Lost - awarded the 2005 Emmy and 2006 Golden Globe for best drama series - is back for a third season of action-packed mystery and adventure that will continue to bring out the very best and the very worst in the people who are lost. The season premiere airs tonight (9:00-10:01 p.m., ET), on ABC.

After Oceanic Air flight 815 tore apart in mid-air and crashed on a Pacific island, its survivors were forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive. But they discovered that the island holds many secrets, including a mysterious smoke monster, polar bears, a strange French woman and another group of island residents known as "The Others." The survivors have also found signs of those who came to the island before them, including a 19th century sailing ship called The Black Rock, the remains of an ancient statue and bunkers belonging to the Dharma Initiative, a group of scientific researchers.

In the season premiere episode, "A Tale of Two Cities," Jack, Kate and Sawyer begin to discover what they are up against as prisoners of "The Others."

ALSO ON TONIGHT:

In The Nine (10 p.m. ABC), nine strangers end up in a Los Angeles bank on a fateful morning, as two men lock the doors, pull their guns and announce a bank robbery that will "only take five minutes." But 10 minutes into the pilot episode, it's revealed that the bank robbery has gone terribly wrong. SWAT storms the bank, rescuing the hostages and capturing the robbers - but two people are dead. These nine survivors are now banded together as an unlikely family, as they re-enter their lives and grapple with how this seminal event has changed them forever.

"The Nine" is a complex character-based drama series that will unravel the mystery of what transpired during this 52-hour hostage situation in chronological flashbacks that open each episode. But the heart of the series is how that harrowing experience impacted our key characters in their present day lives, as they continue to intertwine, deepen and complicate their connections to one another. Revolving through police, legal and medical worlds, the series is one of hope and rebirth, as the characters continue to reinvent themselves in a positive way or are haunted by fateful decisions from which they're still struggling to recover.