For a couple of years now, Lost fans have had to endure a trade-off. After several seasons of erratic running schedules filled with random repeats and interruptions, the series finally got a reprieve and moved into the realm of an uninterrupted run. Sure, the series doesn’t air until January of each year, but from there it goes straight through without the frustrating schedule we had to endure at the start. Unfortunately, it looks like the final season is going to deter from that perfect schedule, making fans wait until January for new episodes, and then taking a hiatus anyway.

Executive Producer Carlton Cuse spoke to IGN about the upcoming schedule, which will be interrupted due to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The weird thing here is that the Olympics aren’t even airing on ABC, Lost’s home network. It seems the alphabet network doesn’t want to take on NBC’s broadcasts of the Olympic games, and a break has been planned after the first couple of episodes. Basically, the show will whet our appetites with new episodes and then we’ll be taking another break.

I can’t blame ABC for wanting to avoid the Olympics in a ratings race, but there’s another solution here – one that might be just as frustrating to fans initially but could pay off better in the long run. The network hasn’t announced the start date for Lost’s final season yet. They could just defer the entire season for a few weeks, kicking off after the Olympics and running an uninterrupted streak straight to the end of the series. It’s an unlikely move, but one I’d be in favor of. Either way, the final season of one of my favorite shows is off to a disappointing start… and the first episode hasn’t even aired yet.