Lost Has a New Timeslot, The 4400 and The Dead Zone Canceled

For those of you who will be looking for Lost next year, you won't find it in the usual spot. Staring down the dimly lit hatch of a spring with no new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters or Desperate Housewives, ABC has opted to move the Emmy-winning Lost to Thursdays at 9 p.m., the time slot that in prestrike days would have played host to the weekly Grey's-CSI battle.

But the scribes are at a standstill, and it's Lost that will be getting the primo prime-time real estate as part of ABC's attempt to make its strike-impacted schedule look as attractive as possible in the absence of the rest of its scripted heavy hitters. Not that Lost's reemergence won't bring along its own set of issues-the castaway drama is still one of myriad series that has only half of its preordered episodes in the can thanks to the writers' strike.

Fox, for instance, opted to postpone the seventh season of 24 indefinitely until it could air an uninterrupted "full day." But apparently ABC has figured that some Lost-eight consecutive new episodes instead of 16-is better than none at all, considering how none too pleased audiences were when the series' third season was interrupted by a three-month hiatus. So, Lost's fourth season will premiere Jan. 31 at 9 p.m., where it will serve as lead-in to the new drama Eli Stone.