Ian Somerhalder reveals Lost was almost shelved by ABC before its premiere - Here’s why

Lost is counted among the most iconic television shows of the 21st century. It has been more than 15 years since the ABC sci-fi drama finished its run, but it continues to enjoy a dedicated fan following.

The series tells the story of a group of plane crash survivors who find themselves stuck on an island where bizarre events start to happen while they try to find their way out. The show had a stellar cast, including Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone Carlyle, the executive of a wedding company who finds himself stranded on the island with his stepbrother.

While Lost has achieved a cult status over the years, Ian Somerhalder has now revealed that the show was almost shelved even before its premiere. In a recent interview, the actor stated that while the team was filming the pilot, ABC went through a creative overhaul, which put the future of the series in jeopardy.

Ian Somerhalder reveals how Lost was almost canceled by ABC ahead of its premiere

Ian Somerhalder recently had an interview with Collier, where he talked about how, during the filming of Lost’s pilot in 2004, the head of ABC, Lloyd Braun, was fired from the network. Since the series was one of the most expensive television projects at the time, the creative overhaul threatened the future of sci-fi drama:

“ In 2004, when this show came out, ABC had a very long [string] of not so many great hits. The guy who was running the network, this guy, Lloyd Braun, who was just a brother and I love him, was literally fired in the middle of us shooting our pilot of Lost.”

He added:

“He was fired in the middle of it. We were like, 'Oh, what is gonna happen to our show?' And at the time, Lost was the most, is the most expensive pilot ever made, produced for television.”

While the project was given a series order after the pilot, the new leadership at ABC did not pick it up for the fall schedule in 2004. Series creators J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof then had a back-and-forth with the network executives, after which Lost was finally able to grace the screens. Recalling the whole experience, Somerhalder said:

“And then we launched this thing, but we weren't on the schedule for the fall season that week because of the shift with ABC. The new guy coming in was like, 'Sc*** you that.' And Damon and JJ were like, 'Sc*** you, we'll go anyway. Put it on the schedule. We were fishing all day, and we never got the cal,l and it was like 'Oh, the show's not going.' And then we finally got it. And then this thing launched.”

The series creators' firm stance paid off as Lost became a hot property for ABC and earned massive viewership when it launched in September 2004. The success justified the show’s significant budget, as the pilot’s production was reported to have cost $14 million. The show continued to make waves on television for six seasons and concluded in 2010.

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Apart from Ian Somerhalder, the show starred Naveen Andrews as Sayid Jarrah, Emilie de Ravin as Claire Littleton, Jorge Garcia as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Josh Holloway as James "Sawyer" Ford, Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin-Soo Kwon, Evangeline Lilly as Kate Austen, Yunjin Kim as Sun-Hwa Kwon, and Dominic Monaghan asCharlie Pace.

For more news and updates about Lost, keep following Soap Central.

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