There’s been some speculation that Lost’s sixth and final season might tack on an extra hour beyond the contracted 18. Over the weekend, EW’s Michael Ausiello reported via Twitter that the rumors are true: Season 6 will be comprised of a total of 18 hours, thanks to a planned 2-hour premier and a 2-hour finale.

Today is the day. The end of Season 5. The last season-ending cliffhanger Lost will ever produce. The prelude to the final season.

Whatever you want to call it, tonight is the night that “The Incident” airs. Remember that it’s a 2-hour episode, beginning at 9:00pm EST/PST, and it’s preceded at 8:00pm by another Lost recap/clip show.

Let’s start, as always, by taking a look at ABC’s official synopsis and guest cast for the episode. The SPOILER WARNING flashing neon light is on from here on out — though I won’t be spilling any major secrets, just teaser-y stuff. Strap in and get ready, this is going to be a big one…

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ABC has published its press release for the Season 5 finale of Lost, complete with a plot teaser and the complete guest cast roster. The two-hour episode, entitled “The Incident,” airs Wednesday, May 13 from 9-11:PM EST — that’s just 2 weeks away! Can you believe the season is almost over already?

Needless to say, there are potential spoilers ahead in this press release (wait till you get a load of the guest cast list), so I’m embedding the full skinny after the jump…

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Fire up the barcalounger, put the kids to bed early, and turn off the phone. It’s Lost night!

This week’s episode, 5.10 “He’s Our You,” is about what happens when someone *cough*Sayid*cough* deviates from Sawyer’s carefully-orchestrated plot to keep the survivors safe in the Dharma Initiative. It looks like what goes around comes around for our resident torturer…

Here are some goodies to help you set the mood. First up, a trio of sneek peak videos courtesy of E! Online. The first vid is below, the other two (along with more pregame goodness) are right after the jump.

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Thanks to the ever-reliable Lyly Ford Blog, we now have the full press releases (including loglines, writers, and guest cast lists) for every remaining episode this season except the finale! Needless to say, there are major spoilers ahead, which provide strong indications of where things are heading as the season hurtles towards its conclusion. (There’s some MAJOR, GINORMOUS stuff ahead, folks!) Still, those who don’t want hints of any kind about what’s coming: steer clear. You’ve been warned!

I’ve got a complete breakdown on all six — yeah, count ‘em, six! — episode press releases after the break.

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According to TV Guide’s Matt Mitovich, tonight’s disruption in the planned “uninterrupted 5th Season” of Lost won’t be the only one. Mitovich reports that “a late April clip show” is being planned to preempt a regular episode near the end of the season. That would probably put this clip show somewhere between episode 5.14, “The Variable,” and the season finale.

It’s still unclear why the show was preempted this week and now is going to be again. We were promised an uninterrupted run straight through all 17 episodes of Season 5. So is ABC responsible for slowing things down to get maximum ratings out of the show during sweeps? Or did Lost’s producers ask for the disruption to give them more time to finish filming the season?

For whatever reason, the powers that be have reneged on their promise of a non-stop season 5 (after doing the same, in much more dramatic fashion, with Season 4, due to the writer’s strike), and we now must wait an extra week between last week’s ep, 5.08 “LaFleur,” and 5.09 “Namaste.” And yes, it really, really sucks.

So there’s no new Lost this week. Waaaaah.

However… ApproachingLOST has got you covered with some fun stuff planned to help tide you over. We’ll start with this. ABC has released the official plot description for 5.10 “He’s Our You,” meaning we now have loglines for the next two upcoming ’sodes, so here’s a handy-dandy guide to all known information about the remainder of the season — titles, air dates, and a few teasers — right after the break. Spoilers are well marked.

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Tonight brings us the 7th episode of Lost Season 5, and it’s an ep that many a fan has long been waiting for: the story of what happened to John Locke between the time when he left the island and his (supposed) death. So many questions to be answered in this episode… Why did he take a pseudonym? What did he say to the Oceanic 6 when he visited each of them? What happened when he visited Walt? What did Ben say to him? Did he meet Eloise Hawking? How was he convinced to take his own life? Is he really dead? And so much more!

Here are a few pre-game goodies to help you set the mood for tonight’s pivotal outing:

• Lostpedia’s extensive profile/history of John Locke could provide some clues into our resident Man of Faith.
• EW’s Doc Jensen takes one more stride towards a permanent straight jacket with his wild theories and bizarre teases about tonight’s episode.
• Finally, check out this promotional trailer for the episode from Canada’s CTV, which shows a wee bit more footage than the U.S. version…

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lost surged upward this week in ratings, to 11.3 million viewers and the top spot among the coveted 18-49 age demographic. What’s more, Lost was the top rated scripted series of the night with its much-talked-about episode featuring the Oceanic 6’s return to the island, rating even higher than Fox’s freshman drama Lie to Me’s 11.1 million. (Lie to Me has consistently beaten Lost or tied it in the ratings since its debut.) In overall viewership, Lost came in second for the night to American Idol’s 24.4 million viewers.

Am I the only one who thinks that American Idol is everything that’s wrong with the world?

For the first time ever, Nielsen has released rankings data to the public about TV shows viewed on the Internet, and Lost came in at #1!

The data in question comes from December 2008, and shows that Lost received a total of 1,425,000 unique viewers that month. As Lost fans know, the show does not air on ABC in the month of December, but returns with a new season every January, so this data is a reflection of more than a million fans who wanted to get caught up on Lost Season 4 before Season 5 began.

The #2 show on the list pulled in 1.1 million viewers, and that show was Saturday Night Live. The top five online shows were rounded out by Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Heroes.

Robin’s rant: It’s high time the networks, sponsors, and everybody else started taking into account all the new ways people — particularly the younger generation — watch TV these days. Ratings should be about a lot more than how many people watch the show on live TV (and let’s face it, that group is made up of a lot of elder generation viewers, which is why proceedurals do so well in the ratings). In addition to network websites like ABC.com showing full episodes, there are other ways to acquire the latest episodes of almost every major show on television that have nothing to do with live TV, like DVR recordings and iTunes purchases. And let’s not forget full season DVD sales, which is how many viewers get caught up on their favorite shows these days. Heck, you can even watch Lost and many other shows from your Xbox nowadays. It’s no wonder Lost’s regular Nielsen ratings are dropping; the younger, more technologically savvy audience that Lost is known for capturing — the kind of viewers who want more than to just “veg out” in front of the boob tube — is watching it in a multitude of new and exciting ways.