The official On The Lot site gathered 12,000 submissions from all over the world [3] and the submission deadline was February 16, 2007.[4]. These 12,000 submissions yielded 50 semi-finalists. The contest structure is similar to that of American Idol, with the initial episodes narrowing those semi-finalists down to 18 finalists. After the audition stage, the program will comprise of a 1-hour show where movies are screened ("Film Premiere") followed the next day by a half-hour results show ("Box Office"). Viewers can vote each week for their favourite directors, which will result in the elimination of the directors with the lowest vote totals. Votes can be made online at thelot.com, in addition to landline calls and Verizon text messages, and is permitted for two hours after the show.

Originally scheduled for seperate episodes on consecutive nights, the "Film Premiere" episodes are now scheduled to air on Tuesday nights at 8:00PM/7:00PM CT, with voting results as part of the following week's episode, as of May 31, 2007[5]. The show is also aired in Canada (on CTV)[6], on People+Arts in Latin America, on FOX8 in Australia, on STAR Movies[7] in Asia, and on STAR World in India.