There seems to be a pretty unlimited appetite in America right now for reality television, especially when it gets to be summertime. All the good shows are in re-runs, and you can’t really commit to being home every Monday night at 9 (outdoor margaritas are calling you!), so a reality show with some well-edited montages and a decent villian will do the trick.
It’s no surprise that a whole slew of summer reality shows are about to kick in, from the return of ‘Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List’ on Bravo to the sublimely ridiculous ‘So You Think You Can Dance?’ One of the most intriguing additions comes from reality TV powerhouse FOX, the Steven Spielberg-Mark Burnett produced ‘On The Lot.’ Taking the best elements of ‘Project Greenlight,’ ‘The Apprentice,’ and, yes, ‘American Idol,’ it pits 50 aspiring filmmakers against each other as they attempt to win a Dreamworks contract. Each week they team up to make short films, and the audience votes on which filmmakers should stay in the competition.
It’s already getting a ton of promotion, and it premieres Tuesday night after the first part of the ‘American Idol’ finale—you couldn’t get a better lead-in. Its borrowing from the ‘Idol’ format is ballsy, assuming that audiences will come back for a half-hour results show the next day, but everyone likes proof that their text message votes are going somewhere.
The show will obviously benefit from its superstar connetions, with Carrie Fisher and Garry Marshall appearing in the promos; Brett Ratner, king of high-budget schlock, is also mentioned. And the promotional website has endless amounts of interactive areas, with users submitting their own short films and apparently becoming “members” of the site. It seems ironic to be promoting all this “third screen” business while trying to tell people it’s still worthwhile to work with a major Hollywood studio, but I guess they’re hoping their fans won’t make that leap.
The trailer makes the possibilities for drama look uneven at best. Promisingly, film shoots involve a lot of running around, yelling at extras, and shoving blame onto other people, which anyone would want to watch. Less promisingly, editing involves a whooole lot of sitting in front of a computer and looking pensive. It worked for Carrie Bradshaw, but for unattractive men in baseball hats and stubble? Probably not. One of them freaks out over meeting with “Princess Leia,” though, so if nothing else the show has an automatic fan base.
‘On the Lot’ premieres Tuesday, May 22 at 9 p.m., with a follow-up results show Thursday, May 24, at 9:30 p.m. Lets see if Steven Spielberg can be the next Donald Trump of television, and actually hope really, really hard, for Steven’s sake, that it never happens. I can’t bear to see him start a war with Rosie O’Donnell, I really can’t.
