So, Masi, what are you thinking about when you squish your eyes and clench your teeth?

''Going to the bathroom,'' jokes Oka. But then he reconsiders. ''Actually, I believe there's a fifth dimensional fact that allows for parallel universes to exist at the same time, in the same location,'' says the Brown-educated 31-year-old, who prior to becoming an actor (he had a recurring role as Franklyn the lab tech on Scrubs) was a full-time special-effects artist at George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic studio (he's especially proud of his work on The Perfect Storm). He also has a 180-plus IQ, so he knows what he's talking about when he uses terms like unique five-tuples to explain Hiro's reality-warping ways. ''Basically,'' he concludes, ''he puts himself in the sixth dimension and comes back into the current reality.''

Panettiere ? a multitasking 17-year-old who's been acting since age 5 and plans to release a pop-rock album next year ? discloses that she celebrated Heroes' full-season pickup by buying herself a Porsche: ''I almost ran over Kanye West this morning!''

The first half of Heroes' season comes to a close on Dec. 4 (new episodes return in January), and by then, viewers will have learned how most of the characters discovered their superpowers, along with Sylar's identity. (Hint: The Scrabble value of the actor's name exceeds 10 points.) Everyone involved is predictably tight-lipped, though Pasdar does offer this teaser: ''Things get fairly dark in terms of who I might be. It's an amazing ending.''

At press time, Kring was still weighing a request by NBC to extend Heroes' 22-episode season by two or three installments.)

Heroes,? which aired at 9 p.m., is the lousy hit. ?Friday Night Lights,? which aired at 10 p.m., is the terrific flop. This week, NBC shifted the high-school football drama from Tuesday nights to a one-off Monday tryout in a last-ditch effort to save the show by giving it a chance to draft off of ?Heroes"'s enormous audience. It didn?t work. ?Friday Night Lights? picked up some viewers, but probably not enough to earn a stay of execution. That?s too bad. Back when I was plumbing through all of the fall season?s network pilots, ?Friday Night Lights? was the only one that earned a full-season pass on my overstuffed TiVo. And ?Heroes?? I shut off the pilot at the three-quarter mark. Couldn?t stand it anymore. (Once the show emerged as a hit, I did go back and watch three more episodes. Still terrible.)

Alas, Ali Larter, the buxom blonde star of ?Heroes,? cannot. That should?ve been obvious to anyone who saw ?Final Destination 2,? but give the girl some credit?she?s got a heck of an agent. Larter embodies everything that?s wrong with the cast of ?Heroes?: a pretty cardboard face that gets less interesting the longer you look at it. Her male counterpart on the show is Milo Ventimiglia of ?Gilmore Girls? fame, who evidently graduated from the Keanu Reeves School of Whoa.

The characters are paper-thin cliches, particularly the artist played by Santiago Cabrera, a hipster-scruffy, heroin-addicted jerk who paints?very, very badly?with a rug draped over his topless, chiseled torso (because, duh, he?s deep). Even the characters? superpowers feel tired. Flying? Reading minds? Stopping time? Healing instantaneously? Can?t the most creative minds in television come up with even one superpower we haven?t seen a million times before?

Slide this one into the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" category.

NBC Universal has announced that it will move away from high-cost scripted programming in its 8pm hour and move to more unscripted programming. Translation: More reality shows The announcement came as the company said it would restructure 700 jobs, saving up to $750 million annually.

Despite the huge ratings that Heroes is getting and the fact that shows like My Name is Earl and The Office are doing well for the network, NBC admits that they haven't put enough money and effort into developing the much cheaper unscripted shows, like ABC's Dancing With the Stars and CBS' Survivor, and FOX's American Idol. In fact, when one looks at the unscripted programming from NBC in the past, aside from The Apprentice, which was produced by Survivor's Mark Burnett (and which Martha Stewart killed), the network came off looking like amateurs.

...

If everyone started watching "24" or "CSI" on video iPods or streamed over the Internet - instead of on TV in their living rooms - these top-rated shows would probably go the way of "Cop Rock".

That is, Jack Bauer would become the victim of, not terrorists, but bad ratings. This is because Nielsen Media Research cannot collect data about what people watch on handheld video-viewing gadgets or from PCs streaming network TV shows. While Nielsen estimates around 90% of TV viewing still happens in homes, it's this burgeoning 10% that TV networks and advertisers are desperate to delve into.

On a more prosaic level, Loeb and other comic-book veterans working on Heroes can tell comic neophyte Kring when an idea veers into another book or movie.

"At one point, (Tim) said there should be a guy who could pick up a car and throw it in the air, using his magnetic power," Loeb says. "I said, 'Tim, that's Magneto (of the X-Men).' He turned to me and said, 'Is that a person or a power?' "

NBC REWARDS HIT FALL DRAMA 'HEROES' WITH FULL-SEASON ORDER FOR 2006-07
Published: October 5, 2006

BURBANK - October 5, 2006 - NBC has given a full-season order for 2006-07 to "HEROES" (Mondays, 9-10 p.m. ET) - the critically acclaimed and #1 new series this Fall in adults 18-49 (tied with ABC's "Brothers & Sisters") -- it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment.

"'HEROES' has delivered exceptional ratings since it's premiere and we're even more impressed with the quality of the upcoming episodes," said Reilly. "We have complete confidence in creator-executive producer Tim Kring. The best is yet to come over the course of a full season with this newest drama sensation."

"HEROES" is averaging a 5.7 rating, 14 share in adults 18-49 and 13.5 million viewers overall, making it the #1 new series this Fall in adults 18-49, tied with ABC's "Brothers & Sisters." "HEROES" is the #1 show in its competitive Monday 9-10 p.m. (ET) slot in adults 18-49, generating a 43 percent increase on NBC's non-sports average for the time period last season.

NBC Universal has cut a deal with Intel in which individuals who own Viiv PCs will be able to download and view certain programs before they air on the network, according to Merlin Kister, director of consumer client marketing for Intel.

...

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said yesterday that NBC will let Viiv users download "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip," but it is uncertain whether Viiv owners will get these shows first.

"While we do not believe there is any legal issue with the episode as originally broadcast, we nonetheless have decided to edit the episode for future uses."

Emerson filed a federal lawsuit in St. Louis on Monday, seeking to block the NBC television network from rebroadcasting the pilot episode of the new show "Heroes," which depicts a woman damaging her hand in a garbage disposal made by the company.

The Ferguson-based maker of electric products says NBC Universal Television Studios did not have the right to use the company's In-Sink-Erator brand disposal in the show without permission.

The filing comes complete with color printouts that show a re-creation of a woman putting her hand in the disposal and pulling it out mangled and bloody. The suit says the scene suggests that the Emerson In-Sink-Erator "will cause debilitating and severe injuries, including the loss of fingers, in the event consumers were to accidentally insert their hand into one."