LOST CRASH LANDS ON G4?

It was an odd in-house promotional ad. Beginning on July 16, LOST would be shown on G4 television.  Something mentioned about being able to see the episodes in a row.  It may have been a tape mix-up.

UPDATE: G4 ad states that beginning on Monday July 16, it will show 4 episodes of LOST on each Monday night.

I thought this may have been a mistake.  G4 and Sci-Fi channels had run LOST episodes in 2008. Back then they called them Lost in 2.0, using enhanced graphics and information pop-ups. Why, more than two years after LOST ended would the G4 cable network want to air the show?

Well, G4 was originally a gamer's channel. It was supposed to be devoted to all things in video gaming: hardware, games, controllers, reviews, awards, the works. But clearly, there is only so much gaming programs one can have on a daily basis. So G4 acquired TechTV, which was a programming base of all things technical, computer, digital and geeky.  But the fusion of the two programming realms has left basically two original shows from TechTV anchoring G4: X-Play, the video game review show and Attack of the Show!, the sequel to TechTV's Screen Savers computer tech show. The rest of the G4 program blocks contain bad B-movies, endless Cops reruns and an Americanized reboot of a Japanese obstacle course game show called Ninja Warrior.  So rerunning 100 plus hours of LOST does make some programming sense to fill air time.

Despite the network house ad, G4 web site has no information on the rerun schedule. Will it be one show a week? Will it be a nightly block of 3 or 4 episodes in a row? Will it be a marathon where the show will run daily from start to The End? Will there be enhanced episodes? Will there be new material?

G4 is not a highly watched cable channel. It is owned by Comcast-Universal, which is in the business of making money. LOST is an ABC network property. Apparently, ABC-Disney had no use or space to re-run the show on any of its cable stations or affiliates.  It is a hard sell to syndicate a sci-fi, large cast drama show. Most syndicated shows are one set comedies since viewers randomly find the programs while channel surfing. I suspect that the LOST rerun licensing fees were low.

It is highly unlikely that the new rerun series will draw in any new viewers. It is also highly unlikely that it will draw back into the fold old viewers of the show.