entertaining stuff you ever watched, but it's somewhat bearable.
At the end of the show, each guy decided if he wanted to go on a date with his ex-girlfriend or swap out the ex for one of the other girls. If one of the girls agreed with one of the guys' preferences, they got a date and all the (skimpy) money they earned in the front game. In the YouTube ep, the guy who got lucky was the pictured Jeremy. He seemed wimpy to me but I guess the girl thought he was cute.
The only reason anybody would remember this show is the host, Scott St. John. Yep, he's the gentleman who would go on to some much better projects as a producer. One more note: Game Show Garbage promises that next week's inductee will be the aforementioned Burt Luddin Love's Buffet. All I can say is, what took so long? Compared to the Luddin atrocity, Swaps is high culture.
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