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'Lost' will last a little longer

If you're already preparing yourself for the departure of "Lost" in the spring of 2010, take heart. The series will go on a little longer than expected.

OK, it's only one hour longer, but we'll take what we can get.

An ABC rep confirmed Monday (June 29) that the final season of "Lost" will run 18 hours. That's an hour more than initially planned, although where that extra time fits in -- although a two-hour series finale seems pretty much like a given at this point -- is far from determined yet. "Lost" begins filming season six in Hawaii later this summer.

Considering the possibly game-changing events at the end of season five -- wherein Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) detonated a nuclear warhead in an effort to hit the Island's reset button and, in theory, prevent Oceanic 815 from crashing in the first place -- any extra time the show's creative team wants to take unraveling what happened could be welcome.

When ABC and executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof agreed to an end date for the show after season six, the network asked for three 16-episode seasons to wrap things up. The 2007-08 writers strike messed up that schedule somewhat, and only 14 episodes made it onto the air in the fourth season.

Last season ran 17 episodes (with the two-hour finale counting as two), and the final season was set to do the same thing. Adding the extra hour to the final season will bring the total number of episodes in the final three years to 49.

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