in which Jennifer admits that those Lost people might know what they're doing after all

So remember when I wrote this monumentally long post about Lost arguing that the nature of American TV has basically doomed the show and that the showrunners are too full of themselves to see what's really happening? Well, I might have to take back that second point, because THEY HAVE AGREED WITH ME ON THE FIRST. They are negotiating a SERIES finale date with ABC, likely after a fourth or fifth season.

Some quotes from Damon Lindelof by way of the Ausiello Report:

"They could produce a sixth or seventh or eighth season, but would anybody be watching. The show would be so miserable by that time. Was it really The X-Files anymore when David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson weren't on the show? For me, The X-Files wasn't about 'Have aliens invaded?' it was about Mulder and Scully, a skeptic and a believer. And once that element of the show was gone, the show was over. So we don't want to produce those episodes of Lost. And we're not going to produce those episodes of Lost."

"I think it will bring a lot of the audience who left back. To say like, 'I was wrong. They are going to give me [answers]. Whether I like it or not is yet to be determined.' But I think the questions the audience is asking is not, 'Will the answers they give us be satisfying?' It's, 'Will they give us the answers at all.' And that's a very good question to be asking."

This isn't to say I'm going to pick up the show again right away. There are still a lot of problems with the show that I don't know can be fixed. I've just stopped caring about most of the characters and I can't stand Jack or Juliet. When a show begins to be a chore to watch, I don't see any reason why I should continue to bother, and that's the way I've been feeling this season. But if the show really is going to end after five seasons, then I'll probably feel compelled to catch up before the end to see how it all wraps up.

Which means that Lindelof is completely right.

So, there have it, kids. There might some brains and logic and common sense left in TV after all, and no one, NO ONE, is more shocked than I am that it's coming from ABC and Lost.

Edited to add: a ton more info on Maureen Ryan's blog.