Except for the involvement of the Hilton clan, I Want to be a Hilton would be another unremarkable entry into the morass of unscripted TV programming. Not that the Hiltons save the show. Their name makes the show's presence more notable in the morass, but doesn't save it.
The premise is straight out of Unscripted 101: two teams compete in challenges, with the members of the winning team safe from elimination for the week. The losers meet with the host to hash over their failure and get someone removed. The actual mechanics of the thing - team names, meeting location, method by which someone is removed from the show - could have been whipped up by a handful of interns told to come up with things befitting a show involving high society.
The contestants are, unsurprisingly, a truckload of buffoons. I think we're supposed to revel in their lack of sophistication, though there are precious few moments where it actually leads to entertainment.
Production values are what you'd expect. I suspect the Hilton name was able to lure some known guest judges into the mix, as I can't imagine what would get Tyler Florence or Ted Allen involved otherwise. OK, in Allen's case there is the NBC-Bravo relationship, as reruns of this show air on Bravo. I'm also concerned that they've waited all the way to the second episode to bring in Paris and Nikki. To me, that's an admission that the show is a little weak, and needs the kids to perk things up.
The Bravo re-runs are the only way I'd watch this show regularly, given that it's on opposite House in its first-run time slot. Even so, it'll need a run of very slow weekend mid-afternoons to get me to follow the series.
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