Fans of ABC’s Lost have endured a longer than usual wait for their coveted program to return, nearly eight months and counting. ABC recently announced the show would begin its fourth season Thursday January 31, at 9pm EST. But there is a problem, the series has been set up for an three season end date, and only half of the fourth season has been produced. The result could be that Lost fans will only be treated to eight episodes of the hit show before it goes back on hiatus for nearly another year.


Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse pleaded with ABC to consider holding off on airing the series until the second eight episodes of the fourth season could be completed, but it appears that in today’s climate the networks aren’t up for doing writers many favors. ABC will be airing essentially half a season. The writer/producer duo have stated previously that the eighth episode ends in such a way that it will be frustrating to viewers, but actor Michael Emerson recently suggested otherwise.

“Well, yeah, that would be a shame. I can see from what we have done already that they are going in some really interesting new directions. I made a mental note to myself that the ending of episode 8 is a pretty great cliff-hanger,” Told me in an exclusive interview pulished at UGO.com. “If the show had to go away for an extended period of time, it wouldn’t be a bad way to go. It’s a shocking and exciting development in the program.”

Lost fans are used to being frustrated by the show’s slow-drip style of story telling, but this may not be quite the same sort of frustration that Lindelof and Cuse are alluding to. When I visited the set of Lost this fall actor Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer on the show, told me the story of season four was moving along at an unprecedented pace for the show known for stalling its big reveals. “It’s very fast moving, concise if you will.” Holloway told me.