Memo to Lost: See Ya Later (An Hour Later)
Finally, ABC has woken up to the fact that the best way to handle
Lost is to save the best for last. As in the last hour of prime time - 10 pm/ET - to be exact. Since it was proving an impossible task for any show to successfully follow
Lost, with so many of the show's obsessive fans apparently heading straight to the message boards (or maybe even the phone) to digest and discuss the latest happenings and mysteries with fellow travelers, it makes perfect sense for ABC to make
Lost the big event that the entire night builds up to.
Getting it out of the path of the show-killing
American Idol is just a happy side effect (not to mention the increasingly popular
Criminal Minds, which I'm happy not to mention).
Of course, it would help if ABC were giving
Lost a more promising lead-in than a two-hour comedy block featuring returning mediocrities
According to Jim and
George Lopez in the first hour and two new sitcoms, the quirky
The Knights of Prosperity and the as-yet-unseen
In Case of Emergency, both of which are almost certainly destined to get clobbered by the more established competition.
But as
Lost proved in its first season, when it aired at 8 pm/ET (gradually moving deeper and deeper into the night over its three seasons), this show is a self-starter. Its loyal if (inevitably) declining-in-numbers audience will follow it with no problem. Will
Lost be able to beat the current time-period champ
CSI: NY, with its compatible
Criminal Minds lead-in? Maybe not, but at worst it will be a strong No. 2 and will give ABC a younger demographic boost in the 10 pm/ET time period, which is what matters most. (Case in point: if there's any justification for ABC's loyalty to
What About Brian on Mondays, it's that it does reasonably well with the core young-female audience.)
I'm at peace with the scheduling. What I'm more worried about is how unsatisfied I felt after the fall's six-pack of Jack/Sawyer/Kate-against-The Others episodes. Free our heroes, reunite the tribe, and get the story rolling again. That's all I ask, no matter where
Lost ends up airing.
