That stinks that your viewing will not count. We could be surprised, and they decide to keep the thing..or at least allow them to go to another network. I know that I'm naive by keeping my hopes up for this show to continue onto another season.
Networks don't usually show that kind of patience these days. Every so often you'll find an exception like The Office or Old Christine where they give a show a chance to build an audience, but then there's usually Emmy nominations tied in with it, and it would look bad to shit-can a show that's been nominated for a bunch of Emmys. This year, it's probably only because the WGA strike fouled things up so much that some of these shows (Knight Rider, Life on Mars) haven't already been cancelled; there simply isn't anything else waiting in the wings. The sad part is that Knight Rider actually has gotten better since its mid-season retool, but now that it's up against American Idol, it's "game over."
I guess American Idol dented Lost's ratings a bit for the night - over at Tv by the Numbers I think they have the DVR numbers for the Lost season premiere - around 3m bump I think - maybe somebody who understands these the workings of Amercian tv better than me can shed a more illumianting light on the subject!
"Americans" are stupid? Maybe it's just...oh forget it. Never insult anyone's Mom, even on teh internets. Most people don't see the point of investing a lot of time and effort in remembering obscure details of some frakkin' TV show. I can't say I blame them: it's a fairly stupid thing to do. The fact that I like doing it doesn't make it any less silly. I'm certainly not going to stick my nose in the air and look down on those who perfer to invest their energies in more important things. Pushing Daisies was nominated for Emmys and that didn't save it. It's a heartless business. Lost is safe for this season and next, and that's all there's going to be anyway. The Renew/Cancel Index is a good resource for trying to predict what gets the axe. There are so many interrelating factors that it's hard to generalize.