As I recall, Lost was struggling to keep its audience hooked, when they had cliffhangers almost weekly, but viewers would sometimes have to wait 3/4 weeks for the next episode. See: "sweeps." Shows would run over 30+ weeks, though there were only 23 episodes (for instance - so you'd get repeats). It was either during the second or third season, when it was agreed that Lost would air, weekly without fail, over a number of weeks. To my knowledge this was the first time this had ever happened.

It got me thinking. Now we're in an era of Netflix, and fans binge watching shows, did Lost start something here, where the demand wasn't to wait so long for the next episode? Granted, you had to wait a week for the next episode, whereas now you can watch a series of House of Cards in an entire day, but perhaps Lost set the ball rolling.