“Lost'”s Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, played by Jorge Garcia, is a lovable loser who no one suspects is also a miserable multi-millionaire. He wonders if the numbers that won him $156 million – 4,8,15,16,23,42 – are cursed.
“I’ll side with my character,” says Garcia, 33, who plays the gentle giant. “If Hurley believes the numbers are cursed, then I believe it.”
Now some people are beginning to wonder whether “Lost” is cursed, too. Since its return from a three-month hiatus, the show’s ratings have been in freefall, plummeting from a 20-million-plus at the peak of its popularity to 14.5 million when it premiered in its new 10 p.m. time slot on Feb. 7. On Valentine’s Day, the show drew only 12.8 million viewers. Respectable, yes, but ABC can no longer call this show a hit.
Asked what he thinks about the show’s ratings, Garcia says he’s glad to just be an employee: “Of course, we talk about the ratings on the set, but when they change something on this show, they change a lot of things. So it’s not like we can point to one thing and say this isn’t working,” he says. “But I rest assured in knowing that my job on this show is just a portion of the whole. I’m not in charge of anything else and I’m not worried about it.”
This Wednesday, the fan favorite returns to the show’s limelight, starring in a flashback episode of his own. Cheech Marin (“Cars”) guest-stars as Hurley’s estranged father. With the focus on Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) during last fall’s six episodes, Garcia is glad to be back on camera.
“During the last three days of shooting, the group on the beach has been quite big. They laid out the most cast chairs I’ve ever seen at one time since the pilot and it’s been fun,” says Garcia, a stand-up comic who often provides some of the show’s lighter moments.
Hurley’s flashback episode focuses on “the kind of relationship Hurley has with his father and how it’s changed from when he was a kid now that he’s an adult and a lottery winner. He finds something on the island that brings him back to that time and that’s how it all gets started,” says Garcia.
Just because Garcia lives on Oahu and is actually in the show, doesn’t mean he has any better idea than the rest of us of how the show’s multiple mysteries will be tied up. “When we first came on, we were instructed to say that we knew where it was all going, but as it kept going, we were allowed to say that we have no idea. I think about a dozen people actually know.”
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Tuesday, 10 p.m., ABC