Lost and ABC to Set Series End Date

I will be the first one to say that this story should get much more attention than I’m giving it today, but a million things just got dropped on my plate and I want to make it out of work in enough time to watch The Golden Globes.

So here’s the short story…

The producer’s of Lost want to make sure that they have time to tell the story they want to tell. And it seems that at the same time, they aren’t looking to screw over their loyal audience before the story has played itself out to their liking. Therefore, the peeps at Lost have asked ABC to set a series end date, so the the show can go out in style. Strangely enough, they didn’t face too much opposition from ABC.

“We were surprised when we went to ABC and started having that conversation,” Lindelof said. “As opposed to them saying, ‘Fine, we’ll bring on new people,’ they said, ‘Well, when do you think it should end?’ And the conversations began.

“Obviously they want the show to go on as long as possible,” Lindelof added. “And all that we can say is, ‘There’s a show with us running it and there’s a show without us running it, and if you want the show with us running it, this is when we think it should end.’ And like negotiation, therein lies the rub. I think you’ll find, if you talk to [ABC entertainment president] Steve [McPherson], in Steve’s vernacular, he’s begun to embrace the idea that the show needs to end. Now the question becomes when.”

It’s nice to know they do in fact have a point to the sordid stories they tell.

For more on this news from the Losties check out Mo Ryan‘s report.

Update: Did the “Lost” producers pull a fast one on ABC? Seems that ABC wasn’t as aware of the “end date” announcement as they would have liked to be. (Read more at TVWeek.com)