NBC To "Heroes": "Think About The Final Chapter"

[JamesG]

NBC To Heroes: Think About That Final Chapter

Network will not order another season of once signature show, according to exclusive source reports
By MICHAEL HINMAN
Oct-29-2009
Source: Airlock Alpha

This could be bad news for "Heroes" fans. Real bad news.

Sources at NBC have told Airlock Alpha that the inevitable is finally happening: Networks executives will ask "Heroes" producers to wind the series down, possibly with an overall finale by May.

"There isn't much happening with this show in terms of audience, and giving it a 'final chapter' feel is something the network is considering to help allow the show to go out with a bang," said the source, who asked not to be identified.



"Heroes" began in 2006 as NBC's most buzzed show, and wowed both audiences and critics through the first season. However, Season 2 took a slow start creatively, likely not helped with the departure of producers like Bryan Fuller (who had left to run "Pushing Daisies" on ABC).

While the audience stuck it out in the beginning, that started to change by mid-season when the audience erosion began. It finished its second season with a 6.6 rating/10 share, however, second only to "Lost" among averages of overnight ratings from The Nielsen Co. for network genre shows.


However, by the 2008-09 season, "Heroes" fell to fifth among network genre shows, with a 4.7/7 average, down nearly 29 percent from the year before.

This year after seven episodes, "Heroes" is averaging a 3.6/5, more than 23 percent off from last year, and 45 percent off its pace from the second season. It's currently averaging as NBC's lowest-rated outing on Monday behind the 3.7/6 average of the now-canceled "Trauma" and the 4.4/7 of "The Jay Leno Show."



Of course, in the "Jay Leno" instance, his numbers were artificially boosted by an 11.0/18 premiere the week before the fourth season of "Heroes" started, and fell to a 3.8/6 the following week, and has hovered just above the 3.0 household rating mark ever since.

"Heroes" might not be the only one saying good-bye this season. With NBC looking for a firm finish in fourth place among all the networks once again, the new guard coming in is looking to really change things up, including possibly a completely revamped lineup that could include the reduction of hours devoted to "Jay Leno."



According to this source, "Heroes" is just not part of that mode.

"To keep a show like this going despite its numbers requires some nostalgic connection to it, and while there are a lot of people here who were part of bringing 'Heroes' to the air, they are not in the decision-making capacities," the source said.



One thing to stress, however, is that no final decision has been made yet, and likely won't be made until closer to mid-season. The source was not even clear if a wrap-up directive had been issued to "Heroes" quite yet. If it hasn't, it will.

"I don't think this should surprise anybody," the source said. "The writing has been on the wall for some time."

Airlock Alpha did request comment from NBC early Thursday afternoon, which is still pending. However, none of this has been confirmed by NBC quite yet, and should be treated as any rumor would.

"Heroes" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

http://airlockalpha.com/node/6824

[Retro4Life]

It's a shame but it's totally understandable.

Heroes was indeed, a show with a lot of promise in its first season. I thought they had a great chance to deal with what it would really be like if a certain small group of people actually gained super abilities. There was lots of implications for moral conflicts, clashes of personal philosophies, issues dealing with daily life, etc.

But it became clear the show really didn't have a second act. They planned originally to feature different groups of characters as the show went on, but people loved the originals so much they opted to keep them. Then obviously, they had no idea what to do with them.

Logic went out the window as characters switched personalities drastically, going back and forth from good to evil and back again in the space of a few episodes. There wasn't much narrative consistency either. The writers would ignore plot points they had established earlier when those points became inconvenient to current plots. . Pacing was an utter disaster; plots that could have been drawn out for a bit to fully explore each characters' reaction were ended quickly, and then usually very unsatisfactorily while others (ahem, Sylar...) just went on and on with no real resolution in sight.

In short the show became a mess. I really thought most of the acting was quite good (I particularly bemoaned the horrible treatment the show gave Adrian Pasdar, who's "Nathan" was one of the most interesting and complex characters that the post Season One writers didn't know what to do with and eventually gave up on, turning him into Sylar...sort of...).

At any rate, a nice premise ruined by poor vision and execution. RIP Heroes.

[robyrob]

i like the show, but it has definitely been heading in the wrong direction for quite some time

...i'd like to see them try do a spinoff series with a new group of heroes and actually build some suspense again

[tv star collector]

I would hate to see Heroes end, after only four seasons. It is currently
the only NBC series that I watch ... and that is the network that I grew up
with. (Of course, in the 1950s it was the only channel we received! But,
they had some great shows in the 1950s, '60s, '70s and '80s ... too many to
mention here.) For the most part (with a few notable exceptions), network
television today just isn't the source of consistently high calibre
entertainment that it used to be. Even way back in the early '70s, Bonanza star Dan Blocker predicted the end of episodic television. Today,
with the growing popularity of reality shows, and the gradually diminishing
number of scripted shows, it appears that he was right. Sad but true.