In the early noughties, boundary-pushing reality series started flooding our screens. From Big Brother , Survivor, I’m A Celebrity..
.Get Me Out of Here! and American Idol, some stood the test of time and still draw in millions of viewers two decades on. However, there were also plenty of reality TV concepts that took things too far, including a plethora that took advantage of women’s insecurities and promised to provide apparently life-changing makeovers .
One of those was The Swan, which was produced by Fox and premiered in 2004 . Hosted by Irish television presenter Amanda Byram, each episode followed two self-proclaimed ‘ugly ducklings’ who, over the course of a three-month period, experienced an extreme makeover from a team that included a personal trainer, therapist, dentist, and cosmetic surgeons. At the end, whichever woman was deemed more attractive would move forward to compete in a beauty pageant held at the end of the season, being pitted against others before one was eventually given the title of The Swan.
Unsurprisingly, the series was slammed by many, however it did manage to average around nine million viewers over the course of its first season. After less than a year on screen, it was cancelled. However, 20 years on, several ex-contestants have now spoken about their experiences on the show.
Those behind the series claimed The Swan attracted over 200,000 applications during its two seasons, but ultimately it was 16 women who were selected to be transf.