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Jun 09, 2023

‘Hot Wheels Ultimate Challenge’ Launches Tuesday on NBC

Sure it’s contrived, scripted, and has holes big enough to drive a full-size Hot

Sure it's contrived, scripted, and has holes big enough to drive a full-size Hot Wheels through, but what auto-related show doesn't?

Mattel's Hot Wheels brand has come up with some major promotional efforts to sell more of its die-cast cars. There was the Hot Wheels Legends Tour (still going on), the Hot Wheels IWC Swiss Watch, the Hot Wheels Unleashed video game, the Super73 eBike, and even a Hot Wheels NFT (did you buy one?).

But even that wasn't enough. Starting Tuesday (May 30, 10 p.m. ET) you can watch Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge, where people compete with each other by turning a meaningful car from their youth into a car outrageous enough to be made into a genuine Hot Wheels diecast.

The winner gets exactly that, their build shrunk down to 1/64th scale and mass-produced as the next genuine Hot Wheels. Kids across the globe will be launching the winner's design off jumps and sending it crashing into other Hot Wheels models. Some may even tape them to rockets and try to launch them into space (ask me how I know).

The show has a surprisingly star-studded list of celebrity judges, as well as at least one legitimate industry professional, to help assure winners are chosen with some integrity. And everybody's favorite car guy Rutledge Wood hosts.

The first episode—the only one I saw—features the very likable Terry Crews from America's Got Talent and Brooklyn Nine-Nine offering sage observations, as well as Ford designer Dalal Elsheikh and Hertrech Eugene Jr., whom you may know from Hoonigan and various drift videos.

Later episodes will feature Jay Leno, Joel McHale, Anthony Anderson, Sung Kang, and "WWE Superstar Big E" in the celebrity judging category. The contestants, meanwhile, are average Joes and Janes. Each comes out, tells a story about some car from their upbringing that meant a lot to them then and, quelle surprise! that very car is rolled out into the studio. Who could have predicted that? Tears are shed as contestants recite tales of youth, inspiration and/or bonding that came from—or in—that car.

Then, as if by magic, each contestant is assigned a build crew consisting of three fabricating and mechanical professionals—each team getting a man, a woman, and a cockney-speaking English bloke for some reason—to help create what they hope will get their guy or gal the win. It has all the ingredients for a wholesome half-hour of hilarity and hope. And it is that.

Problem is, every utterance and reaction comes across as completely contrived and scripted. Apart from the requisite shots of grinders sending sparks flying—a staple of every car show/chopshop/crime drama ever made—it doesn't appear that any actual work gets done inside the studio, even though that appears to be what producers want us to think. The crew all wear brand-new coveralls that somehow never get dirty. And, in the episode I saw, anyway, there were glaring continuity errors so big I almost lost my faith in Hollywood.

For instance, the two contestants in the episode I saw appeared at the beginning of the show dressed in particular outfits, then supposedly spent an entire week grinding and bondo-ing away on their cars until, at the end of the "week," there they were again wearing the exact same outfits, suggesting that the beginning and end of the week were filmed on the same day. I felt lied to, man!

Likewise, when they roll out the finished builds at the end of the "week-long" show, each contestant sports a scripted reaction as if seeing the car they’ve created over the supposed week for the first time. Almost every minute of the show comes across this way.

While it's true that the automotive makeover format has been done to death, the show doesn't resort to cliches like staged arguments. There are no thrown torque wrenches, and there is not a single swear word hurled in the full 22 minutes of drama (though there is the fake time element where "we gotta get this done by Friday!").

Plus, all the characters we’re presented with, from host Rutledge Wood to Terry Crews to the contestants and build crews, are pleasant. You would like to have any one of them as a neighbor or a friend, which is refreshing in this sub-slice of a genre. And it's a show your kids will like. Your kids won't be as nit-picky as I was watching this. But you might be.

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