uhmmm, Lost was hardly the most popular drama. It's ratings the first 3 years were around 18-20 million and a 5 in the demo, but the final 3 seasons were barely 9.0 million viewers and a 3.5-4.0 demo. Hardly serves as the "most popular drama of the decade."
To Lost fans it might seem that way, but the only people around the final 3 seasons were the die hard Lost fans who wanted to know what was going on. As an entire viewing population, the show was nothing more than average as a ratings producer. The show was outwatched on the final three seasons by many other programs (All 3 CSI's, Grey's, House, 24, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, even Numb3rs on Friday night was close). CSI has been the most popular drama for the last 6 years or more. Until last year when it was in the 15 million range, CSI was pulling in 18-24 million viewers every week with a demo near 4.5+. Even last year when comparing numbers it dominated the final season of Lost.
CSI (Vegas) will go down as one of the most popular shows ever, let alone drama's. And American Idol has been the most dominant show, period, of all genres, in the 2000's.