The Writers Guild of America went on strike on November 4, 2007 after the writers had only finished the first eight episodes of the season. Show runners Lindelof and Cuse wanted to hold the eight episodes until they were able to produce more of the season, but ABC decided that the eight episodes would be aired from January to March, regardless of whether any more episodes were produced in the 2007–2008 season. After the resolution of the strike, ABC decided to produce five more episodes for the fourth season. This conflicted with ABC's earlier plan to broadcast seasons four, five and six in uninterrupted blocks of sixteen episodes each. Despite this, ABC prioritized scheduling "Grey's Anatomy", "Ugly Betty" and "Lost"'s returns all for April 24. The decision left the three unproduced episodes of season four "in the bank" to be used later in seasons five and six.