3 More Seasons

Straight from EW.com (Entertainment Weekly)

Lost to run three more seasons

ABC has ordered 48 more episodes of Lost, to run over three 16-episode seasons, with the series set to close in 2010. Executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who signed on to helm the final three seasons, have said in the past that they wanted the show to end after 100 episodes; the new deal ends the series after 120. The producers say they've already planned the end of the show's various storylines and praised ABC for giving them a concrete timeline to work with. ''What we didn't know was how long we had to play the story out,'' Cuse said. ''By defining the endpoint we can now really map out the rest of the series in confidence.'' This season's finale is set to air later this month, and ABC has hinted that the fourth season will not premiere until January or February 2008.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20038047,00.html
What do you guys think? Do you think ABC is trying a little too hard to make Lost stick around longer? Do you think Damon and Carlton will have to make "filler" episodes to make up for those extra 20 hours they'll have to do? Is it a good decision...or not?
 
Here are two more articles I found on LOSTmedia.com: from TVGuide.com and USA Today...

The Producer's Take on Lost's End Date

Lost Finds End Date; Final Seasons to Air Uninterrupted

The spaced-out odyssey will end in 2010. Monday's Hollywood trades are reporting that ABC's Lost will run for 48 more episodes over three seasons, each of which will consist of 16 episodes and air uninterrupted.

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who months ago expressed their desire to set an end date — around the 100-episode mark, though this actual plan racks up 119 (a third of which will have only seeemed to be Jack flashbacks) — have signed on to stay on until the swan song. Lindelof tells the Hollywood Reporter the setting of an end date is "incredibly liberating. Like we've been running a marathon and we actually know where the finish line is for the first time." Adds Cuse, "We can now really map out the rest of the series in confidence. We sort of view Lost as a mosaic. Now there are only 48 more tiles that go into that mosaic, and we're figuring out... exactly where they all go."

Even series cocreator J.J. Abrams, off helming a new Star Trek feature, chimed in on the news, e-mailing Variety to say, "It is the right choice for the series and its viewers. It takes real foresight and guts to make a call like this. I applaud ABC and [the studio] for making this happen."

Lost Media – If the plan doesn't work, change the plan, not the goal.

One mystery solved: 'Lost' to end in 2010


The end is in sight for ABC's acclaimed island mystery Lost, but fans will have to wait until 2010 for all the answers.

In a highly unusual move, the network announces plans today to end the show after three more shortened seasons of 16 episodes each. The episodes will air consecutively, repeat-free, from February to May.

ABC's bold step marks a response to the show's producers, who have been eager to set a finish line to better plot out their convoluted mystery of plane-crash survivors and to placate fans who are frustrated that the show seemed to be vamping its way to a conclusion.

"Among fans there was an unease that they were making an investment in a show that's complicated without any sense of where that's going to lead them," co-creator Damon Lindelof said in an exclusive interview. "From the very beginning, fans and even critics have been saying, 'Are you making it up as you go along?' " which was "a legitimate question."

Now, with a still far-away ending in sight, Lindelof says he and executive producer Carlton Cuse have "specific designs for ending the next two seasons" and promises that with the answer-filled season finale May 23, viewers "will begin to get an idea of what that design will be, and it will not be at all what they expect."

The finale completed filming in Hawaii on Saturday, a day after Lindelof and Cuse signed new contracts that will keep them working on Lost exclusively for the duration. With 48 more episodes due, the show will have completed 60% of its planned six-season run.

"It's practically unprecedented in network TV to announce the end of a show this far out," Cuse says.

ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson says the unusual long-term commitment is "a unique situation" he would be unlikely to repeat for other series. "It's one of the best shows that's ever been on," he says. "It's got brilliant storytelling, incredible character work, and takes chances beyond anything that's on the air now."

With Desperate Housewives, Lost re-energized ABC in fall 2004 and became a top 10 series. But after two time-slot switches, interruptions for low-rated repeats and a mystery that tried the patience of some fans, Lost has lost some steam. Ratings are down about 14% this season, though Lost still ranks highly among young adults and is the most heavily recorded show on DVRs.

McPherson concedes that splitting the current third season in two "was not the best for the show" and says the network also is discussing a return to an earlier time slot to draw more family viewership.

Shorter seasons will allow plots to be more tightly constructed and "will make it a real event," Lindelof says. "We won't have to do episodes where people are standing on the beach looking at the water and wondering what's going to happen next."

Will Lost risk losing fans' interest with an eight-month lag? "People wait longer than eight months for the next books and films in the Harry Potter story and they don't seem to lose interest," Cuse says. "We have faith that our audience, knowing exactly how much of the story we have left, is going to be with us for the rest of the ride."

But, Lindelof says, "the last five minutes of (this month's) finale are going to seal our fate."

http://www.lost-media.com/modules.php?name...le&sid=2528


Comments? :smiley:
 
OK, first of all ... the last 5 minutes of this years' finale is gonna seal our fate??? OMG ... so I guess we will be looking like this at the screen :jawdrop:

And I for one love those moments :jawdrop:

if the producers can keep us interested in the show, these last 3 seasons are gonna be wild ... and having to wait until january 2008 for the next season and then again for January 2009 and January 2010 for the final season ... hopefully I will be alive to see what they will do with the story and the survivors .... :woot:

Btw ... do we know if ABC is gonna stick with the Wednesday night slot??? or are they thinking about moving the show again ... :thinking: and I have this feeling will be seeing "Lost" after "Grey's Anatomy " this coming 2008 season ... :woot: :woot: :woot:
 
It's Official Lost End Date Is Set
By Kristin Veitch ... today at 2:19 pm

48 more episodes.

That's exactly how much more time we will be able to spend with our good friends Kate, Jack and Sawyer after this month's season finale, according to an official release from ABC this morning.

Lost will continue for three more seasons of 16 episodes each.

I'm told by multiple sources inside ABC that the initial plan was to do two more seasons of Lost, with 24 episodes each, however, because of interntional deals already in place, Lost's producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse agreed to divvy up those remaining 48 episodes over three seasons. (A TV season must be a minimum of 16 episodes.)

So, essentially, we are getting two more seasons' worth of episodes strewn out over three seasons. The remaining seasons will be just like this year--minus the first six episode block. And they will be shot over three years to prevent spoilers from leaking out too early. (Um, err, who would do that?!)

I'm told that when we see the "game-changer," which the show's writing team is calling "the snake in the mailbox," at the end of the May 23 season finale, we will understand why the show can not go longer than 48 more episodes.

Anybody else dying to know why?
 
Sweet Sweeps 2007
"Lost"
Wednesday, May 23, 9 p.m. ET/PT, ABC

Producers have said the two-hour finale will feature a cliff-hanger codenamed "The Snake and the Mailbox," but who knows what that means? We do know however, that Season 3 will conclude with a dramatic face-off between Jack and Locke, as well as a Jack-focused flashback.
 
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