New ABC Schedule: LOST Moves to Thursdays

This is the most important night in TV business, and it is not very surprising the Alphabet decided to air its most-prized midseason asset - 8 new episodes of "LOST" in the coveted Thursday at 9:00pm timeslot. Plus all-new "Ugly Betty," "Grey's Anatomy," "Big Shots," "Eli Stone" and a preview of "Cashmere Mafia."

The show will return January 31, the first night of February sweeps, although the network may air an all-LOST night of programming the evening before including a clip-special and a rerun of the 2-hour 3rd season finale.

LOST will be competing against "CSI" reruns on CBS, "Celebrity Apprentice" on NBC and "Don't Forget the Lyrics" on FOX - which doesn't seem like a particularly difficult line-up to compete with.

Some of the show's target audience may be unhappy that The CW's "Supernatural" also airs in the timeslot, but that show is expected to quickly run out of fresh episodes anyway.

Although "LOST" creators were not too happy about ABC airing these 8 episodes without the remaining 8 , this may be a great opportunity for "LOST" to regain some of the audience it lost in season 3.

There are 3 all-new episodes of "Ugly Betty" left (they will air from January 3), but the network is considering several other options for that timeslot in February.

They may air either repeats of "Grey's Anatomy" or encores of "LOST," where previous week's episode of the show would lead into a new episode at 9:00pm as they did last spring on Wednesday nights at 9:00/10:00pm.

Greg Berlanti's new drama "Eli Stone" will air out of "LOST." It is a light legal drama which may do much better airing out of "LOST" than Eddie Cibrian-fronted "Invasion" a couple of years ago. That show was often considered as heavy and exhausting to watch as "LOST."

In January however, the network will use the last all-new episode of "Grey's Anatomy" (the much-anticipated Bailey voiceover episode) to launch the new Lucy Liu drama "Cashmere Mafia" at 10:00pm (on January 3) before that showmoves to its regular new timeslot, Wednesdays at 10:00pm, the following week.

The remaining 3 all-new episodes of "Big Shots" will air on January 10, 17 and 24.

THURSDAYS (from January)

8:00pm Ugly Betty (3 new episodes + repeats)
9:00pm Grey's Anatomy (1 new episode + repeats)
10:00pm Cashmere Mafia (premiere on January 3)/
Big Shots (January 10-24)

THURSDAYS (from January 31)

8:00pm Ugly Betty or Grey's Anatomy or LOST encores
9:00pm LOST
10:00pm Eli Stone

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