Lost’s Carlton Cuse signs multiyear deal with ABC

The former executive producer and showrunner of Lost, Carlton Cuse, is returning to ABC through a multiyear deal.

Cuse will develop new projects through his company Genre Arts, where he will be creating and collaborating with other writers for network, cable and streaming platforms.

Genre Arts will be based on the Disney Studios lot, and Lindsey Springer will serve as president of the company.

Springer was previously head of development for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV. Her main focus will be to find and develop the next generation of showrunners.

Cuse is coming off a three-year first-look deal with A+E Studios, which ABC parent Disney part-owns. He has worked programming such as A+E’s Bates Motel, FX’s The Strain and USA’s Colony, and is best known for mystery drama Lost, which was an era-defining show for US broadcast TV in the 2000s.

The news arrives as Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes departed from ABC earlier this week to join Netflix.

“It is with great pleasure that I am returning to ABC Studios, my happy home for six years during Lost,” said Cuse. “I am very excited to be working alongside wonderful and iconic Disney brands like Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm to create and bring entertaining and compelling stories to the screen. The very best part of my job is working with other writers to come up with cool ideas, solve story problems and get stories made.”

Patrick Moran, president at ABC Studios, said: “Forming a partnership with a writer-producer-director as talented and prolific as Carlton Cuse is a major victory for ABC Studios. We’re so looking forward to working with him again and bringing his signature creativity back to our studio.”