From Damon's Mouth...

Damon has weighed in to TV Guide on the death of Nikki and Paulo (pictured, in background... oh come ON, like you wouldn't have immediately posted this photo if you'd seen it!), saying, "People hated them before they even opened their mouths to say anything significant because it felt like they were crashing the party," exec producer Damon Lindelof acknowledges of the characters who were abruptly introduced last fall. "The easiest thing would have been to just write them out and forget they ever happened, like the cougar on [Season 2] of 24. But that's not Lost. We should at least own up to it."

Teehee... since I don't believe for a second that these two ever had anything to do with the ultimate big mystery of the island, I'm sure their little "mistake" won't have any affect on the rest of the show. But man... still lovin' that episode.

In other news, I find it interesting that Lost came under such scrutiny last season for its airing schedule, yet Ugly Betty has exactly the same problems this year. Unlike Heroes, which is doing exactly what a show should do, in my mind (Buffy followed the formula for years and it never failed them: 8 eps in fall, break for Christmas, then 8 episodes in spring, break for March and part of April, and final 6 leading to the end of May) Ugly Betty is doing the one new show, 3 weeks off, 2 new episodes, 2 weeks off crap that Lost pulled last year. I tuned in last night after a good episode from last week, and was surprised to see it was a repeat. So I watched The Office marathon instead (the one show where I don't care if it's a repeat, it's going to rock -- there was a great promo for next week's, though!). Now, obviously Betty isn't a serial. It's not like we have to remember the brooch Amanda was wearing in episode 2 by the time we get to episode 14, but it's still really annoying when they just can't get their act together to take a proper hiatus and come back with new episodes.

Rumours continue to fly that Lost will follow the 24 formula next year. Which is great on the one hand -- 22 episodes straight through from January to May -- but on the other hand, we have to go SEVEN MONTHS between the ending of this season and the beginning of the next. That's a long, long time. Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid, has been shooting his mouth off in the press again, weighing in on all the reasons the show's numbers are down this season (he counts his absence on the show as one of them in a stunningly modest comment). I love Sayid. LOVE Sayid. And I agree that lines have been wasted on Nikki and Paulo that would have been better given to him. But this guy comes out against the show every single time he's got a beef about it, and then wonders why they pull screen time from him. He said in season 2 that the show wasn't very strong anymore. He's saying now that "At least I'll always have season 1," as if everything beyond that has been like appearing on Walker, Texas Ranger or something. I think Naveen Andrews is a pretty cool guy, and hey, I appreciate anyone who can speak their mind. But I don't think I've EVER read an interview with him after May 2005 that was positive about the show. And it wouldn't hurt to stick up for the show occasionally if you're on it.

By the way, for all the talk of Lost ratings dipping this year, 24 is falling behind it. So maybe that whole January to May thing isn't such a great idea after all.

In other news, the death of Nikki and Paulo wasn't just a great thing for me as a viewer, but for me as a blogger. Turns out a LOT of people googled "Nikki" and "Lost" and guess who they found? I hope they liked what they saw, and come back. I had my biggest numbers yesterday!