Cheers & Jeers: Wife Swapping with the "Stars"

Jeers to Celebrity Wife Swap for degrading the institution of marriage — and celebrity.

Want more Cheers & Jeers? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

It's egregious enough that ABC's last-gasp reality reincarnation recruited Gary Busey — who's now more famous for riding a motorcycle without a helmet and sustaining a serious head injury than for his Oscar-nominated work in the title role in 1978's The Buddy Holly Story. Making matters even worse, he's not even married, although his fiancée/baby mama, Steffanie Sampson — a hypnotherapist who believes she and Busey have been together in 31 past lives, including one in which they were Constantine's parents — says they're "married in spirit."

Perhaps most sinful of all, the show stretches the definition of "celebrity" to include Ted Haggard, the notorious Colorado preacher who was defrocked after admitting to dalliances with a male prostitute in exchange for crystal meth. Haggard and his preternaturally loyal wife, Gayle, declare straight- facedly that they oppose gay marriage. Surely, same-sex married couples can't damage the sanctity of wedlock more than Celebrity Wife Swap does.

What do you think of Celebrity Wife Swap?

Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!