'Lost' still expiring in 2010, but ABC adds extra hours

So they’re just going to … move the island. OK. No problem. How do you pack for that?

Locke goes back to visit some old friends in last night’s episode of “Lost,” from YouTube

But if you were thinking during last night’s episode of “Lost,” “Gosh, I hope we can have a few more hours of this madness before we ind out what the hell’s going on!” you’re in luck.

The show is still wrapping up in 2010, but ABC has decided to add a few extra hours to the story, including an extra hour to this month’s season finale.

The 2009 and 2010 editions of the hit drama will be 17 hours each not 16 as previously planned.

ABC has added two hours to the shows production plan because the WGA strike knocked three hours out of the current season. To partly compensate, the network recently added an additional hour to Part 2 of the season finale that airs May 29.

All told, the changes will wrap up the show with the same number of episodes that producers and ABC negotiated last year.

We were supposed to do 16-16-16, Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof said. But we ended up doing 14 this season, so we owe two.

Lindelof, however, ruled out the show extending beyond the remaining 34-episode order.

[Executive producer] Carlton Cuse and I worked so hard to get the show to end that I think to suddenly say, Oh, I think we got another season in us would be a betrayal to everybody involved in the show but most of all the audience, he said. Its better to retire your number at the top of your game.

For the upcoming season finale, Lindelof promised a more action-driven cliffhanger instead of the mind-bending flash-forward time shift that stunned fans last season.

The finale this year will not be as tricky as last year, he said. Hopefully, this year its a little bit more of a straightforward action-adventure narrative. But the ending of the episode will hopefully engage and intrigue people looking forward to the next season of the show.

Contributing: The Hollywood Reporter