I don’t recall ever before having watched and loved the first two episodes of a reality TV show as much as I did with On The Lot, and on the same token, I don’t think I’ve ever lost interest in a reality TV show so quickly. It almost hurts me to say it because the first two episodes of the show were fantastic and the show has such promise and potential to be absolutely fantastic.
After watching episode 3 of On The Lot, I still enjoyed the show, but had the feeling it was heading the way of an American Idol show and that had me worried. Being away all last week due to a family emergency, I didn’t get to watch episode 4 until I returned home yesterday and, sure enough, my fears were affirmed. They turned the show into a damn American Idol knock-off! The elimination show was far too long, incredibly bloated and simply dragged out beyond belief. It pains me to say I am disappointed in the television show almost as much as it pained me to watch episode 3. American Idol has had huge success with its format and, because of that success, no other show should or can use the same format and ever hope to have the same success, it just isn’t going to happen.
Luckily the people at Fox television are quick to react when they notice things are going down the drain. Fox has acknowledged the ratings flop that On The Lot has become and is fighting to breathe life back into the TV show.
Fox has retooled the entire season’s schedule and the show will no longer have a 2-hour screening episode on Monday night and a 1-hour elimination show on Tuesday night. Instead, both episodes will be crammed into a single 1-hour episode that will air Tuesdays at 8/7c.
Hopefully cutting the show back to a single 1-hour episode every week will breathe much needed life back into the series and save it from what could be a very early demise. I do love the idea behind the show and I truly believe it could be fantastic if the producers can tear themselves away from the terrible American Idol format. Condensing the television series into a single 1-hour episode every week will force the producers to scale things back drastically and cut out a ton of the bloated content that is dragging it under. I have high hopes and believe me, my fingers are crossed.
