Tuesday night (July 20) marked the first round of what promises to be a lengthy battle between FOX and ABC. Following the premiere of FOX's "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy," both sides were quick to claim victory.

The antagonism stems from FOX's decision to develop, produce and quickly premiere "Spouses," which many in the industry consider to be a direct rip-off of ABC's fall reality series "Wife Swap" (a charge FOX denies vehemently). In response to FOX's swift launch of "Spouses," ABC scheduled an special episode of "Extreme Makeover" to blunt its momentum.

Realistically, both networks were losers. In Tuesday's 8 p.m. hour, both FOX and ABC finished behind CBS' "Navy NCIS" in both overall ratings and total viewers, but that didn't stop the crowing.

ABC celebrated a very simple victory, noting that "Extreme Makeover" drew 7.5 million viewers, compared to the 7.3 million for "Trading Spouses." Both shows built in their second half-hours, but "Extreme Makeover" remained on top.

FOX, however, argues that "Trading Spouses" scored an easy win for the hour among adults 18-49, which is really all the network cares about anyway. The show also won in the specialized niches of adults 18-34, teens and adults 25-54. FOX called the "Trading Spouses" debut the highest rated new unscripted series premiere of the new 2004-05 season, which means that it didn't do as well as, say, "Simple Life 2," "Big Brother," "Amazing Race" or "Last Comic Standing," but it exceeded "Next Action Star," "The Casino" and "Ultimate Love Test" with ease.

Stay tuned for the next round when the second segment of the two-part "Spouses" premiere airs next week.