PILOT REVIEW: Fashion Star

FASHION STAR

Hosted by Elle Macpherson
Judges: Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie, John Varvatos
Created by Rick Ringbakk

Fashion Star is a new reality competition from NBC that is basically American Idol for fashion. Wannabe designers compete to win a fashion line with America's top retailers. There are several little details as there always are with these shows. In each show, the "judges" serve as mentors while the retail stores make offers. Contestants can be eliminated if they don't receive an offer but the mentors can save one contestant each week. Sounds more complicated than it needs to be, right? Another element is that viewers can purchase the products the very next day.

THE GOOD: I don't know... I guess if you enjoy fashion this might be interesting to you. It feels like a show that should be on Bravo or E! so it could probably have those types of fans. One interesting part I found was the buyers. I thought they had much more insight than the mentors and they certainly had business in mind first. It was nice to see some people who weren't overly complementary as they couldn't be because they are part of a business. In some ways, that allows this competition to be more cutthroat than it may otherwise have been.

THE BAD: I am not a fashion person so this was a difficult pilot to get through. It may not please all fashion people but it certainly won't attract non-fashion people. The back stories and features that are barely tolerable in a show like American Idol and The Voice were completely dull here and the fashion show could not hold my interest the way a performance can. The mentors didn't seem to have much insight and Elle MacPherson was dull as host. So yeah, not much for fashion people and nothing for non-fashion people.

BOTTOM LINE: So will this show be more like American Idol or more like America's Next Great Restaurant? There's nothing terrible here but it's just not something needed on TV. There's too many shows in this vein and making it fashion-centered instead of music-centered only made in drag more and the theatrics that always accompany reality shows seemed awfully shallow here. We'll see if it can find its niche on broadcast TV but, let's face it, if it even belongs on TV, it should be cable.