Channel Surfing: ABC Expands Lost Finale (Again), Actors and Execs Talk Lost Twist, 24 Movie Update, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Looks like there's more Lost than we thought. The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that ABC has expanded the series finale of Lost by a half an hour, bringing the finale's running time to two and a half hours on May 23rd, after the two-hour recap special, Lost: The Final Journey, and before a special edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live featuring the cast at 12:05 am that night. The decision to expand the series finale was made after executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse completed post-production on the final episode. "The producers of ABC's hit drama have shot so much crucial material for the show's hugely anticipated series finale that the network has agreed to extend the last episode by an extra half hour," writes Hibberd. Which means that we get another half an episode of the series. Lucky, lucky us. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF LOST! Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen has an interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about last night's episode of Lost ("The Candidate") and about certain matters of good and evil. Asked why the producers had to kill off Sun and Jin this week, Lindelof said, "Because now you know this show is willing and capable of killing anyone." And those wondering about the Man in Black's true nature need to read the following quote: "There is no ambiguity,” said Cuse of the Man in Black. "He is evil and he has to be stopped... There will be very little debate at the end of this episode that [Fake Locke] is evil and bad and has to be stopped. The main narrative reason for him killing our main characters is to establish how much of a bad guy he is and to clearly identify him as the antagonist rolling into the end of the series." (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)

Elsewhere, TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to Lost's Yunjin Kim about last night's episode. "It was a brilliant way to end Sun and Jin's life on the island," said Kim of the episode that killed off her character and Daniel Dae Kim's Jin. "Because of the way the story is going, especially once we get to Episode 15, 16 and 17, it's moving at a pretty fast pace. Let's say if Jin dies alone, Sun would only grieve for Jin for two seconds and we'd have to move on with the storyline. It was a very romantic death... As soon as I got on the phone with Damon Lindelof, he said 'This phone call is not one of those phone calls.' He told me how it was going to happen and I actually thought it was a beautiful ending to both of the characters. It will only propel the other survivors to go after Locke [Terry O'Quinn], and have a very good reason to go after Locke as aggressively as they do in the final episodes." (TVGuide.com)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks with 24 executive producer Howard Gordon, Kiefer Sutherland, and Mary Lynn Rajskub about the long gestating 24 feature film... and how the series finale of 24, set to air later this month, will impact the plot. "It's less of a cliff-hanger as much as it is a personal ending between a few of the characters, which is very intimate for us, when we're not blowing up the planet," Sutherland told Masters. "It was very wonderful for us to make and I hope the audience likes it as well. I'm very happy with it." Gordon agreed: "It's exciting, it's emotional and it just feels right. The ending fits somewhere between Jack dying and a happily ever after." As for Rakskub, she believes she'll be playing Chloe for some time to come. "The series really lends itself to the movie, but having said that, it is a satisfying ending," Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays fan fave Chloe, says. "Things are coming to a head in a pretty exciting way. This whole year has been a really strong year to go out on and the ending is just as strong... I know for sure that I'll be Chloe for at least a few years from now." (E! Online's Watch With Kristin)

NBC has confirmed that Jimmy Fallon will be the host of the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which will be telecast on Sunday, August 29th at 8 pm ET and 5 pm PT. "Hosting the Emmys has been a dream of mine ever since they told me I was doing it," said Fallon. (Variety's Emmy Central)

Deadline.com's Nikki Finke and Nellie Andreeva have an update on their Primetime Pilot Panic List, tracking rumors about which pilots are going to get the greenlight to series and which will fall by the wayside. (Deadline.com)

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that Laurie Holden (The Shield) is the latest actor to board AMC's upcoming zombie drama series The Walking Dead, where she has been cast as Andrea, described as "a key member of the survivor group who has a proficiency with a sniper rifle and falls for a man twice her age." Also cast: Steven Yeun, who will play Glenn. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Life on Mars co-stars John Simm and Philip Glenister are set to reunite on-screen for Sky1's upcoming murder drama series Mad Dogs. (Broadcast)

Steve Blackman and Craig Turk have been promoted to co-head writers on ABC's Private Practice. They will report to creator Shonda Rhimes but will serve as "de-facto co-showrunners" on the series, which is widely expected to be returning next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jessica Walter (Arrested Development) has been cast in an upcoming episode of ABC Family's Make It or Break It, where she will play the grandmother of Cassie Scerbo's Lauren. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

It's official: Debra Winger is heading to Season Three of HBO's In Treatment, where she will play a patient of Gabriel Byrne's Paul in the upcoming season of the psychoanalysis drama series. (Variety)

GSN has ordered raunchy comedy game show Late Night Liars, featuring Jim Henson Company's puppets, and will launch the series on June 10th at 11 pm ET/PT. Larry Miller will be joined on the series by "two human contestants [who face] off against a panel of four 'celebrity puppets' who are also drunk and telling half-truths." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Jenna Mullins talks to Glee's Jonathan Groff about his character's motives on the FOX musical-comedy. "He's certainly up to something, that's for sure," Groff said. "My reasons for being at the high school are surprising. I was surprised... He has some surprises up his sleeves, none that I can reveal right now." (E! Online's Watch With Kristin)

Jamie Ray Newman (Eastwick) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Season Two of Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva, where she will play "an accomplished lawyer from a rival law firm who possesses a killer instinct," according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. In other casting news, the series has also cast Emily Kuroda (Gilmore Girls) as the mother of Margaret Cho's Teri and Robin Givens will play "a mean-spirited cosmetics lab exec who accuses Jane’s (Brooke Elliott) client of wrongdoing." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TLC has renewed reality series Hoarding: Buried Alive for a second season, with nine episodes on tap. (Variety)

A&E has renewed Paranormal State for a firth season, with 20 episodes set to air in the fourth quarter of 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.