I know this was a short season due to the writers strike, but didn't TPTB say they'd make up the missing episodes on the next series? Well we're onto the last series, and I've still not seen any more episodes to fill the missing ones.

Why did lost go from 24 episodes a season down to just 16 a season? Such a shame they had to do that.

Season 4 was the short one, with only 13 episodes (14 hours) due to the writers striker. Season 5 had 16 episodes (17 hours) and Season 6 will have 16 episodes (18 hours).

If my memory serves me correctly, when Damon and Carlton were negotiating the end of the show, they wanted to have 2 more seasons of 24 episodes each, for a total of 5 season. ABC wanted more seasons, so as a compromise, they decided on 3 seasons of 16 episodes each - the same amount as 2 seasons of 24 episodes. Since Season 4 went short, they added an extra hour to seasons 5 and 6, making them 17 apiece. That made 48 hours of Lost that was decided upon. A few months ago, they asked for an extra hour - making the season 6 premiere a double-feature.