Exclusive: Lost Abandoning Wednesday?

• Dec 12, 2007 07:13 PM ET
• by Michael Ausiello

Lost has found a new time slot.

As I reported in today's Ask Ausiello, ABC is expected to unveil its strike-proofed midseason schedule within hours, if not minutes. And although the contents of said schedule are being guarded more closely than the secret of the islanders' escape, multiple sources who have seen an early draft of the document tell me that the big news concerns Lost.

Mind you, the lineup has not yet been finalized, but according to this early draft, the network has decided to air the eight completed episodes beginning in February. However, they won't be airing on Wednesday nights. I haven't been able to find out which night the show is moving to, but when I do, you know you'll be the first second seventh to know.

As you'll recall, it was the wish of Team Darlton that ABC not air its remaining in-the-can eppies. If that happened, Carlton Cuse suggested, "It will feel a little like reading half a Harry Potter novel, then having to put it down. There is a mini-cliff-hanger at the end of Episode 8, but it's like the end of an exciting book chapter, it's not the end of the novel."

Still, Cuse acknowledged that the choice wouldn't be his or Damon's. "It's really [ABC honcho] Steve MacPherson's call," he said, adding, "No one was happy with the six-episode run last season."

Of course, we might be even unhappier having to wait months and months for the strike to end and new installments to be written. So maybe this is, in the worst of times, a good thing? What do you think? And where, if not Wednesdays, on the schedule would you drop Lost? All you armchair network execs, this is your big chance. Show me what you've got!

Update:
" Lost Finds New Time Slot: Thursdays at 9