Lost Rediscovers Harold Perrineau

Wed., Jul. 25, 2007 2:50 PM PDT by Gina Serpe

Let it be known, the president of ABC is a plot-tease.

Attempting to extricate himself from a roomful of voracious, scoop-mad reporters with all his limbs intact, network honcho Steve McPherson on Wednesday grudgingly offered the first of what is expected to be several big revelations about Lost's fourth season during ABC's press tour for the Television Critics Association.

"I've cast Don Imus on Lost," McPherson told reporters.

He was joking.

While the bigmouthed shock jock won't be dropping by on Mystery Island, somebody else will: former series regular Harold Perrineau.

Perrineau's character, Michael Dawson, has not been seen on the show since the season two finale more than a year ago. He shot dead two of his fellow castaways—Libby (Cynthia Watros) and Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez)—to allow head Other Ben (Michael Emerson) to escape from his cell. In return for his betrayal, the Others allowed Michael and son Walt, played by Malcolm David Kelley, to sail peacefully into the sunset.

While Walt made a few brief appearances in the third season as a vision for other characters, including as a guardian angel of sorts to a wounded Locke in the final episode, Michael has been completely MIA from the island.

The series' third season wrapped in May with the seemingly game changing revelation that at least some of the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 at some unspecified point in the future make it off the island. It's unclear in which time frame Michael will reappear.

More details on the coming season are expected to be unveiled during Lost's presentation at San Diego's Comic-Con International Thursday—which is when the news of Michael's return was meant to be broken.

But McPherson was besieged by near riotous reporters at the TCA panel when he announced that no Lost tidbits would be disclosed until Comic-Con.

Some reporters asked why he would not break news in front of the assembled media, rather than with fans, others heckled his remarks and some even booed when he made the Imus crack.

When it became clear McPherson was losing the crowd, a publicist emerged from the side of the stage and consulted with the ABC boss, prompting him to make the face- (and perhaps limb-) saving revelation.

Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who will be on hand for the Comic-Con announcements, were on set in Hawaii and did not immediately comment on the spoiler news.

Lost will return for its fourth season in January. ABC said earlier this year that Lost will run for 48 episodes over three truncated seasons, concluding in 2010.

For complete coverage of the TCAs, and all the TV dish you could ever want, check out E! Online's Watch with Kristin.