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 seemed 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 co-creator 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.

Source: TV Guide