On the Lot

Contestants

The show billed itself as a global hunt for new filmmakers, drawing 12,000 online submissions by February 16, 2007. From these, 50 semi-finalists emerged; 48 lived in the U.S., 21 in Los Angeles, and 40 already held film industry jobs. Contestants ranged in age from 21 to 41.

Contest summary

The audition rounds were judged by Carrie Fisher, Brett Ratner, and Garry Marshall. In round one, the 50 semi-finalists each received one of five loglines and had about twelve hours to develop it into a full story, then pitch to the judges, after which 14 were eliminated. In round two, Jon Avnet substituted for Garry Marshall. The remaining contestants had 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit a two-and-a-half-minute short film on the theme 'out of time,' working in teams of three; each member directed one scene at one of three locations.

After this round, 12 contestants were eliminated. In round three, the 24 remaining contestants each had one hour with a professional set and crew to shoot a given page of script; almost none of this challenge aired, but clips were later posted online. The one-page shorts fell into four scenarios: the rotunda, the law library, the cop bar, and the bedroom. The judges selected 18 competitors for the live shows.

The first challenge for the finalists was to create one-minute comedy shorts. In the Film Premiere episode, each short aired along with a brief interview. The Box Office episode announced the 15 directors advancing; the three with the highest vote totals had their films replayed, and the three lowest were eliminated. The judges for week 1 of the finals were Garry Marshall, Carrie Fisher, and D. J. Caruso.

Beginning June 5, the show was reduced to one episode per week on Tuesdays, a move described as cutting production costs.

Ratings

The premiere followed American Idol but retained only 38 percent of its audience, scoring a 6.2 rating/9 share from 9 to 10 p.m., with a 39 percent drop at 9:30 p.m. The second episode followed So You Think You Can Dance but lost half of that show's audience, earning a 2.1/6 share. The third episode, two hours long with no lead-in, tied for fourth at 1.8/3, behind CBS, ABC, and NBC, and averaged a 1.3 adults 18–49 rating, placing fifth. For the fourth episode, Fox paired it with the House season finale; Lot drew 4 million viewers (1.8/6 share), helping Fox achieve the highest Tuesday viewership.

The fifth episode again coupled Lot with House, but ratings fell to 3.3 million viewers. The sixth episode, paired with Hell's Kitchen, drew 2.8 million viewers (1.2/4 share). The seventh episode dipped to a 1.0 rating, tying with ABC's Fast Cars and Superstars and George Lopez. The finale saw a slight increase to 1.1/4 in the 18–49 demo, but Fox remained behind other major broadcasters in the 8 p.m. hour.

Reception

Critics were harshly negative. Variety described the show as an ill-conceived mish-mash of The Apprentice and Project Greenlight, noting weak opening ratings despite an American Idol lead-in. Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe wrote that the show replicated the formula of other reality contests—three judges, humiliation, triumph, product placement—without doing it well. Early criticism focused on the show emphasizing director quarrels rather than airing the audition short films, and the judges were faulted for lacking helpful criticism.

Host Adrianna Costa was criticized for not being engaging enough and appearing to struggle with cue cards. The three-minute films shown in weeks two, three, and four were made before the Top 50 contestants were selected, a fact that caused confusion. In July 2007, Jeff Lippencott and Mark T. Williams of Ah2 Music received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music for episode 102A.