Posted on: Saturday, October 23, 2004

TV series 'Lost' picked up for full season

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Those bedraggled plane crash survivors on ABC's hit "Lost" are going to be stranded a little longer, and they're probably thrilled. The network has announced it will film nine additional episodes, giving the action-drama a full season of shooting in Hawai'i.

Officials of the show, which has produced high ratings for each of its first four episodes, initially committed to filming 13 episodes.

Its producers have turned O'ahu's Kualoa Ranch into a mysterious tropical island 1,000 miles from nowhere, complete with a menacing, unseen creature, a polar bear, a ghost and lots of stubbly faces.

The order for an added nine episodes — network officials call them the "back nine" — come during a week when rival network NBC canceled "Hawaii," a cops-and-killers drama also filmed in the Islands.

Critics hated "Hawaii" and it suffered from low ratings. The network gave it the boot on Monday.

Both "Hawaii" and "Lost" competed for viewers during the same Wednesday night time slot.

A third TV series, "North Shore," also is being filmed in Hawai'i. That Fox series is not currently airing, though it is scheduled to return on a new night, Thursday, on Nov. 4.

"It is always wonderful to hear when ... (a series) does get the final word," said Walea Constantinau, commissioner of the Honolulu Film Office. "The business is very interesting and you never want to assume."

Although networks do not reveal what they are spending in Hawai'i, a drama like "Lost" typical contributes $1.5 million to $2 million per episode to the state's economy, said Donne Dawson, state film commissioner for the Hawai'i Film Office.

"Obviously, given the news of earlier this week, it is a solid shot in the arm for us," Dawson said. "Our mission is to get a successful series here for the long term. This is all in keeping with that."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.