World's Strictest Parents is an American reality television series that first aired on April 18, 2009, on CMT and concluded on December 17, 2010.
The series is based on the original British version of The World's Strictest Parents that was first broadcast on BBC Three in 2008.
The program shows two troubled teenagers who are sent to live with strict host families for one week to try and change their attitudes, outlooks, life path and behavior in general. The teens must abide by the house rules set by their host family, common examples include; dressing modestly, no smoking, no drinking, no profanity, participation in religious worship, and helping out with household chores for the duration of their stay. The host parents will usually confiscate any contraband found to violate house rules, such as packets of cigarettes, lighters, alcoholic beverages and electronic devices (eg. iPods and cellphones) before formally entering the house. Many teens will try and break the house rules by testing the boundaries of the host parents, usually swearing, sneaking outside to smoke cigarettes, refusing or putting minimal effort into chores assigned to them. They face consequences and strange punishments as a result including: swimming in sewer water with sewer sharks, walking around by carrying a water slosh-pipe, push-ups, cutting a red-painted stump, running around the cones, cleaning manure, extra chores, boot camp, staying outside of the porch on cold weather and other numerous punishments by the strict host parents. During the week, they receive a letter from their real parents with a list of issues they should try to resolve.
At the beginning of the episode, we see how the teenagers live their lives, with the teens often disrespecting the parents and behaving badly, even in some instances being violent or abusive towards their parents.
The teens naturally witness huge shock when arriving at the house of the new parents, compared to the lack of rules they have at home, so they think that they can have their own way, but they realise reality is different; which is why punishments are frequent.
Most teenagers on the show are often smokers, drinkers, delinquents, spoiled, unemployed and in some cases; drug addicts.
Unlike most versions (including the original British series), in which teenagers were sent to stay overseas, the American series had the teenagers remain within the United States for five days, as the program was produced with a reduced cable network budget rather than that of a national broadcast network, and legal issues as some episodes would likely feature subjects which would not meet passport regulations. Another difference from the aforementioned versions above that their own parents came to collect them, and evaluated the stay with the host family at the end of each episode.
The success of the program led to many overseas versions being created including in the Americas (broadcast by CMT) (part of MTV Networks) the CMT episodes frequently rebroadcasting on MTV.
Melissa Camacho of Common Sense Media said that the show focuses on promoting healthy boundaries and establishing expectations but "some of the take-aways are a little confusing" and "there are times when the well-intentioned host parents appear to be playing to the cameras". The San Antonio Express-News television reviewer Chris Quinn called the program "quite funny and almost addictive".