"'Lost' reclaimed its reputation as TV's most adventurous and surprising series with a run of terrific and exciting episodes, culminating in the most mind-blowing finale of the season."

After the fall string of episodes, "Lost" was still ranked a pretty healthy sixth, according to the TV Week poll, behind two other ABC shows, "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy." But a strong finish to the season shot "Lost" straight up the chart behind only HBO's "The Sopranos," which also got a boost from what critics called a spectacular series finale.

Not every show's finale did so well. "Heroes," for example, tumbled in the rankings a few slots after the NBC show's first season finale met with a lukewarm reception with critics. It had previously held the No. 2 slot only to tumble to sixth behind "Ugly Betty," and NBC's "The Office" and "Friday Night Lights."

"Good story, good characters, disappointing resolution," said Robert Philpot, a critic with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Despite the fall, "Heroes" remained in the critics top 10 ahead of "30 Rock" on NBC, "The Shield" on FX, "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC and Showtime's "The Tudors."