LOS ANGELES - ABC is attempting to rescue once-hot “Lost” by ending the show — in 2010.
Bowing to the fact that convention isn’t working for the drama about plane-crash survivors on a surreal island, the network is taking the unusual step of turning “Lost” into a limited-run series.
It will run for three shorter and uninterrupted seasons until its “highly anticipated and shocking finale” in the 2009-10 season, ABC said Monday.
The series, which saw its ratings drop this season amid complaints about scheduling, an increasingly meandering plot and unpopular new characters, still must prove itself to disenchanted viewers to survive.
“Due to the unique nature of the series, we knew it would require an end date to keep the integrity and strength of the show consistent throughout and to give the audience the payoff they deserve,” ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said in a statement.
Typically, networks milk a series until it runs dry of ratings and then drop the ax.
Last January, “Lost” producers said they were talking with the network about setting an end date.
Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have agreed to remain with the show, now in its third season, through the end, ABC said. Lindelof created the show with J.J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber.
“We always envisioned ‘Lost’ as a show with a beginning, middle and end,” Lindelof and Cuse said in a statement. “By officially announcing exactly when that ending will be, the audience will now have the security of knowing that the story will play out as we’ve intended.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm sure everybody has heard this news already... just wanted to know what everyone thinks. I think it's great news. I've been saying all along that this show should have 15 episodes a season. Now that they have an end date, they can really map it out. Can't think of another American show that has ever done that besides Babylon 5.
great news. it shows how the writers/producers of lost are totally in tune with their fan base...because everyone's biggest complaints about the show were either the "filler" episodes or the extendo mid-season hiatus.
we'll get a longer gap in between seasons, but it's still worth it.
My only grievance with this is that once again networks are following cable series. This just adds precedence to have shorter seasons for shows and longer times between when the shows come back.
I don't personally mind, but shorter seasons means less chance for people to get 2-3 backstories per season... unless they are planning on making a radical culling of the cast...
Post a Comment