Ratings
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 to 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).
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.
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.
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.
The fifth episode was another attempt at coupling Lot with House, which resulted in worse ratings than the previous week. Fox averaged 5.6 million viewers for the night, third behind NBC, which was tops with America's Got Talent and Deal or No Deal, and CBS, which aired reruns of NCIS. Lot had 3.3 million viewers for its hour-long broadcast of five three-minute flicks.
The sixth episode, which joined Lot with Hell's Kitchen was the first showing that had less than three million viewers. Lot had 1.2/4 share, or 2.8 million viewers, behind top-rated America's Got Talent and the NBA Finals.
According to Nielsen overnights, Lot dipped even lower on its seventh episode, with only a 1.0 rating, tying it with ABC's shows Fast Cars and Superstars and George Lopez. NBC had a commanding lead the entire night, thanks to hit show Talent.
For its finale and the announcement of the winner, the reality series saw a slight bump as it moved up to 1.1/4 in the 18–49 demo, although the net remained well behind the other major broadcasters in the 8 o'clock hour.
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