| Host | |
| Amanda Byram | |
| Announcer | |
| Mark Thompson | |
| Judges | |
| Ken Baker Susie Castillo Tara Kraft Judith Regan Mike Rui Valerie Trott | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packagers | |
| Galan Entertainment George Paige Associates Inc. A. Smith & Co. Productions FremantleMedia North America | |
The Swan was a very short lived and quite controversial reality series in which eight women who were judged to be ugly were given "extreme makeovers" that included several forms of plastic surgery. The title itself refers to the classic fairy tale called The Ugly Duckling in which a homely bird matures into a swan.
Premise[]
Each episode of the series 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. Whichever woman was deemed most attractive at the end of the three months would move forward to compete in a beauty pageant held at the end of the season. Following the pageant, whichever contestant received the most votes for the greatest transformation would be given the title as "The Swan".
Rating[]
Set Pics[]
Production[]
In 2005, Rebecca Hertz, a writer of the series admitted that the series' staff manufactured dialogue and situations throughout the editing process. Hertz claimed that she falsely made it appear as though contestant Rachel Love-Fraser's husband was unhappily married to her stating "In a pre-interview, I led her husband to say Rachel looks average, but he thought she looked beautiful. I cut it down to him saying she looks average, so he sounded like a mean, horrible a**hole. He was furious when he saw the show".
Trivia[]
- The series was universally panned by critics and audiences alike. Criticism of the series often focused on the promotion of a negative body image for women. Despite the negative reception, the series premiered to high ratings and averaged around 9 million viewers of the course of its first season. Since its airing, several of the contestants have voiced either satisfaction or regret over their participation of the series. Additionally, several producers have defended the series in which they claimed its purpose was to increase self-esteem of its contestants.
- On February 1, 2013, Fox announced plans to reboot the series as a two-hour television special titled Celebrity Swan[1]. Some of the candidate were named to be potential contestants for the special such as Monica Lewinsky (famed for having a scandal with ex-president Bill Clinton and formerly hosted the short-lived FOX reality dating series Mr. Personality in 2003) and former star of Happy Days known for playing Joanie Cunningham the late Erin Moran (died in 2017 from stage four squamous cell carcinoma of the throat).