Thanks to a special Thursday night results show of American Idol (so long Garrett, Colton, Amy, and Joanne), Lost was not the top-rated show of the night. Still, the show's fourth episode won its timeslot, with ratings/share of 7.7/12 and total viewership of approximately 13.53 million.

A special "enhanced" repeat of last week's episode which aired an hour prior to the new episode placed third behind American Idol and Survivor: Micronesia, with approximately 5.47 million viewers.

For more information, check out PIFeedback, Zap2It, and TV by the Numbers. (8:44 PM)

It's Thursday once again, and that means a new episode of Lost! The fourth episode of the fourth season is entitled "Eggtown," and it's written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Greggory Nations and directed by Stephen Williams. Below is the official description of the episode:

Kate's need to get information out of the hostage may jeopardize her standing with Locke -- as well as with Sawyer. (5:21 PM)

"Wicked" is Rebecca Mader's favorite word.

She uses it to describe Meryl Streep, with whom she shared a scene in The Devil Wears Prada. Also among the "wicked": Kate Walsh, whom she appeared alongside in Private Practice's first episode. And perhaps the most wicked of all: Josh Holloway, one of her new actor pals on ABC's Lost (tonight, 9 p.m. ET/PT).

Wicked is "the British version of awesome," explains the U.K. import who plays archaeologist Charlotte Lewis — one of four new explorers on the increasingly mysterious (and crowded) island.

And what's the name of that sexy polish on Mader's fingers and toes? She blushes. "You're never going to guess what it's called," she says with a giggle. "It's called Wicked!"

Pretty wicked herself, Mader is focusing full time on acting after working as a model in the U.K. since she was 18. The Cambridge native, 28, once worked in a L'Oréal ad campaign as "the redhead" alongside Beyoncé, and she still sees her face on hair-care products back in England....

Read the full story and watch the video interview at Celeb Watch. (10:11 PM)

It's astounding how fast this season of "Lost" has taken off. Remember last year, when we spent episode after episode watching Jack, Sawyer and Kate sit around in cages? Not this year. It's a testament to the incredible amount of information the writers have been able to pack into each of the first three episodes that each one sparks a debate on which revelation was the most important of the episode.

In my house, my girlfriend seemed quite taken with the revelation at the end of Thursday's episode: Post-rescue Sayid (Naveen Andrews) remade as Sayid Bond (with unfortunate Fabio hair), flying around the world and killing people for Ben (Michael Emerson). Who are these people Ben is having him kill? I'd say a big clue was found on the wrist of Elsa, the woman Sayid had to kill in this episode. Her bracelet, no doubt given to her by her mysterious employer, looks to be an exact duplicate of the one worn by Naomi, the freighter rescuer killed by Locke. Naomi's bracelet was inscribed by R.G. So who is R.G.?

The possibilities are endless, though I doubt the writers have given us enough information yet to be able to come up with a credible theory. But with all due respect to my lovely girlfriend, I don't think the Ben-Sayid partnership -- or alliance, as it's called on "Survivor" -- was the most startling revelation in the episode. Much more exciting to the series' overall arc was the mini-experiment Daniel Faraday ( Jeremy Davies) engaged in with Regina back on the boat. . . .

A rocket, fired from the freighter, did not arrive at its intended target on the island until a full 31 minutes later. (I thought the unsynchronized watches were a nice homage to Doc Brown from "Back to the Future.") It's important not to downplay the implications of that delay and its connection to the island's true nature. More than any other character, I think, Faraday and his box of scientific doohickeys will do more to quiet that faction of the audience that seems convinced the writers don't really know what the island is.

It's worth pointing out "Lost's" similarities to a Stephen King novella, "The Langoliers." It's a safe bet that the show runners, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, are familiar with the story -- they're both avowed King freaks, but with all the other books visually referenced on the show, it's strange that this one hasn't come up yet. Perhaps because to signal a connection to this story would have been too big a giveaway to a major secret of the series. But go ahead and read the summary on Wikipedia (or better yet, read the book for yourself) and consider again Faraday's comment in Episode 2 about the quality of light on the island being off somehow.

And what about his instructions to Frank to fly off the island and stay on the coordinates he was given? Are they trying to fly through a time rip?

Finally, what are we to make of the revelation that Ben has been traveling off the island for some time under assumed identities? Did he cross paths with any of the crash survivors at some point in the past? I have no doubt we haven't seen the last of the survivor flashbacks.

By the way, the name Ben used in the passport Sayid looked at was Dean Moriarty, one of the key characters in Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road." Of course, Moriarty was also Sherlock Holmes' genius archnemesis. It seems as though Ben is a combination of both of these characters -- the evil genius with wanderlust. Now we just need to figure out who wants him dead.

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times. (2:55 AM)

Once again, many thanks to Billie Doux for giving us episode reviews for the site. Her latest review for the latest episode of the show, "The Economist," is now up, and here's an excerpt for your enjoyment:

I gasped out loud three times during this episode. So I guess you could say it was a multiple shocker.

Sayid is our third confirmed member of the Oceanic Six. (That was gasp number one.) (We still don't know for certain about Kate, or I'd say Sayid was fourth.) I liked Sayid in flash forwards a lot more than in his previous flashbacks; he was much more interesting as a suave but reluctant assassin than as a tortured torturer. Plus, Sayid in gorgeous clothes and doing love scenes? Super yum. Not that I don't like him in Island grunge.

Ben, who is an even bigger villain than I thought, has some sort of stranglehold on future Sayid. Like what? Did the amorphous, unknown bad guys that included Mr. Abilene and "the economist" who wasn't do something to Nadia, perhaps? Was that why Sayid was crying? And what has Ben been doing with the money, fancy clothes, and multiple passports?

Locke continued his search for the Magical Moving Cabin and its mysterious and possibly dead residents. He also managed to subvert Hurley. That really surprised me, because I thought Locke wasn't doing all that well in the leadership skills department. Plus it was very unlike Hurley to betray a friend.

Read the full review here. (9:53 AM)

"I have been very careful with the choices that I make," said Matthew Fox, the good-looking and well-built star of the television hit and Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Best Drama Series, "Lost.”"

When we interviewed him in a hotel on Santa Monica beach for the action-packed thriller "Vantage Point," Fox was not clad in an unbuttoned shirt, as he usually appears in the TV series where he portrays the heroic and conflicted doctor, Jack Shephard. He was fully clothed in a blue long-sleeved shirt and black jacket.

In "Vantage Point," he and Dennis Quaid play Secret Service agents assigned to protect the US president. When the president is shot, the assassination is told from different viewpoints, in the fashion of the Japanese film classic "Rashomon."

"I consider this business as a marathon instead of a sprint," said Fox, a Golden Globe nominee this year for Best Actor in a TV Drama Series. "I believe that those who do a sprint in this business are doing it for the wrong reasons. They are in it more for just the fame, not to buckle down to work. Secondly, I always believe that the faster you rise, the faster you fall....

Read the full story at Philippine Daily Inquirer. (9:43 AM)

Elizabeth Mitchell plays the maybe-not-evil Juliet on "Lost." She was at home on Bainbridge Island, Wash., with the kiddo.

Apparently Bainbridge is also home to Russell Johnson, better known as the Professor from "Gilligan's Island."

Yes! I hear this too! Who didn't watch "Gilligan's Island"? I can still sing the song.

An important predecessor to "Lost."

Yes. I really love "Lost," though. I am kind of itching -- I know I say this a million times -- but I'm a big reader, and you know how you wait for installments of books when you're a kid? . . . I'm looking forward to a script! I'm looking forward to seeing something.

Two years ago, everyone was raising the cautionary "Twin Peaks" flag. . . . But for now we've gotten through that.

Yeah, I think so! I talk to a lot of people, and . . . they have their times they're in love with us, with "Lost," and the times they're angry with "Lost." And now they're just getting on the ride: "I know I'm gonna get mad again, and I know I'll be happy again." I think that's it: They know at least they're going somewhere, so they might as well sit back and see where it takes you.

Don't you go a little nutty out there in nature, with 20,000 or whatever people on an island?

You'd think! But it's a pretty good group of people. I'm still intrigued by them. You don't go hog-wild bored, because you have a 2-year-old and you're so tired. Any time you might be bored, your eyes close and you go to sleep. Boredom is for people who don't have toddlers....

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times. (9:40 AM)

Smoke monsters? Ghosts? Pirates? Renegade researchers experimenting with wormholes and polar bears?

All minor headaches compared to the thorniest threat Matthew Fox and his fellow Lost castaways have faced: Namely, fickle fair-weather fans.

"Those were all bandwagon jumpers. Those were the people who would not have been Lost fans to begin with," says Fox of the millions of viewers who bailed during the stormy sophomore season and had many observers wondering if the phenomenally-popular series would ever regain its momentum.

"We won the Emmy. We won the Golden Globe -- and then we had a whole bunch of people jump on just because they couldn't stand being left out and they weren't really Lost fans to begin with.

"And they all went away."

And frankly Fox doesn't sound terribly interested in wooing them back. Fact is, after a third year in which the show re-constituted much of its creative credibility, ratings are strong (16 million-plus in its new Thursday timeslot). So is the buzz. Now in its fourth -- albeit abbreviated -- season, the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 have seemingly reverse-jumped the shark. How'd they do it? First, by ingeniously tweaking the show's non-linear narrative. After three seasons spent flashing back in time, last May's season finale sprung forward to a post-island Jack who is a bearded, alcoholic shell of his former self. The sudden flash-forward format re-kindled the interest of devotees and casual fans alike -- i.e.: What horrible events transpired during the rescue of the castaways? Fox says he knows, but, of course, is not telling....

Read the full story at Winnipeg Sun. (9:37 AM)

Fans tend to be in obsessive awe of Brian K. Vaughan, the 31-year-old co-producer of the ABC show "Lost" and the writer of the popular comic book "Y: The Last Man," created with the artist Pia Guerra.

So what happened the other night when around 100 collaborators, friends and comic junkies came to Meltdown Comics, a shop on West Sunset Boulevard, to toast the recently published 60th and final issue of "Y"? A lot of hero-worship for a reluctant hero.

"It's Brian's night, and I'm geeking out," said Joss Whedon, 43, the creator of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."”

Even though the comic-book series is over, "I'll still be stalking Brian," said Nick Igoe, 23, a fan who had traveled from Minneapolis and wore a "Y" sweatshirt embroidered by his grandmother.

Also on hand was Jeff Garlin, 45, the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star, looking relatively trim in a sweatshirt and jeans, and holding a bagful of just-purchased comics. "I have a mad crush on 'Y: The Last Man,' " he said.

Baby-faced, bald and clad in a black suit, a black shirt, black dress shoes and red socks, Mr. Vaughan was cowed by the attention. "I'm totally mortified," he said. " 'Y' is just the product of five years alone in a room."

"Y: The Last Man" is the saga of Yorick Brown, a commitment-phobic escape artist who is the lone survivor of a plague that wipes out the male population of Earth; he and a Capuchin monkey named Ampersand travel a world inhabited entirely by women.

A stand-in for Ampersand, named Zuni, was posing for photographs beside a beverage cooler in the shape of R2-D2.

"I jokingly told the store I would do this event if they had a live monkey," said Mr. Vaughan, who slipped Zuni's trainer a $5 tip.

Ms. Guerra, 36, was particularly enchanted by the animal. "I've never seen a live monkey before," she said. "I cheated and based Ampersand on my cat."

Damon Lindelof, 34, a creator and the executive producer of "Lost," explained why he offered Mr. Vaughan a job on "Lost."

"Brian spends at least 93 percent of his life apologizing," Mr. Lindelof said. "He has an idea brain. And he hates himself like we do."

During a question-and-answer session, Mr. Vaughan apologized to the crowd for making everybody come out on a Friday night. He explained that the writers' strike had put the movie adaptation of "Y" in "sort of a Han Solo cryogenic freeze."

When Mr. Whedon told the audience that he had wiped away tears as he read the last issue of "Y," Mr. Vaughan's face turned the color of his socks. "He's the whole reason I became a writer," Mr. Vaughan said later.

After the Meltdown party, Mr. Vaughan and company headed to Ye Coach and Horses, a nearby British-theme bar. Mr. Vaughan said the end of the series was finally hitting him.

"It's been like the five stages of dealing with death," he said. "Tonight was really the acceptance, and I'm at peace with that. It's actually a nice feeling. And now, I need a drink."

Read the full story at The New York Times. (9:32 AM)

The executive producers of ABC's "Lost," Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, will deliver a keynote address at the NAB Show April 15 in Las Vegas.

Mr. Cuse and Mr. Lindelof will discuss creating compelling original TV content as well as digital distribution, including their vision of delivering content to mobile devices.

"Lost" premiered in September 2006 and has remained a ratings leader for ABC.

Mr. Cuse began his career in feature films as a creative executive before creating television series "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," "Nash Bridges" and "Martial Law."

Prior to his work on "Lost," Mr. Lindelof was a writer on shows including "Undressed," "Wasteland" and "Crossing Jordan."

The NAB Show, organized by National Association of Broadcasters, runs April 11-17. Other speakers slated to appear include "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker, "Pushing Daisies" director and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, Six Flags President-CEO Mark Shapiro, and best-selling author Alvin Toffler ("Revolutionary Wealth," "Future Shock").

Read the full story at TVWeek. (9:29 AM)

After a painful eight-month hiatus that sent rabid fans into withdrawal, season four of the cryptic, elaborate ABC series Lost returned with signs of maturity in its foray into the lives of the remaining survivors of a plane crash.

With 90 days elapsed since the plane first crashed in 2004's first season -- stranding 40 people on a remote island -- the show's priorities are changing and viewers are left to fill in the blanks of the patchy chronology. Meanwhile, the focus has diverted into characters' petty fights and innocuous love triangle filler.

Last season's finale, in which the show's writers began fleshing out the storyline by flash-forwarding to the future lives of six fortunate survivors who escaped the island, was a brilliant and advantageous shift in storytelling. Previously, the show had used flashbacks to frame the storylines on the island with the characters' past experiences, a tactic that had grown tiresome and increasingly felt like a tool for the writers to slow the pace and buy more time.

By looking forward, instead of backward, the writers unlocked the potential for a narrative with a wider scope, affording themselves even more liberties in how they can divulge information. This season, the flash-forwards are used to serve the plot and quell an impatient audience that has been confused for far too long....

Read the full story at The Daily Collegian Online. (9:21 AM)

Lost was still the most watched show last night, but not by much. The show got ratings/share of 8.1/13 and total viewership of approximately 13.62 million viewers. This was just slightly ahead of Survivor: Micronesia, which had ratings/share of 7.6/12 and total viewership of approximately 13.12 million viewers. Whether or not the fact that last night was Valentine's Day had any effect on ratings remains to be seen.

A repeat of "Confirmed Dead" 8pm Eastern/7pm Central got ratings of 4.4 and total viewership of approximately 6.21 million viewers, putting it third in its timeslot.

Read more about Lost's ratings at Zap2It, PIFeedback, TV by the Numbers, The Hollywood Reporter, and Broadcasting and Cable. (10:37 PM)

It's Lost day today, and once again, we've got another new episode. The third episode of the fourth season is entitled "The Economist," written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (who also penned, among others, "Greatest Hits") and directed by Jack Bender. According to ABC, Locke's hostage may be the key to getting off the island, so Sayid and Kate go in search of their fellow castaway in an attempt to negotiate a peaceful deal.

The show airs tonight on ABC at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central. Visit Lost-TV Forums to discuss the episode. (4:09 PM)

The writers' strike may end up being the best thing that ever happened to Lost.

ABC is said to be finalizing a post-strike spring schedule that not only hands Lost its best available time slot, but promises to further strengthen the network's stronghold on Thursday night.

According to multiple sources, ABC plans on airing this season's final five* Lost episodes on Thursdays at 10 pm/ET beginning in late April, where it will follow all-new episodes of Grey's freakin' Anatomy! Throw in fresh installments of Ugly Betty at 8 pm and you've got yourself the most formidable one-two-three punch since the early days of CBS' Survivor/CSI/Without a Trace smashup. Creatively speaking, I'd go so far as to say this rivals NBC's storied Must-See-TV juggernaut back in the '90s.

And I haven't even gotten to the best part.

The best part is that I'm hearing that ABC is strongly considering keeping this dream lineup intact this fall... and beyond.

I don't know about you, but this almost makes up for ABC's mishandling of [insert any number of show titles here].

* This just in: I'm now hearing that Lost's final arc may consist of six episodes, not five. No, Team Darlton isn't making an extra episode this season. Rather, the final installment of the current run (aka Episode 8) will likely be held to kick off the final batch of five. According to my spies, Episode 7 makes for a better, more logical, break. Discuss....

Read the full story at TV Guide. (12:57 AM)

Michael Emerson is an actor who began his career in theater, but has since made his name playing some of the creepiest villains in recent memory. He won an Emmy for playing a serial killer on The Practice, and starred as the deranged Zep Hindle in the original Saw movie. He's best known for his role as Ben Linus, the sinister, manipulative leader of the Others on the ABC series Lost. Fair Game interviewed the actor on their show, and "and he was lovely." Not much in the way of spoilers, though he does talk a bit about returning to work after the strike. There's also a funny/sad anecdote about an embarrassing moment he had on the subway. You can listen to the interview here.

In addition, Jeff Curtin, leader of the band Previously On Lost, talks to Faith about the group's music, which is inspired entirely by the ABC television show Lost. You can listen to the song here that Jeff wrote specifically for Michael's appearance on Fair Game. (12:50 AM)

The WGA have overwhelmingly voted to end the three-month writers' strike, which had prematurely shortened or ended many shows' seasons, including Lost. According to Media Life Magazine, " The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike, which was called Nov. 4, with some 92 percent of the ballots in support of the new contract, which affects some 10, 500 members of the Writers Guild of America. Roughly a third of WGA members voted, some 3,775. The strike's ending means the Oscars, set for Feb. 24, will go on, and writers will be jumping back in to resume working on scripts for top shows like ABC's "Desperate Housewives" that ran out of fresh episodes some time ago."

What does this mean for our favorite island mystery? Multiple sources (TV Guide and The Mercury News, among others) indicate that, in addition to the eight pre-strike episodes, Lost will be getting an additional five episodes, bringing this season's total up to 13. (The remaining three episodes - this season was supposed to have 16 - will be incorporated into the show's last two seasons.)

Also, some changes will be made to the show's schedule. Instead of all eight pre-strike episodes airing until March 20 (incidentally, Lost-TV's fourth anniversary), the eighth episode will be moved to late April, kicking off this season's run of five post-strike episodes. Plus, when the show returns after an unfortunately unavoidable four week break, the show moves to yet another new timeslot: Thursdays at 10pm Eastern/9pm Central, after Grey's Anatomy.

Stay tuned for more details. (12:39 AM)

Lost is back! Oh, wait, that happened two weeks ago.

What I mean is, Lost will be back-back, after the strike. And even better, we've just checked in with inside sources, and we have dates! Yes, dates! So, break out your calendars, 'cause we're hearing this is the approved plan:

The last episode of the current pod (episode seven) will air Mar. 13. Then the show will be off the air for six weeks and return Apr. 24 at 9 p.m.

(That Apr. 24 episode will be the already-completed episode eight, which was filmed prestrike, but which apparently works much better as a minipremiere than it does as a minifinale.)

Anyhoo, the following week, on Thurs., May 1, a little show called Grey's Anatomy returns to its usual 9 p.m. time slot, so Lost will move to 10 p.m., where it will stay for the rest of the season.

"Yippee" just doesn't do it justice, does it?

To find out what this all means for the season-four story, I checked in with my personal Jesus, Damon Lindelof, who explains how his writing team plans to squish the eight episodes of plot they had planned into only five more episodes.

"We are going to execute our full story plan for season four," D.L. says. "This simply requires a shift from high-octane storytelling to superhigh-octane storytelling. It requires no cramming, only a slightly heavier foot on the gas pedal...so, hold on to your hats. Those of you waiting for the long-anticipated Jin and Hurley Ping-Pong tournament, however, will be very disappointed."

Um, yippee!...

Read the full story at E! Online. (12:37 AM)

Make no mistake, out of all the shows whose fate has been left dangling in the wind by the just-concluded writers' strike, the one we're most concerned about is Lost. Good thing, then, that the sixth fifth fourth third second first call Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse made after meeting with ABC execs this evening to finalize the new plan for Season 4 was to, yep, you guessed it, Variety Hollywood Reporter Entertainment Weekly Golf Digest Mac Addict me!

Welcome back!
Carlton Cuse: It's good to be back. It'll be even better tomorrow when the writers all start rolling in and we start getting to work... pending the vote, of course.

What came out of your meeting with ABC today?
Cuse: Damon [Lindelof] and I are going to try to make five more episodes before the end of May, which is ambitious. But we've found ourselves in a situation where we had eight episodes of story planned, and we're going to try to fit that into five hours of the show. Even though it's going to be very hard to execute, we felt like any less would be doing a disservice to the story we had planned. We really want to give the fans the best possible experience and ending... to Season 4.

Any chance that the first of the five episodes will air the week after that last pre-strike episode - thus eliminating any scheduling gap?
Cuse: No, there's probably going to be four weeks between the airing of the first batch of episodes and our new episodes.

What will happen to the three "lost" episodes? Will they roll over into next season's 16, or will they vanish forever?
Cuse: Damon and I remain committed to producing the 40 additional hours of the show that we promised. We haven't figured out exactly when we'll put those other three on, but we're not eliminating them from the show. You will get those three episodes downstream.

I know it's early, but have you decided what will have to get cut from this season's arc in order to accelerate things? Are we going to lose some flashbacks and/or flash-forwards?
Cuse: All those conversations will take place tomorrow when we actually start talking about story.

Is it possible that some guest actors you were planning to use before the strike may no longer be available now? Like, for example, Andrea Roth?
Cuse: Yeah, there are a lot of issues that have to get sorted out. We're also in the middle of pilot season.... We're kind of figuring out what has happened to all of our actors who have gone on to do other things. Literally, there are cobwebs on the couches in the writers' room. Call me in a couple of days and I should have more answers for you.

OK, last question: Have you come up with a code word for this season's top-secret cliff-hanger?
Cuse: [Laughs] Not yet. That's a very good point. We'll have to get on that. If you have any ideas, Mike, let us know.

(BTW, I was joking in my intro. I'm pretty sure I was Carlton's first. Wait, that came out wrong.... )

Read the full story at TV Guide. (12:34 AM)

My last column was on HBO's "The Wire" and its main character: Baltimore. My second favorite show also uses its location as the driving force behind its plot: "Lost."

In most desert island stories ("Gilligans's Island," "Survivor," "Cast Away," "Robinson Crusoe," etc.), the island is the setting, not really posing a threat to the characters outside of weather, animals and maybe some ignorant portrayals of the natives. On "Lost," the island has pulled the castaways into its grasp and holds many mysteries that unravel over the course of the series (i.e. What is in the hatch? What is the smoke monster? Why did the plane crash? Who are the others? Why can Locke walk?)

I'm not sure if I want the answers to these questions. Every time a question is answered, it raises three or four more questions about the nature of the island, the connection between the characters or just what the heck is going on with the show. It is the most fun you'll have being frustrated.

The story of the survivors (and other inhabitants of the island we meet along the way) is told mostly in flashback. Typically, each episode is dedicated to one character surviving on the island and we see he/she before they boarded Oceanic Flight 815. The fun is not only in getting to know the characters before they got to the island, but figuring out the connections between characters.

At the end of the third season, "Lost" changed up the formula. During the season finale, it was revealed that Jack's flashback wasn't a flashback; it was a flash forward. Now as the fourth season begins, we see some castaways in the future, off the island. Some people might think that the spoils the fun. We have been waiting four years to see them get off the island and now we know that they do.

But the fun is not in how do they get off the island, but how did they go from point A to point B and what happens in between. The best example of this is the star of the show, Jack. Ever since the plane crashed, his only concern was getting everyone rescued and off the island. In the flash forward that ended last season, we see him a broken man, taking flights regularly and hoping the plane will crash on the island again.

"Lost" follows in the tradition of mystery shows such as "Twin Peaks" and "The X-Files," where you never really know what's going on. Just when you find out what something is, the how and why are right behind it and the answers might not come until a season or two later.

The creators of "Lost" are in the unique situation of having an end date for their show. Through negotiations with ABC, they have planned out three more seasons, to wrap everything up and answer all the questions. After that, I can't imagine having so much fun being frustrated.

Read the full story at The Towerlight. (12:27 AM)

Evangeline Lilly, actress in ABC's hit series Lost, was on Regis and Kelly Live today, and revealed that she recently planned a trip to China, and upon arriving at the airport, realized she didn't have a travel visa (required when flying out of the US, to state the purpose of the trip). Yes, all of our toys are made there, but you can't fly there without prior express written consent from the Chinese Embassies and Consulates.

"I had everything all booked, and everything was all ready to go, and I was super-excited about it, and then, I got to the airport, and as I was checking in for my flight, they asked me for my um, traveling...visitor's...visa for China. And I didn't know I needed a visa to get into China." Apparently everything was not all ready to go.

So what did the Lost star do? Get lost! She proceeded to change her flight to Tokyo, Japan, instead, with no hotel reservations and no travel arrangements once she got there, and ended up relying on information from some random guy trying to get her drunk.

Okay, that's dangerous, not glamorous, girl! Even Tyra Banks plans in advance for her trips to China and Japan, and you know Tyra has been there more times than I've been to New York City, probably.

Read the full story (with video) at ConnieTalk. (12:22 AM)

Anyone who has been watching the fourth season of "Lost" knows that the writers have managed to raise about 100 more questions than the million already on fan's minds.

But no question will have more effect this season than the one co-show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse face as the end of the strike approaches. When the walkout began in November, eight of the season's 16 scripts were completed. Will ABC order the final eight to be aired this TV season? Or will some of the episodes get tabled for future seasons?

"I think the big task ahead of us is to basically come up with the best plan both creatively and logistically for 'Lost' moving forward," Lindelof said. "If they go along with what we kind of want to do, my guess is it will be fairly aggressive. So every day counts....

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times. (12:16 AM)

No more writers on picket lines. No more network TV bosses scrambling for replacement shows.

But enough about them. What about us?

Two simple questions prey on every viewer's mind: When will my favorite scripted programs be back with new episodes? And, WILL my favorite shows be back?

Here are the short-and-sweet answers from industry insiders after the three-month Hollywood writers' strike....

...Damon Lindelof is eager for some answers. An executive producer of ABC's mystery serial "Lost," he should learn this week what his show's future holds as it closes out its fourth season.

"Lost" has been back on the air just two weeks. But the strike meant a planned 16-episode shooting schedule was halted after just eight episodes were shot. Fans braced themselves for no more this season.

"But we very much want to come back and do as many episodes as possible," said Lindelof, who then listed a few issues that first need to be settled.

"How many episodes can best serve our story? And what are the production realities?" He noted that the shooting facility in Hawaii, 2,500 miles from his Los Angeles office, had been shuttered since Thanksgiving. The crew has dispersed, the huge cast has scattered.

The first new post-strike episode of "Lost" could possibly be ready for broadcast the week after episode eight appears, he said. There likely would be three or four more after that.

Could there be even more?

"I'd be surprised if the network wanted to air episodes deep into the summer," he said. But if all the pieces fell into place, "Lost" fans would be blessed: "I don't see why we couldn't deliver all eight remaining episodes."

That kind of zeal should warm viewers' hearts. Lindelof and the rest of TV's creative community seem delighted to be back.

Almost as delighted as we are.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News. (12:10 AM)

Over the past three seasons of the hit ABC series Lost, fans have endured several peaks and valleys, waited patiently through the highs and lows, and even stuck with the show through all of the unanswered questions. Although Lost has turned most of its cast into instant household names, with some going on to find equal success on the big screen, the island inhabitants have also stuck together through the highs and lows of Hollywood. Now that Lost is back on the airwaves, loyal fans couldn't be happier given the lack of programming due to the ongoing (but soon to end) writers' strike.

In support of his upcoming role in Pete Travis' upcoming Rashomon style thriller Vantage Point, which hits theaters on February 22, Lost actor Matthew Fox made an appearance at the film's recent press junket where he fielded a series of questions surrounding the series. Although Fox is undoubtedly used to fielding Lost questions wherever he goes (and probably will for years to come), he's still a fan of the show away from the set.

The most interesting aspect of what Fox had to say about Lost is that if there's a finality to the writers' strike in the very near future, the production and cast COULD head back into the studio to work on a few of the episodes they didn't get for the season.

Here's a closer look at what Matthew Fox had to say at the recent Vantage Point junket about rolling out the shortened season of Lost, the potential season finale, the writers' strike, and living in Hawaii.

Matthew Fox on the possibility Episode 8 of Lost being a finale:

"I think it would work as a finale, but I think obviously it wasn't done in the ideal conditions. I mean it was really the last episode because we were shut down."

Fox on rolling out the eight episodes of Season 4:

"I think the audience has waited a hell of a long time for new chapters of Lost, and I think it was important that we give them some episodes that we had done. I know it's frustrating for Damon [Lindelof]... for three years he didn't know how the show was going to go and then he was really instrumental in making sure there was an end date. He got that and now he finally had the opportunity to let the story rip and he only got to let it rip for eight. Then suddenly he didn't get to do it anymore. I know that's been frustrating for him, but the audience has also been waiting for new episodes since last May. So I think what the show did in its premiere, and the kind of reviews it got, people definitely wanted to see episodes of Lost."

On whether he'd watch the show if he wasn't a cast member:

"I absolutely would watch it if I weren't on it. I think it's, in my opinion, one of the best things on television. And I think - number one, I don't think it has a cultural identity, so it translates around the world really well because it feels not like a show that's an American show or any other. It doesn't have a specific signature on it, it feels like a show about all of us and it's dealing with philosophical themes about all of us. What is the true nature of man? Do we tend [to lean] towards compassion or self preservation when the chips are down? I think just on a really simple, fundamental level when you watch an episode of Lost you just really cannot wait to find out what's going to happen next."

On what separates Lost from other shows:

"I'm not knocking cop shows and lawyer shows and doctor shows, but those shows, even though there's a new case each week, you sort of know what to expect. This is a show about a plane crash on an island in the South Pacific and it's going to have a really intense epic arcing and every episode is eventually leading you to a final conclusion."

Fox on the writers' strike:

"We're all waiting to find out how quickly this thing is going to be ratified and locked down. I think there’s talk that we might go back into production this year to get some of the eight we didn't get. I'm really hoping so, because the story has got a lot of momentum right now."

Matthew Fox on living in Hawaii instead of L.A.:

"I really don't like to get the whole paparazzi thing just in my daily life - photographs of my kids and that type of thing - which happens, but it's very rare. I think if I was living in Los Angeles it would be more difficult for me, so Hawaii has been good in that respect. There's not a lot of paparazzi that want to do the 2500 mile trek into the South Pacific to get a picture of me walking on the beach. [laughs]"

Read the full story at The Deadbolt. (11:51 PM)

Thanks to Amy for uploading these. Nickb123's transcript of "Confirmed Dead" is now up. Check it out! (10:32 AM)

Evangeline Lilly (Kate) will be appearing on Late Show with David Letterman TONIGHT! The show airs on CBS at 11:30pm ET. Watch it! (7:52 PM)

The Lost star imagines finding himself in the hereafter.

How will you meet your maker?
My obsession with ghost hunting backfires when I encounter a full-body apparition. The ghost touches me, my hair turns white, and I keel over. On the other side, I find that ghost and punch him in the mouth.

Got any deathbed confessions?
Just before I croak, I'll call someone over and say, "I've never told this to anyone..." and die. They'll talk about me forever.

As an adult, what did you spend the most money on?
Toys I never had as a kid, which I'd play with for 15 minutes before losing interest. Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots? Totally overrated.

What's your biggest regret?
Taping this girl Sarah's head in high school. I thought it'd be funny, but she cried. It still kind of bums me out.

What was the best moment of your life?
Quitting my job on April Fools' Day, because I like to think they were holding their breaths a bit, thinking I'd be back the next morning.

The worst?
Taping that girl's head, dude! How many times you gotta bring that up?

Tell us something about yourself that your fans never knew.
I'm lighter on my feet than I look. Give me choreography and you're in a for a show.

Describe your funeral.
Shane MacGowan's singing with the original Pogues. Then everyone climbs a seaside cliff, where they shoot my ashes from a cartoon cannon into the ocean. It makes a bigger mess than expected, which makes everybody go, "How appropriate."

Who gets what in your will?
My sister gets it all, and then it goes to the highest bidder on eBay.

So now that you're minutes away from death, can you tell us what the hell is going on on Lost?
Sorry, they can still get to me after death with that smoke thing in the woods.

Read the full story at Maxim.com. (10:17 PM)

Michael Giacchino, the musical score composer of Lost, has just taken home a Grammy for Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, for his work on "Ratatouille." Giacchino is also up for an Oscar later this month. Congratulations!

For a partial list of Grammy winners, click here. (9:43 PM)

Billie Doux writes up episode reviews for the site, and her review for the latest episode, "Confirmed Dead," is now up! Here's an excerpt from her review:

We have yet another mysterious faction on the Island. And more questions. I love Lost, I really, truly do. But having yet more questions layered on top of the already ginormous number of existing unanswered questions just bugs me. Can't we have *some* answers? I mean, come on.

And now for something completely different: brief multiple character flashbacks that introduced us to the Chopper Four. The Chopper Four knew that the discovery of Oceanic 815 in the Sunda Trench was a hoax. (Which indicates that the Island probably isn't an alternate universe.) They weren't there to rescue anyone; they came to find Ben. And evil, clever Ben has a man on their freighter. Why do they want Ben? Um, let me see. The mass murder of the Dharma Initiative people, perhaps? Kidnapping Juliet, and possibly others? Could be anything.

Read the full review here. (7:08 AM)

Two episodes down, six to go and about a million unanswered questions.

The mysteries of ABC's "Lost" (Thursdays at 9 p.m.) continue to tease, tantalize and torture home viewers. (Warning: Mindless speculation bordering on spoilers ahead!)

What do these supposed rescuers want with Ben (Michael Emerson)? Why is Hurley (Jorge Garcia) so terrified in the future? Why does Jack (Matthew Fox) think they have to go back? What mistake did he make? Who was in the coffin? Who is Kate (Evangeline Lilly) with now? How were they rescued?

It's probably easier to decode a Dharma Initiative film than to decipher what will happen in season four....

Read the full story at Boston Herald. (6:55 AM)

The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, stranded on a desert island, are now the ones doing the rescuing.

The fourth season of Lost has arrived just in time to save a TV landscape abandoned by its writers. Lost's complex, literary-inspired narrative is a reminder of the importance of writers, and, for me, a perfect distraction from the monotony that is the third year, spring semester of law school.

ABC began the two-hour premiere event last Thursday with a one-hour recap special that introduced newcomers to the show's central characters. Jack (Matthew Fox) is the castaways' leader, a driven spinal surgeon with daddy issues; Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is his counterpart, a formerly paralyzed, fatalist hunter with his own father issues; Sawyer (Josh Holloway) is the Southern-fried grifter whose parents were killed by a lowlife just like the one he himself has become; and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) is the girl next door turned fugitive, attracted to both Jack and Sawyer.

Plot-wise, however, the recap was devoted almost exclusively to the third season. A new viewer would have no idea there were even characters named Boone, Michael or Anna Lucia and would not appreciate the continuing impact each made on the series before departing.

On the other hand, if anyone was an early Lost fan and tuned out after last season's slow start, I recommend picking up the third season on DVD. The main advantage is skipping the three month hiatus that the show took from November to February.

For the loyal viewer, the DVD still has several worthwhile special features. The best is "Lost in a Day," which follows the cast, crew and creative team over the course of 14 hours working on ten different episodes at various stages of production. It makes a fan appreciate the teamwork needed to deliver a show like Lost and makes one empathize with the crew members who have been put out of work by the writers' strike.

My only complaint is that for an "unexplored experience," the DVD features a meager number of deleted scenes. And be careful about watching the commentaries before watching every episode as the commentaries contain several season-ending spoilers.

Most satisfyingly, the third season provides, if not answers, then at least a longer glance at the history of the island: how central villain Ben (the creepy Michael Emerson) came there, how he came to lead the Others (sort of), and what the Dharma Initiative may have been doing on the island. The audience also learns that either as an unintended consequence of the island's ability to heal or as a price for that power, no child conceived on the island has survived. Jack's new love interest, blonde fertility doctor Juliet, was brought to the island by Ben to solve this problem. At the end of the third season, she has switched sides and helped the castaways possibly score a knockout blow in their long war against the Others....

Read the full story at Virginia Law Weekly. (10:39 AM)

Television has been slim pickin's as of late, what with the writers' strike moving into its third month. As the stalemate continues, most serialized shows have given up hope of continuing their seasons until next fall, even if they are given enough time for filming and production over the summer. There are a few brave shows that have stockpiled a few episodes, airing them sparsely to keep viewers engaged, but even they are dwindling now that spring is almost upon us.

And yet, out of the ashes of second-season repeats comes the phoenix of ABC: Lost.

The wildly popular show, about a group of plane-crash survivors who find themselves on a deserted island miles off-course of their destination, started its run four years ago, to both popular and critical praise. Now they have just kicked off their fourth season on Jan. 31 at 9 p.m.

It has been impossible to escape Lost. The show's dedicated advertising team has made sure that they cram their new season as far down your throat as humanly possible, with ads on television, billboards, websites and even a preview in Screenvision, a pre-movie theater advertisement show. If you haven't heard about the new season, you must live under a rock. And all of that prep work has done its job, as over 18 million viewers tuned in last week to see what is going to happen to their favorite castaways.

Series fans watch with both dread and horror this season, as only eight episodes are being released, as opposed to their usual 16, due to the writers' strike.

The strike has also set back the production plan of the show, which planned for three more seasons of 16 episodes and to end their series with its 117th episode in May 2010.

The setback might cause the series to carry over into an additional season, or force producers to air new episodes in the fall rather than the complete season in spring.

However, this would then take away from one of the show's major gimmicks - that they air all their episodes concurrently, without repeats between....

Read the full story at The Montclarion. (10:35 AM)

It's Thursday, which means another episode of ABC's Lost, which I'll be recapitulating to my wife later this evening over Skype because she's in Europe through the end of April. (They irritatingly block ABC's "view online" option overseas.) In skeptical but hopeful anticipation of the upcoming game based on the show, I chatted with Lost: Via Domus's producer, Gadi Pollack, who mostly plays his cards close, but offers a few interesting notes about the gameplay and production particulars.

MobyGames credits Pollack as producing Far Cry: Instincts and Far Cry: Predator as well as Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within. Lost: Via Domus ships for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on February 26, 2008. The full interview follows.

Game On: Let's start with an obvious, often unasked question: What if I don't watch the show? Is there a game here worth playing if I've never seen an episode of Lost?

Gadi Pollack Our main goal was to create a Lost experience for both fans and non-fans of the show. As a player you don't need to know anything about the show because you are playing the game from Elliott's perspective. This allows everyone to feel like they were part of the experience....

Read the full story at PC World. (10:32 AM)

Fans of the TV series Lost were no doubt thrilled for the return of the show last Thursday night, in spite of a potentially shorter season due to the writers' strike. Curious and obsessive fans (me included) have been visiting fan sites to read about the upcoming episodes and review information revealed in past seasons. Traffic to a custom category of Lost Fan Sites & Forums increased 175% for the week ending Feb 2nd, 2008 compared to the previous week. The spike is significantly higher than the increase in traffic to the category during the week of the season 3 premiere, where there was an 88% increase in market share of visits (week ending Oct 7th, 2006) from the previous week. Lostpedia attracted the largest share of visits among the Lost Fan Sites & Forums for the week ending Feb 2nd, 2008.

Two new websites emerged prior to season 4 - flyoceanicair.com and find815.com, accompanied by outdoor marketing campaigns in select cities (that will be serviced by the fictional airline listed in a press release on flyoceanicair.com) through billboards and vans. The billboards & vans promoted the Oceanic Air brand and were then "vandalized" with the find815.com URL. Photos of the campaign could be found on various fan sites and posted on Flickr. Both websites then appeared in a commercial during the premiere of new show Eli Stone, which debuted immediately after Lost (brilliant tactic to drive viewership or at least encourage Lost fans to record the show).

Each of the websites experienced traffic spikes after the airing of the commercial. Traffic to find815.com jumped 65% on Friday, February 1st following the premiere as many time shifting DVR & Tivo viewers watched the commercial and news of the websites spread across the Lost fan sites.

Search behavior on the term 'lost' showcases the collective curiosity about what will happen this season and beyond with plenty of searches spoilers and 'how lost will end'.

Read the full story at Digital Media Wire. (10:23 AM)

Earlier today I attended the press junket for the new Sony thriller "Vantage Point." With the huge cast of actors in the film, I managed to get a lot of great quotes about a ton of upcoming movies. Even though it's a Friday night as I type this, I'm going to be working non-stop to pull the best quotes and get them online asap. Up first, Matthew Fox talking about "Lost" and "Speed Racer."

As most of you might have heard, the writers are voting on a possible contract tomorrow night and if it's ratified, everyone will be back at work on Monday. The word on the street is that it's going to pass, and I couldn't be more excited. Not only will it bring economic stability back to Los Angeles, but it'll allow the creators of my favorite show on television to start writing again. What show is that... of course it's "Lost."

If you didn't know, the plan was for 16 new episodes to air this season. Due to the writer's strike, only 8 of those planned 16 got written and completed. So the big question for all the fans of "Lost" has been if the writer's strike got settled, how many episodes could they complete of the planned 16.

So when I got a chance to ask Matthew Fox a question during the press conference today, that was the first thing I wanted to know about.

He said they are currently in negotiations right now to figure out how many they might be able to do. As you can read below, he thinks they'll be able to do at least 4 of the 8, and maybe even up to 6 of them. If you’re a fan of "Lost," this is great news.

Of course, we also talked about his big upcoming summer movie "Speed Racer."

In the next week I'll be posting a complete transcript, but until then enjoy the selected quotes. And if you'd like to listen to the complete interview as an MP3, you can click here to download it. Look for more quotes later tonight.

Read the full story at Collider. (3:06 AM)

Jeff Roney was in Oahu for two weeks for work, and during his lunch hours and on the weekend, he videoed 20 Lost locations. Those videos are now up on his website. Enjoy! (3:03 AM)

Videogames based on movies generally range from run of the mill to terrible. Games based on television shows though, typically aren't even seen outside of the game show realm and terrible CSI games that undoubtedly fly off of store shelves faster than Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Sadly, that is the world in which we live. Enter Ubisoft with a videogame adaption of the hit JJ Abrams-produced television series entitled Lost: Via Domus. At this point is typically when your cursor, through means beyond your control, scrolls hastily toward the red X in the upper right hand corner. If you can regain control of your hand for a moment then you might want to reconsider such an action.

While all popular belief would have us believe that Lost: Via Domus will be terrible, there may be hope, at least if you're a fan of the series. That sounds like a cop-out as anything thought to be bearable can be enjoyed by inexperienced gamers. The oddity about Via Domus is that it doesn't err to the archetypes of licensed titles. It plays out as an adventure game, which for all intents and purposes isn't the most popular of genres, it involves fairly intricate puzzles you will need to complete, and it seems to promote genuine exploration as any good adventure game should. Given the series' vaunted reputation in storytelling and Ubisoft's proficiency in game development, it's conceivable that Via Domus could at least be decent, if not good.

Without doubt this game is all about the fanfare. Lost: Via Domus revolves around Elliot, a photojournalist turned amnesiac survivor of the Oceanic Flight 815 crash that has scattered debris about a secluded island somewhere in the Pacific. So with little more than torn photos and one man who actually knows who you are - and unfortunately wants to kill you for some inexplicable reason - you set off on an adventure to realize the goal echoed in the game's subtitle "Via Domus," Latin for "the way home."

In addition to you and your would-be assassin, Via Domus is chock full of characters from the television show including both Oceanic survivors and the infamous "Others." You'll even interact with some of your favorite characters from the show doing everything from hunting for boars with Locke to partaking in a mission involving Ben, Juliet, and Mr. Friendly in Episode 2. While quite a bit of the characters make their way into the game, Ubisoft was only able to secure the voice talents of Desmond, Ben, Mikhail, Mr. Friendly, Claire and Sun. A shame considering the level of detail evident in the environments pulled straight from the show and an actual 60 minute soundtrack courtesy of the series' composer Michael Giacchino....

Read the full story at Gamer 2.0. (3:00 AM)

Sure, everyone's a Lost fan -- but you're different. You love the show in a way most people simply couldn't understand. In fact, if you could, you'd ditch your boring life and hang out on the island -- living in tents, killing boar, running from ominous black clouds of doom. Ahh. Sounds nice.

But let's face facts: you're never going to wind up on some mysterious island with magical powers that -- conveniently -- is impossible for anyone else to find. The good news, however, is that you can look like a Oceanic survivor -- using our simple Lost style guide. Enjoy.

Read the full story at Styledash. (2:57 AM)

Sure, it's just a TV show, and yes, it's highly unlikely that you'll ever find yourself stranded on a mysterious, magical, impossible-to-find island in the wake of a horrible plane crash. But just because you have electricity, it doesn't mean you can't take some pointers from the Losties on how to maintain a more sustainable lifestyle.

So whether you're a casual fan, or a secret member of the Dharma Initiative, take a moment to peruse our Lost living tips, and find out how you can live a little more green -- on or off the island.

Read the full story at Green Daily. (2:52 AM)

Lost won the night in ratings, total viewers, and the adults 18-49 demographic last night. Last night's episode grabbed an 8.8/13 rating, approximately 15.06 million viewers, and a stellar 6.4/16 ratings/share in the A18-49 demographic, topping the night ahead of shows such as Survivor: Micronesia and the premiere of Lipstick Jungle.

A repeat of the season premiere finished fourth in its timeslot, with approximately 6.5 million viewers.

Read more about Lost's ratings at Zap2It, Mediaweek, PI Feedback, Variety, and TV by the Numbers. (9:04 PM)

The second episode of the fourth season makes its debut tonight, 9/8c on ABC. The episode, entitled "Confirmed Dead," was written by Drew Goddard and Brian K. Vaughan, and was directed by Stephen Williams. ABC described the episode this way: The survivors begin to question the intentions of their supposed rescuers when four strangers arrive on the island.

As always, feel free to discuss the episode after it airs at Lost-TV Forums. (10:13 AM)

Plus: Doc Jensen interviews Jorge Garcia about last week's premiere, and answers reader mail.

Cryptic intel about this week's episode, titled ''Confirmed Dead.'' (Ominous, huh?) The second installment of Lost's fourth season was written by Cloverfield scribe Drew Goddard and comic book superstar Brian K. Vaughan. I give you a line of their dialogue, taken from the final scene of this terrific, mythos-expanding, can't-wait-to-talk-about-it episode:

''What is The Monster?''

D'oh! Read the full story at EW.com. (10:01 AM)

It's fitting that the season four premiere of Lost, which aired last Thursday, should set a crucial scene at the cockpit of downed airliner Oceanic 815. Way back when the show first crashed onto ABC with J.J. Abrams' brilliantly directed pilot episode, the cockpit buried deep in the jungle served as the destination for the first of several dangerous trips into the heart of the island. The invocation of the first episode signals a new beginning for the series, the blazing of new territory. And just as the third season's finale brilliantly brought one chapter of Lost to a close, so do the first two episodes of season four jump-start another.

In Lost's first three seasons, the island's mysteries and the secret lives of the castaways, which were explored through flashbacks centered around a single character, evolved into a mythology as dense and elaborately conceived as anything on television - a virtual geek fantasia that incorporated everything from pirate ships and time travel to corporate conspiracies and whatever that four-toed statue thing is. Despite its complexity, the pulse of the show always lay in the survivors' refreshingly straightforward objective: to survive and be rescued.

And there's the rub at the heart of the show's new story arc. Given that this is Lost, after all, and the series has three seasons to go, getting rescued is not going to be that simple. In tonight's episode, the cavalry descends on the island in the form of four new characters: the meek physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davis), who reveals that rescuing the survivors of flight 815 "is not our primary objective," short-tempered psychic Miles (Ken Leung), anthropologist Charlotte (Rebecca Mader), and helicopter pilot Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey). Meanwhile, back on the mainland, a quietly terrifying corporate rogue named Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick) seems to be pulling the strings.

At the end of season three, the writers, always one or two steps ahead of their voraciously speculative fans, dropped one of their most wicked twists ever: the flash-forward. Fragmented glimpses of the characters' troubled future lives in civilization are juxtaposed with their on-island efforts to establish contact with the mysterious freighter offshore. It's a tricky set-up, one that adds a thick new stratum to the show's already densely structured narrative. At times, it's hard not to hear the show creaking under the weight of its own bloated mythology, and the flash-forwards don't quite have the emotional payoff that the flashbacks used to. The flashbacks provided each episode with a sense of unity and a deeper understanding of the show's themes and characters. The flash-forwards, on the other hand, thrust us further and further into a new mystery in the making.

Season four draws the curtain on a darker, meaner Lost, a bleaker and less forgiving vision of survival and sacrifice, in which the rescuers may pose the greatest threat and the characters' fates are sealed in glimpses of a grim future. If you've never set foot on the island before, now is the time to start. Read the full story at Columbia Spectator. (11:23 PM)

Final weekly ratings results are in, and Lost was the highest-rated non-FOX show last week. FOX - led by the Super Bowl and American Idol - took the top seven slots, and Lost's fourth season premiere placed eighth. According to Zap2It, the episode got a 9.4 rating with a 14 share, with total viewership of 16,137,000.

From Variety, "Fox breaks ratings record": Among the few highlights on the other nets last week was the return of "Lost" to ABC. In its new night Thursday, the drama averaged a 6.7/17 in 18-49 and 16.14 million viewers overall -- outrating all 16 of its episodes from 2007 (Daily Variety, Feb. 4).

From USA Today, "Nielsen ratings: 'House' gets a boost after a super Super Bowl": Lost souls. The fourth-season premiere of ABC's Lost averaged 16.1 million viewers Thursday, its best showing since November 2006 (though marking the series's lowest-rated opener). A preceding clip show snared a strong 13.2 million, and an annotated rerun of the two-hour third-season finale drew 8.5 million Wednesday.

From The Hollywood Reporter, "Fox unstoppable in ratings": Elsewhere on the dial, the biggest highlight of the week was the fourth-season premiere of ABC's "Lost" (16.1 million, 6.7/17) in its new 9 p.m. Thursday slot. The series was up from last year's season finale (13.7 million, 5.8/15), when it faced "Idol" on Wednesday -- and not Thursday -- but was down 15% in viewers and 13% in 18-49 compared with last year's season premiere (18.8 million, 7.7/19). Still, "Lost" dominated its Thursday berth and had its best ratings since the part-season finale Nov. 8, 2006. (11:13 PM)

ABC's TV series Lost, whose fourth season premieres tonight, has multileveled mysteries and a cruelly withholding storytelling style that inspires passionate love and passionate frustration.

The love comes from the show's fascinating and compelling adventure-intrigue-SF storytelling. The scenario: plane crashes on an uncharted island. Some passengers, most with a fair amount of dark intrigue in their past, survive and try to forge a workable civilization—and to escape. Previous inhabitants of the Island bedevil them. Everything ensues.

The frustration comes from the fact that halfway through the show's entire six-season arc, the viewer can be certain of very little—neither what lies ahead nor precisely what's already happened -- and certainly not the meaning of what's happened.

The search for meaning bedevils characters and viewers. No element of the show is as suggestive and aggravating as its heavy reliance on political philosopher references.

The show stars a John Locke, which initially just seemed a curiosity. But as the show progressed, we were introduced to a Danielle Rousseau, a Desmond David Hume, a Mikhail Bakunin, a Richard Alpert, and even an Edmund Burke.

But what does any of this mean?... Read the full story at Reason Magazine. (12:32 AM)

Sky suffered a technical hitch with one of its first attempts at pre-broadcast video on demand.

Episode one of Lost's fourth series, broadcast on Sky One on Sunday, was made available to Sky Anytime users 24 hours earlier.

However, the episode downloaded via Anytime to Sky+ boxes had a sound synchronisation problem. The show was later removed from the boxes. A high definition version of the episode downloaded to Sky HD boxes was not affected.

Several fans expressed their frustration on the DS forums.

Spoctor Dooner, who tried to download it about midday on Saturday, complained that "on my box at least, it is virtually unwatchable as the sound and picture are completely out of synch".

Hugon, from Morecambe in Lancashire, noted: "It sounds like a cock-up rather than a conspiracy."

A Sky spokesman has confirmed the suspicion was correct.

"Unforeseen technical issues with the Dolby soundtrack unfortunately affected the programme's audio," he said. "As soon as we realised there was a problem with the audio sync, we removed the episode from the Anytime on TV service.

"We have since identified and resolved the problem and intend to 'push' the Lost episode back onto the Anytime on TV service tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, so that customers can once again enjoy Lost on-demand.

"Next weekend's episode is unaffected and will be available on Saturday, as planned." Read the full story at Digital Spy. (12:29 AM)

Season Four of Lost began Sunday night on Sky One, but viewers with Sky HD or one of the newer Sky+ boxes were able to view the show 24 hours ahead of time.

The first two episodes in the previous series of the Disney-ABC International Television drama are also being made available on Sky Anytime on PC along with the final episodes of the last series.

Lost has been a key driver of on demand services in Europe – helped by the enthusiasm of its producers for the medium. In France TF1 is able to offer episodes just 24 hours after their initial transmission in the United States. Read the full story at Broadband TV News. (10:31 PM)

Recently, I attempted to explain the plotline of ABC's hit series "Lost" to one of my friends, an individual who has never seen the show. After babbling on for nearly 10 minutes, I looked up at her face, contorted with confusion, only to realize that "Lost" is just not something you can deftly summarize. So if you've never been hooked, run out right now and devote several days to watching the first three seasons, or you'll discover only too late the show has been spoiled by the following review.... Read the full story at The Badger Herald. (10:28 PM)

If you've been to the Lost-TV Forums, you'll know that one of the burning topics after last night episodes is... Should we consider Kate as one of the Oceanic Six? So, naturally, Lost-TV went straight to the source and asked Damon Lindelof if indeed, Kate is one of the Oceanic Six. Here is his response:

"Yes. Kate is one of the Oceanic Six. I promise."

There you have it. (1:50 AM)

I'm sure you're all looking forward to these. Nickb123 (of Lostpedia) has kindly provided us with the transcript of the first episode of season four, while Billie Doux offers us her review of the season premiere. Check back here every week for these fantastic features on this site! (10:10 AM)

EDITOR'S NOTE: On the day the fourth season of the ABC television series "Lost" began, staff writer Clint Cooper interviewed Dillon Burroughs, co-author of the new book "What Can Be Found in 'Lost'? Insights on God and the Meaning of Life from the Popular TV Series." The paperback book, available online and at local bookstores for $10.99, is co-written by Chattanooga-based evangelist and television host John Ankerberg.

Mr. Burroughs, a native of Indiana, is a staff writer for Ankerberg Theological Research Institute in Chattanooga. He and wife Deborah have three children and attend Woodland Park Baptist Church.

Q: What, in general, is appealing about the series "Lost"?

A: ... It keeps you guessing, and those who enjoy the show enjoy it because they are continually trying to figure out what’s going to happen next.

And those who don't like the show, on the flip side, are the same way. They don't like it because you can never figure out what is going to take place in the next step of the show. And you combine that with the character connections that they often show in the flashbacks and back stories of each character, and it really brings to the surface this whole idea of 'we have a purpose in life,' 'we are connected in various ways that we often don’t even know,' and 'we're just trying to make sense of life.' And so "Lost" is great at throwing out those questions, even though it doesn't always give the answers.

Q: Does the show point up how we are all seeking something in the world?

A: I think it does. The very name of the show, "Lost," has multiple meanings, with one of those obviously being the actual fact that they're lost on the island as the result of a plane crash. And then they're also trying to find themselves. Each individual character goes through this kind of a breakdown, in a sense, of how are they going to respond to being stranded in the middle of nowhere without any idea of someone coming to help them, and so throughout the series you'll see how some characters turn to faith in God. Others turn to reliance on self. Sometimes you see conflict between members of those (two factions) on the island. And the scenarios play on and on. And it's just interesting because when people watch this they'll latch onto particular characters that oftentimes reflect what they're going through in their own life. It keeps them interested in the ongoing story.

Q: Similarly, does it not also reveal the nature of evil in the world?

A: I think so. There was a trend in our culture, maybe a couple of generations back, that the world was becoming a better place, that we were evolving and headed in that direction. And now I think the pattern of our world is we see all the hurt, we see war, we see conflict, we see poverty or starvation in different parts of the world. And we see the bad side as well as the positive side. And that's reflected in the show. You see the doom, the despair and hopelessness, and in the midst of that, people try to respond in various ways; and again sometimes that's through turning to God by faith, whether it's a Christian version of God, or whether it's Islam as one of the characters does, or even other new-age types of thinking. At the same time, you have people turning to relying on themselves, or some who just give up altogether in the process, so it very much reflects our cultural attitudes toward life, and, again, it throws out more questions than it does answers in the process.... Read the full story at Chattanooga Times Free Press. (8:26 AM)

French fans of the hit ABC television series "Lost" can watch the show just one day after it airs in the United States, thanks to a new deal between Walt Disney Co and France's TF1.

The agreement, which started on Friday, allows fans to purchase original, subtitled versions of "Lost" through a broadband player on www.tf1vision.fr or partner sites.

This will be the first time that ABC parent Disney has made "Lost" available in an international market within 24 hours of broadcast in the United States. Read the full story at Reuters. (8:24 AM)

ABC captured Thursday night in convincing fashion thanks to the return of "Lost" and a solid bow for new drama "Eli Stone."

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "Lost" averaged a 6.7 rating/16 share in adults 18-49 and 16.1 million viewers overall, more than doubling its closest competitor among young adults. Though this is down 13% from its most recent season premiere in September 2006, it's worth noting that Nielsen's DVR sample at that time was about 10% while it currently tops 22%; this means that this time around, roughly 12% more of the country had the capacity to record the show for playback days later.

"Lost" outdelivered its most recent season finale last May and logged its best ratings for any episode since its fall finale in November 2006. A clip show kicking off the night for ABC won its timeslot with a 4.9/13 in 18-49 and 13.1 million viewers overall — the best results in the time period for the Alphabet net since the series premiere of "Ugly Betty" in September 2006.

At 10 o'clock, "Eli Stone" (4.2/11 in 18-49, 11.6 million viewers overall) retained a little over 60% of its "Lost" lead-in rating, winning the hour over NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" (3.6/10 in 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall for the hour and 3.2/9 in 18-49 and 7.8 million viewers for its entire two hours) and CBS' repeat of "Without a Trace (2.4/7 in 18-49, 10.4 million viewers overall).

Fox ran second on the night thanks to pretty good scores for unscripted series "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" (3.1/8 in 18-49, 10.6 million viewers overall) and "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (3.3/8 in 18-49, 10.0 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: ABC, 5.3/14; Fox, 3.2/8; NBC, 2.8/7; CBS, 2.4/6; CW, 1.4/4.

In total viewers: ABC, 13.6 million; CBS, 10.4 million; Fox, 10.3 million; NBC, 6.8 million; CW, 3.4 million. Read the full story at Variety. (8:22 AM)

What do you think the Dharma Initiative, polar bears, the looking glass, the black rock, Hanso Foundation, Room 23 and the pillar of smoke all mean?

For some of you, the answer would be nothing but ask a "Lost" fan and they likely will give you a detailed explanation based on mythology, redemption and destiny.

Many television series have loyal viewers but the format, concept and style of "Lost" demands a different kind of dedication. You can't simply miss a week and catch up on what you missed in the next episode and don't even think about trying to finish your English paper while it is on. "Lost" requires fans to remember incidents that happened three years ago, to never take anything at face value and now, after last season's finale, to remember what happened in the future.

It's easy for "Lost" fans to spend hours on Web sites picking apart each detail of an episode, searching for clues by watching scenes in slow motion or talking with other fans trying to decipher the latest mystery together, in fact the show encourages it.

During the hiatus between last season's finale and yesterday's season four premier ABC.com streamed "Missing Pieces," mini web episodes that featured character interactions that were not seen on the show. For the casual viewer it could have been used as a way to pass the time between seasons while the more intense fans could try to find clues into the show's multiple mysteries. "Missing Pieces" followed last year's alternate reality game "The Lost Experience" which allowed fans to interact and expand the storyline of the island through an online scavenger hunt. By creating so many interactive elements, including faux commercials, billboards and Web sites, the show's writers and producers have generated a world for fans that goes far beyond the hour it takes to watch the show each week.

To those of you who have never seen the show I imagine this all sounds pretty daunting, right? Who has that much time to dedicate to a television show? It's not my intention to scare anyone off from watching it, in fact just the opposite, I encourage it, and you can put as little or as much time into "Lost" as you want. Honestly, even though I have watched the show since day one I can't tell you what several of the things are that I mentioned in the beginning of this article and I have never partook in the interactive games, and I still understand and love the show.... Read the full story at The BG News. (8:16 AM)

The return of "Lost" led ABC to a ratings win Thursday, in the process helping "Eli Stone" get off to a decent start.

ABC averaged an 8.3 rating/13 share for the night. CBS finished second at 6.9/11, beating out FOX's 6.2/9. NBC, 4.5/7, took fourth. The CW trailed with a 2.1/3.

ABC's lead was wider in the adults 18-49 demographic, where it earned a 5.3 rating. FOX came in second with a 3.2, followed by NBC at 2.8. CBS' 2.4 was good for fourth, and The CW drew a 1.4.

A "Lost" clip show posted an 8.0/12 for ABC at 8 p.m., setting the tone for the night. "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?," 6.4/10, put FOX in second, ahead of a "CSI: NY" rerun, 5.8/9, on CBS. NBC went with repeats of "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" to finish fourth. "Smallville" posted a 2.4/4 for The CW.

At 9 p.m., the season premiere of "Lost" scored a 9.5/14, the night's best rating. CBS moved up to second overall with a "CSI" repeat, 7.7/12. "Don't Forget the Lyrics," 5.9/9, was third for FOX, topping the 4.5/7 for "The Celebrity Apprentice" on NBC. "Supernatural" came in fifth for The CW.

The premiere of "Eli Stone" finished the ABC sweep with a 7.3/12 at 10 p.m. CBS got a 7.1/12 from "Without a Trace," while a second hour of "The Apprentice" on NBC improved to 5.7/9. Read the full story at Zap2It. (2:57 AM)