On the Lot is a reality show competition produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett. The show, which airs on FOX, features filmmakers competing in weekly elimination competitions, with the ultimate prize of a million dollar development deal at DreamWorks. On the Lot premiered May 22, 2007, and airs Tuesdays each week.^[1]

The official On The Lot site gathered 12,000 submissions from all over the world ^[2]. These 12,000 submissions yielded 50 semi-finalists. The contest structure is similar to that of American Idol, with the initial episodes narrowing those semi-finalists down to 18 finalists. After the audition stage, the program will comprise of a 1-hour show where movies are screened ("Film Premiere") followed the next day by a half-hour results show ("Box Office"). Viewers can vote each week for their favourite directors, which will result in the elimination of the directors with the lowest vote totals. Votes can be made online at thelot.com, in addition to landline calls and Verizon text messages, and is permitted for two hours after the show.

Originally scheduled for seperate episodes on consecutive nights, the "Film Premiere" episodes are now scheduled to air on Tuesday nights at 8:00PM/7:00PM CT, with voting results following in the same episode, as of May 31, 2007^[3]. The show is also aired in Canada (on CTV)^[4], on People+Arts in Latin America, on FOX8 in Australia, on STAR Movies^[5] in Asia, and on STAR World in India.

The show is self-described as a worldwide search to discover new filmmaking talent ^[6]. The 50 Semifinalists were: ^[7]

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• Phil Allocco, 40, director and writer from New York City
• Shawna Baca, 36, assistant producer at a movie trailer house, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA
• Mark B., 29, editor, director and poker-player living in Los Angeles, CA, originally from McLean, VA
• Jarett B., 29, music-video and commercial director, born and raised in Northport, NY
• James Breese, 34, freelance writer and director living in Bristol, England
• Will Bigham, 31, film editor, originally from Canyon, TX, currently living in Glendale, CA. Attended the FSU Film School
• Jessica Brillhart, 22, computer specialist, grew up in York, PA, currently living in Brooklyn, NY
• Jarrett Conaway, 24, graduate student living in Los Angeles, originally from Virginia Beach, VA
• Jeremy Corray, 30, creative services manager for an animation distribution company, from St. Louis, MO, raised in Highland, IL
• Michael C., 22, freelance commercial director from Bloomfield, MI, currently residing in Chicago, IL
• Opie Cooper, 31, creative director raised in Biloxi, MS, currently living in Jackson, MS
• Karla Jean Davis, 25, tape operator living in Atlanta, GA, originally from Lynchburg, VA
• Tamela D'Amico, 27, singer, actress and filmmaker living in Los Angeles, raised in Deer Park, NY
• Jason Epperson, 30, owner of film production company, born and raised in Winchester, KY
• Matthew E., 24, director, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA
• Sam Friedlander, 27, web producer, living in Santa Monica, CA, raised in Westchester, NY
• Hilary Graham, 37, stay-at-home wife and mom who lives in Francestown, NH, and raised in Chelmsford, MA
• Kenny G., 39, director, writer, producer, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA
• Phil Hawkins, 22, born and raised in Manchester, England, works as a freelance director
• Andrew Hunt, 31, promo producer from Minneapolis, MN, raised in Pittsburgh, PA
• Rahim Jamal, 25, freelance editor/director, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA
• Trever James, 24, film editor, currently living in Los Angeles, CA, and raised in Great Falls, MT
• Shalini Kantayya, 30, freelance director, raised in Hartford, CT, currently living in Brooklyn, NY
• Mateen Kemet, 41, teacher, currently splitting time between Oakland and Los Angeles, CA, raised in the Bronx, NY
• Gil Kruger, 23, development associate living in New York City, raised in Verona, NJ

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• Claudia La Bianca, 28, painter and graphic artist, born in Bagheria, Sicily, Italy, currently lives in Miami, FL
• Zach Lipovsky, 23, special effects editor from Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Kenny Luby, 28, freelance director and painter, born and raised in Owego, NY
• Justin Lutsky, 24, digital post-production engineer, born and raised in Orange County, CA
• X. Dean Lim, 36, writer/director, living in Los Angeles, CA, originally from New York City
• Brent McCorkle, 34, freelancer producer, born and raised in Dallas, TX
• Mark McLain, 22, film editor, born and raised in Dyer, IN
• Ramsey Mellette, 34, production sound mixer living in Los Angeles, CA, raised in Denver, CO
• Tamika Miller, 33, freelance production supervisor, living in Los Angeles, CA, originally from Miami, FL
• Marty Martin, 26 creative director of a multimedia company, born and raised in Seattle, WA
• David May, 23, admissions counselor living in Santa Ana, CA, but grew up in Aurora, CO
• Abigail Steinberg, 37, capital campaign coordinator, living in Los Angeles, originally from Toronto
• Amy S., 21, freelance director living in Los Angeles
• Hannah Sink, 23, freelance producer/director born and raised in Raleigh, NC
• Hilari Scarl, 40, independent filmmaker living in Los Angeles, CA, raised in Chicago, Atlanta and NYC
• Jeff Seibenick, 30, freelance editor, living in Los Angeles, CA, originally from Toledo, OH
• Jeff Speed, 27, filmmaker and waiter living in San Diego, CA, originally from South Lake Tahoe, CA
• Kai Soremekun, 39, actress living in Los Angeles, CA, originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Randy Slavin, 29, freelance director/editor from New York City
• Shira-Lee Shalit, 38, acting teacher, born in Johannesburg, South Africa, now living in New York
• Adam Stein, 29, freelance film editor, born in Miami, FL, currently living in Los Angeles
• Daniel Tenkman, 26, special events coordinator living in Los Angeles
• Adam W., 24, freelance camera operator from Birmingham, AL
• Mikki Willis, 39, filmmaker originally from Sacramento, currently living in Los Angeles, CA
• Carolina Zorilla de San Martin, 36, commercial director, originally from Santander, Spain, currently living in Los Angeles, CA

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Of the 50 semi-finalists, 48 currently reside in the United States (21 of them in Los Angeles, CA) and 40 already work professionally in the film industry. The oldest contestant is 41 years old and the youngest is 21.

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The following contestants were chosen as finalists. Placements are listed in elimination order, and alphabetically by last name until eliminated:^[8]

The judges for the audition rounds were Carrie Fisher, Brett Ratner, and Garry Marshall.^[9]

In round one, the 50 semi-finalists were given one of five loglines, and had approximately twelve hours to expand the idea into a full story and pitch the idea to the judges. After all of the pitches were delivered, 14 contestants were eliminated - Mark B., Jarett B., Jeremy Corray, Michael C., Karla Jean Davis, Matthew E., Kenny G., Rahim Jamal, Mark McLain, Ramsey Mellette, Abigail Steinberg, Amy S., Adam W. and Mikki Willis.

In round two of the auditions, guest judge Jon Avnet filled in for judge Garry Marshall. The 36 remaining contestants were given 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit a two-and-a-half-minute short film based on the theme "out of time". The contestants were asked to divide themselves into groups of three, and each of the group members was responsible for directing one of the three scenes of the film at one of the three filming locations. 12 contestants were eliminated based on their individual performances, rather than as groups. The 12 eliminated were Phil Allocco, Shawna Baca, James Breese, Opie Cooper, Gil Kruger, Tamika Miller, Hannah Sink, Jeff Seibenick, Jeff Speed, Kai Soremekun, Randy Slavin and Daniel Tenkman.^[7]

In round three, each of the 24 remaining contestants was given one hour with a professional set and film crew to shoot a given page of script. Almost none of this final challenge was aired on the televised episode, but short selections of the task and judgment footage were included in several outtake clips on the show's official site. The eliminations went unaired, as the finalists had been chosen by the time the next episode aired live. Previews implied that this next episode would include both the final preliminary challenge and the first of the weekly finalist challenges. However, this was not the case when it aired. We can assume that the six contestants eliminated were Jarrett Conaway, Tamela D'Amico, Justin Lutsky, X. Dean Lim, Brent McCorkle, and Hilari Scarl, as they were in the final 24 but did not appear in the final 18 contestants.

The first challenge for the 18 finalists was to create one minute comedy shorts. The Film Premiere episode aired each contestant's full short, as well as a short interview/bio shot during the filming of the short. The Box Office show will result in the three directors with the lowest vote totals being eliminated. The judges for week 1 of the finals were Garry Marshall, Carrie Fisher, and D.J. Caruso.

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Lot was reduced to one episode a week as of May 31, only appearing on Tuesdays. The screenings and results will be in a single one-hour episode.

The premiere episode of On the Lot followed highly rated American Idol, but failed to hold a majority of the Idol audience. Lot had a 6.2 rating/ 9 share from 9-10 p.m., retaining just 38 percent of Idol's audience, followed by a loss of 39 percent at 9:30 p.m. (7.7/11 to 4.7/ 7).^[10]

The second episode followed another FOX network reality hit, So You Think You Can Dance. However, like its premiere, the ratings did not hold up after the lead-in show ended, losing half of Dance's audience. On the Lot had a 2.1/6 share.^[11]

The third episode was two hours long and did not have a lead-in show like the first two episodes. The Fox Network and Univision tied for fourth for the entire night at 1.8/3, behind CBS, ABC and NBC, respectively, which mostly aired reruns. For the targeted audience, Lot averaged a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, placing fifth in its first airing in its regular timeslot, behind even Univision.^[12]

Fox tried a different approach for the fourth episode, having it lead-in for the season finale of ratings hit, House. Viewership for Lot was 4 million, or a 1.8/6 share. Coupled with House, Fox had the highest viewership on Tuesday, averaging more than 10 million viewers.^[13]

Initial criticism of the show was that Lot did not show the flicks they put together to advance in the auditions, but rather, focused on quarreling among directors. ^[14] In addition, the judges were found to not providing helpful criticism, and watered down versions of American Idol judges Paula Abdul (Carrie Fisher), Randy Jackson (Brett Ratner), and Simon Cowell (Garry Marshall). ^[15]

In the final rounds show host Adrianna Costa has been criticized for not being engaging enough, in addition to messing up lines. ^[16]Vote for the Worst is currently encouraging people to vote for Kenny Luby. Members of the site have said the show has an "idiotic voting system" and the show was "haphazardly thrown together."^[17]

Despite criticisms for the show's lack of organization, some critics responded favorably to the show. It has been said that the judge's panel adds color, prestige and drama. ^[18] Others have said that Lot proves that "quality reality tv does exist." ^[19]

Criticisms have mostly been about the format of the show, as opposed to the directors, which have received praise for skill, elegance, and laugh out loud humor. ^[20]

• Official On the Lot site
• On the Lot Reality Show News
• Variety article describing show format
• KarmaCritic.Com On The Lot exiles
• Hollywood Reporter article discussing contestants
• Hartford Courant article discussing filmmakers
• Top 36 Contestant Videos
• Weekly Episode Reviews