Season 4’s “The Constant” has been nominated for a 2009 Hugo Award, one of the most prestigious awards in all of science fiction. The Hugo Awards are voted on by fans, or more specifically members of the World Science Fiction Society.

The Awards will be announced in early August at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal.

At last! Varese Sarabande Records has announced the production and release date for Michael Giacchino’s Lost: Season 4 soundtrack. There’s no track list or details yet, but Varese Sarabande says it will be “more than 75 minutes” long, and will arrive in stores on May 12, 2009.

The Lost: Season 3 soundtrack was a two-disc set, so some fans might have wondered if Giacchino’s score for Season 4 might lend itself to another double collection. But since there were only 14 episodes to Season 4 (thanks to the writer’s strike), one disc should be sufficient to cover all of the major cues and themes.

Image by Robin Parrish.

The nominees for the 35th Annual Saturn Awards have been announced, and Lost topped the list of nominations in the television categories. Lost was honored with eleven nominations (the next highest nominee was Heroes with six nods) in the following categories:

• Best Network Television Series
• Best Actor in Television - Matthew Fox (Jack Shephard)
• Best Actress in Television - Evangeline Lilly (Kate Austen)
• Best Supporting Actor in Television - Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume), Michael Emerson (Benjamin Linus), and Josh Holloway (James “Sawyer” Ford)
• Best Supporting Actress in Television - Yunjin Kim (Sun Kwon) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet Burke)
• Best Guest Starring Roles in a Television Series - Alan Dale (Charles Widmore), Kevin Durand (Martin Keamy), and Sonya Walger (Penny Widmore)
• Best Television Series Release on DVD - Lost: The Complete Fourth Season

The Saturn Awards are presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films to honor the best in those three genres — which are so often overlooked by awarding bodies like the Oscars and Emmys. Saturn Awards are voted on by members of the aforementioned Academy, and presented at an awards ceremony. This year’s ceremony is set for June 25th at a location yet to be determined.

Image: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films.

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.

ABC is re-airing the entire, 3-hour Lost Season 4 finale, “There’s No Place Like Home,” tonight, in a single block. It’ll be the first time ever all 3 parts of the finale have been broadcast back-to-back. And it’s the perfect primer to prepare yourself for the Season 5 premier next Wednesday. If you need to get caught up or have a reminder of everything that unfolded in this twisty-turny finale, here’s your chance!

Image: CTV.ca.

Continuing the many accolades Lost has received for Season 4, particularly from Hollywood’s various guilds (the Writer’s Guild, Producer’s Guild, and Director’s Guild have all nominated the show), the 3-hour season finale, “There’s No Place Like Home,” has been nominated for an American Cinema Editors award, which is known as the “Eddie.” The category is “Best Edited Motion Picture for Commercial Television,” which I suppose is A.C.E.’s way of saying “TV episode that’s more than one hour long.”

Lost’s editor nominees are Henk Van Eeghen, Robert Florio, Mark J. Goldman, and Stephen Semel. The show is up against 24: Redemption and The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, and as much as I love 24, I should think Lost would have this one in the bag. We’ll find out when the awards are presented at a non-televised event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on February 15th.

Image: A.C.E.

The Director’s Guild of America has announced its nominations for outstanding direction in television and film. Lost made the cut for the Season 4 fan-favorite episode, “The Constant,” and its director Jack Bender. Bender has directed 25 episodes of the series so far, and he’s already helmed two more from the upcoming Season 5 (5.02, “The Lie,” and 5.06, “The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham”).

I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high for a win on this one; “The Constant” is up against eps of critical darlings The Wire and In Treatment, and not one but two nominated episodes of Mad Men. Still, it’s nice to see the show counted among such high quality work!

Image: Director’s Guild of America.

A new feature has just been added at the official Lost website. It’s called “LOST: Showdown,” and it’s an interactive app that allows your votes to help pick “the ultimate moment from the past four seasons.” The selection and voting process includes video clips of the moments that are available to vote for, and the process finds you whittling them down in a tree structure, March Madness style. It’s a fun little diversion while waiting for Season 5 to come.

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I got to wondering over the holidays… What exactly did the survivors and the Others and everyone else do on Christmas Day 2004 on the island? We know Christmas came and went because it was Christmas time when Desmond called Penny from the freighter in “The Constant,” and several more days passed before the Oceanic Six escaped.

So I looked it up. A full breakdown (and other holiday stuff) is right after the jump.

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