Great news (Confirmed!): Extra hour for season 4

Sad Professor

This is just rumour of course but according to TV Guide's Ausiello, the writers are negotiating with ABC to make another hour of the show this season. Meaning we may get a 2-hour finale after all, or perhaps a third part the following week.

I really hope this is true.

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Ausiello-Scoop-Lost/800037127

OK, I've left you hanging long enough, Ausholes. The scintillating piece of Lost prattle I've been holding over your heads since Ask Ausiello went live early this morning (i.e., the better-than-the-coffin-reveal scoop) goes a little something like this....

According to one of my 815 snitches, Team Darlton is in advanced talks with ABC to produce — wait for it, wait for it — an additional hour of Lost this season!

[The crowd roars]

Now, before you go French-kissing a total stranger out of sheer elation, my source stresses that this is by no means a done deal. In fact, the scheduling hurdles alone are enough to make a grown man cry. But you have to admit, the prospect of a 14th hour is a tantalizing one. And it raises so darn many questions. For instance:

• If the dream becomes a reality, how would it work? As it stands, Lost's Season 4 climax is slated to air on May 22 on a season-finale-themed night that also includes the cappers of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. So would the additional Lost hour be broadcast the following Thursday? Or would it perhaps run on another night?

• What does this do to the finale that was going to air on May 22? Would elements of it be incorporated into the new finale? Would this 14th hour come before that episode? And since we were originally supposed to get 16 eppies this season before the strike cut that number back to 13, does this mean we would now be getting a season finale that is more in line with what Darlton intended? Or more exposition that they ran out of time to include? The mind boggles.

So what do you think, people? And where does the line for the 14th-hour prayer group form? I'm in.

Sherifu

Great stuff.

Sad Professor

Here's what Kristin at eonline is saying. Her "source" in most of these cases is usually Damon himself so it looks like this is indeed true, just tentative based on ABC approval.

*fingers crossed*

Truth told, I heard the news last night that Lost's producers met with ABC about the extra hour; however, I was told by inside sources it was "much too early to report," since the pitch meeting just happened yesterday and since ABC has not yet had a chance to respond. I was asked to hold off since my sources didn't want the fans to be disappointed if the extra hour didn't end up happening.

That said, please don't shoot the TV Diva if this doesn't end up going down, but in case it's of any help to you, here's what my well-connected insiders say about where things stand:

* It is looking "highly likely" (yay!) that there will be an additional hour of Lost for season four, for a total of six hours coming up in the spring run, starting April 24.
* Producers pitched the idea of a two-hour finale to ABC, and if they end up getting an extra hour but it is not to extend the finale, well...that could be messy.
* The sense among insiders is that ABC execs very much want to make this happen, but like I said, they have not yet had a chance to respond. Fingers crossed they will soon and it'll be the right (i.e. "yes") decision!

You'll know more when I do.

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/

Ron DMC

Here's hoping ABC realise how good this could be.

jArgHA

I don't know why all the scoops report this as being an extra 'hour', with a possible 6 'hours' remaining. Everyone knows that a Lost ep is around the 43 minute mark.

Axwell

Because its an hour of television when you include the ads, no one ever describes an episode as 43 mins of telvision. Its only that long when you take out the adverts. They arent gonna say another 4.3 hours of lost and 1.7 hours of adverts in fairness.

Mr E

Confirmed

It's official: Sources confirm to me exclusively that Steve McPherson has signed off on Lost's extraspecial 14th hour this season, which means Lost is getting a three-hour finale! The first hour airs May 15, the second and third hours will air May 29, beginning at 9 p.m. (ABC will still air the finales of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy on May 22, as expected.)

Word is there are so many big reveals the producers wanted to deliver this season that they felt anything less than a full three-hour finale would have cheated the fans. In fact, I'm hearing that the writers' draft for the second half of the finale was 80 pages long, which led all parties involved to realize these stories had to be told now. Anything else would have felt like a rip-off for the fans

Needless to say, this news rocks.

Source: E! Online, Watch with Kristin

Sherifu

Wh00t!

Sad Professor

Wooohoooo! Brilliant.

Only thing is we'll have a 2 week wait between part 1 and part 2/3 of the finale but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait. They'll need that extra week to finish post-production, they're right up to the wire as it is.

So this should be the final ABC schedule:

4x09 - April 24
4x10 - May 1
4x11 - May 8

4x12 - May 15 (Finale part 1)
4x13/14 - May 29 - (Finale part 2 & 3)

This is a similar situation to what happened at the end of season 1. Exodus part 2 was originally supposed to be a single 1 hour episode but got expanded to 2 hours.

Fair dues to ABC for letting it air a week after sweeps.

Bounty Hunter

Sherifu wrote: »

Wh00t!

woot indeed:)

Sad Professor

It'll be interesting to see if RTE/Sky do the same but according to Ausiello ABC will repeat the first part of the finale again just before the 2nd (2 hour) part on May 29. So people in the U.S. will be able to watch the whole 3 hour finale in one sitting.

Anyway here's what the writers had to say:

"We are very excited and grateful to [ABC president] Steve McPherson for working out the scheduling difficulties to allow us to make the second part of our finale two hours," says exec producer Carlton Cuse. "Damon and I were working on the script and we just couldn't get it all done in one hour without shortchanging the story. Now the finale will have all the sweep and emotional completeness we wanted it to have — along with, of course, answering who's in the coffin."

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Ausiello-Scoop-Lostgreys/800037370