Have you been watching On the ...
Question: Have you been watching
On the Lot? I have never before seen a show do such an unfortunate 180. What the hell are they thinking? Last week it was a unique and interesting competition with a lot of promise; this week it's an
American Idol wannabe: same tedious recaps of the judges' comments, same irritating "after the break" setups, and an even more annoying host. We don't get to see the filmmaking process anymore, and we don't get to know the contestants' personalities. It's like they took all the worst parts of
American Idol, changed the "log line" from singing to directing and threw it at the wall to see what would stick. Ugh. I know the ratings have not been very good, so is that why they made these changes? Or was this the direction they'd planned to take the show from the start? I really expected more from
Mark Burnett and
Steven Spielberg, but then again, this is a Fox show. Do you think there's a chance they might turn it around again? I feel like the victim of a bait and switch.
Answer: I'm also thrown by the live-audience component of this show, whose launch was hampered in part by premiering too early before the season had even ended — and scheduling the first live-competition screening for the Monday of Memorial Day weekend. Sorry, even TV critics have a life! (I watched both episodes this week on Tuesday.) This format appears to be the way the show was conceived, not as a reaction to the low ratings.
On the Lot also blundered by starting with way too many contestants, and I'm not sure any reality show besides
Idol (and maybe
So You Think You Can Dance) can afford to waste so much time on the cast-selection process. This show should have just jumped in with the first challenge, team or otherwise. But still, way too many people to keep track of right now. The show may possibly improve, though probably not in ratings, as the talent pool tightens. I like the idea of the competition, and am reasonably entertained by the wide range of short films they produce. But that host is the worst ever: abrasive, the opposite of genuine and pure poison. And I agree that I'd like at least a little more of each filmmaker's process as they tackle the challenges. That's a lot more dramatic than watching them sit in directors chairs for two hours.
Robert wrote in to wonder, in light of On the Lot's "lackluster ratings and so-so reviews, do you think Fox will cancel the show midway through its run, or let it actually play out and then can it?" Late Thursday it was announced that beginning Tuesday, June 5, On the Lot will air only once a week, on Tuesdays at 8 pm/ET, for the rest of its run. The one-hour episodes will include the film screenings as well as weekly voting results. It's still unclear right now whether these episodes will be live or taped. My guess is that with the big names behind this show (Spielberg and Burnett, who I'm sure Fox would not want to burn), Fox will let it play out through the summer, perhaps hoping that by continuing to promote it through the network's bigger summer reality hits, Dance and Hell's Kitchen (which I loathe), it will eventually attract a modest audience. But clearly, this is not going to be the next big thing in the world of reality, so I doubt there'd ever be a sequel.
