“Lost” May Find Its Stay On the Island Ending, but Not Soon

Producers are trying to decide an end date for the hit ABC SF drama “Lost,” according to Variety.

Touchstone TV and the producers behind “Lost” are actively discussing how and when to retire the hit castaway drama, reported the industry paper.

According to “Lost” exec producer Carlton Cuse, picking an end date for “Lost” would help the show’s creative team to map the next several seasons as they plot the show’s thick mythology.

“It’s time for us to find an endpoint to the show,” said executive producer Carlton Cuse at this weekend’s TV Critics Assn. press tour. “It’s a struggle for us, because we don’t know if we have three years, four years or more to go. If we had an endpoint, then we could figure out where everything goes.”

Like anything in life, fans like a beginning, middle and end, but with “Lost” it has been difficult to gauge a timeline, and while it has added a certain element of intrique and mystic to the hit show, it also adds to the frustration fans feel at times when a mystery lags too long without a payday. This is especially true for American viewers who have grown accustome to clear-cut endings, and preferably happy ones. This is not so much the case with an international audience as they are more open to the sublime and surreal in its storytelling.

“Once we figure out when that will be [the timetable for the show's end], a lot of those concerns will go away,” Cuse said. “The worst point is when a show ends and no one cares. We don’t want that to happen. We want to make the shows good for as long as we do the show.”

Cuse told those gathered at the meeting that the show might consider closing down by its 100th episodes which would mean a series finale in the middle of Season Five. The show is currently in the middle of Season Three and will be returning in February with all new episodes to close out the third year of its run.

Despite all the rhetoric about when to end “Lost,” ABC Entertainment and Touchtone have indicated no set timetable has yet been offered and the topic is still under discussion and advisement.