Heroes’ Ratings Freefall Continues
March 25, 2009 by brian
For the second time in three episodes, NBC’s struggling drama Heroes fell to an all-time ratings low. Only 6.5 million people tuned into Monday’s ep according to The Insider.
Those are the same kind of numbers that got Jericho booted from CBS’ lineup, but NBC brass have continually said they are sticking by the troubled show. In happier times, there was even talk of a Heroes spinoff. That idea, of course, went the way of the dodo after the show’s second season, also subpar ratings wise.
Even a planned Heroes videogame got shelved as the license continues cooling off at an alarming rate. Readers, is Heroes still must see TV for you or have you given up?
NBC Photo: Chris Haston
It is still “Must See” TV for me. I admit I was about to give up in V3, but I stuck it out and I’m glad I did. The last 3 shows have been amazing and last Mondays was back to the S1 standard. But sadly I think the damage was already done by promising v3 was gong to be “mind blowing” and in the very first scene they show FPeter going back in time to shoot Nathan when he could have done at least a dozen things to thwart the press conference. They didn’t idiot proof their plots and it was just all over the place.
But I think Bryan Fuller’s touch has been sooooo much better. I am now looking forward to Monday’s again.
I wonder if we are seeing signs of the end of “seasonal” television in the US. Maybe things will move to the British format of “series” vs “season” where there may be a year or two between each new heroes series making an appearance. Much the way Red Dwarf and Dr. Who takes a year or two break now and again. Heroes, and other shows, could wait for anticipation to build again before another series appears.
Brian, the hiatus of Doctor Who and Red Dwarf weren’t because they call them “series” vs. “seasons.” As far as I’m aware, these terms are synonymous. Doctor Who is on hiatus because the lead actor (David Tennant) was to do Hamlet right now (though a back injury precluded this), and Davies (the producer/visionary behind the revival) is leaving the show. The pre-Eccleston era of Doctor Who was merely canceled, not on a hiatus.
Back injury aside, that’s exactly my point. I would still consider the current break a perfect example of the flexibility of the British series compared to the standard fall season premiers.
Another example would be the 3 year break in Red Dwarf between series 6 and 7 so that the crew could work on other projects.
If an American actor wanted to do other things, the studios would tell them no. I give you Remington Steele as a good example. Pierce Brosnan was tapped to play James Bond while Remington Steele was still in production. Having their lead also be James Bond would not have hurt the show. But they refused to let him go even though the series was dropped a year later.
I did think there were more drops in the Dr Who series, but I appear to be wrong on that. I think that impression largely came from never knowing what month the next series would start. So maybe my view is skewed by the particular shows I am familiar with.
Dumb down the show to the lowest common denominator, take no risks (i.e. keep resurrecting dead characters), have no story…and what do you expect?
They need to clean out the useless characters, read: Mrs. Petrelli, Claire, Ando, etc and explore the remaining ones.
Im ashamed that i was able to get so many other people to watch this once Genius but now idiotic show. HEROS IS MORE LOST THAN ‘LOST’. I was so into Heros that i bough a damn shirt from shopNBC. I Want my money back lol. I was done with Heros at the end of last season. I just watch now and kount how many times i roll my eyes in each episode its pretty fun.
It’s a great show, so it’s not AS great as season one. I still think it’s awesome! This happens with every show, season one is always the best one. I love everything about the show and, unless they’re idiots, NBC should not cancel Heroes anytime soon!
They’re not canceling it, at least not this year. NBC has already “ordered” another season of 21 episodes to begin airing Fall 2009. The writers just picked up their pens again this past week in order to start work on Volume 5. Actually, this past weeks episode achieved a full point jump in ratings to give it a 6.8. So, I am currently ignoring the “cancellation” rumors racing around the internet. NBC is getting rid of Chuck, the lower rated Monday night show (and unless I am mistaken the SciFi channel may be picking it up).
The writers have Lost their way. It’s cotton realy. Bad. Cancel It!
Still awesome show in my eyes, went a bit stale in Season 2, while still be excellant, but Season 3 has brought it back to where it belongs on top. Cant wait for Season 4. Roll on Heroes ‘Forever’ !!!
Season 1 was amazing. Season 2 was disappointing and I only watched the first episode of Season 3 before giving up. Oh well, we’ll always have Season 1.