Channel 5 has quietly pulled the plug on Mum’s On Strike, the reality series that aimed to shake up household chores by having one partner down tools. The show, initially aired as Wife On Strike, saw its first run become its last, confirming what industry insiders had whispered about low viewership.
The show’s premise was straightforward enough: an overtaxed spouse, often the wife, would cease all domestic duties, leaving their partner to cope with the ensuing chaos. The idea was to spark a “domestic revolution,” forcing a re-evaluation of home life. Think of it as a tactical retreat from the laundry pile and dinner prep, meant to bring about a fairer division of labor. However, the viewership numbers suggest the revolution never quite materialised in living rooms across Britain.
A source close to production confirmed to MailOnline that the program struggled to find an audience, performing poorly in its prime-time slot. It seems the concept, which drew comparisons to the long-running Wife Swap, simply did not land with viewers in the same way. While the format certainly had potential, the execution or perhaps the audience’s appetite for this particular brand of domestic experiment didn’t align.
The show’s rebranding mid-series to Mum’s On Strike from its original title, Wife On Strike, was an early indicator of trouble, a move that typically signals an attempt to re-engage a flagging audience. Despite the change, the numbers did not rebound. For context, other original dramas airing in the same time slot on Channel 5 regularly pulled in twice the audience that Mum’s On Strike managed to gather. This kind of disparity rarely leads to renewal.
There are no further episodes planned, making this a one-season affair for Channel 5.
