"On the Lot" of reality-show cliches

Fox’s “American-Idol”-only-for-filmmakers reality show “On the Lot” debuts tonight after the real “AI,” and though Fox didn’t provide a full screener, they did thoughtfully provide about the first five minutes of the first episode for scrutiny. Which, given those five minutes, is about all I would’ve been able to get through anyway.

It’s your standard-issue reality show set-up – host explaining what precisely Hollywood is to those unfamiliar with the concept, contestants talking about how being on the show’s a dream come true, explications of the notion of “competition,” more contestants talking about how – no, really, you just can’t imagine – being on this show is such a dream come true, a big awesome prize awaits someone but only if you’ve got what it takes (actually, it’s not even that big a prize – just a development deal, and most development deals result in absolutely nothing; at least with "Project Greenlight," the winner, so to speak, got to make an actual movie even if no one actually saw it), yada yada yada.

And it appears, from the sheer number of contestants, that viewers won’t soon be getting to see any significant amount of footage from the work that the contestants do. We will seem them engage in copious product-placement, however. So clearly, they’re not looking for any originality out of these aspiring movie directors.

- “On the Lot:” 9 tonight, Fox (Channel 11).