Only "Heroes" seemed to pull in similar audiences to its previous week on the network, picking up a 6.4 rating/9 share Monday, according to Fast National Ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That would be a slight uptick of a 0.1 rating based on estimated numbers from the previous week.

That forced "Heroes" to be well behind "Dancing With the Stars" and "The Bachelor" on ABC, which had a combined 10.9/16 for the 9 p.m. hour, while CBS earned an 8.1/12 and 6.8/10 respectively for its two comedies. "Heroes" did finish well ahead of possibly soon-to-be-canceled "K-Ville" as well as whatever The CW was airing.

It might be possible that NBC is not getting a good lead-in to "Heroes." "Chuck" drew only a 4.5/7, down about a half-rating point from last week's 5.1/8, according to Zap2it. While it was able to beat "Prison Break" on Fox in terms of households, the latter show had more viewers overall. Even then, "Chuck" still finished behind "Dancing" and a pair of comedies on CBS.

“Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.rdquo; With that immediately memorable mantra, Heroes became the top–rated new series of fall 2006. Featuring such archetypal characters as one with a split personality, one who can fly, one who can see the future, one who can time travel — and the evil villain out to steal all of the powers for himself — the show touches our inner comic book fan, even if we’ve never cracked open a comic book.
Saving the World: A Guide to Heroes will include essay analyses of the many reasons that keep Heroes’ audience tuning in each week. Authors Lynnette Porter, David Lavery, and Hillary Robson are experts in the field of television analysis, having penned books on Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Deadwood, Seinfeld, The Sopranos, and many others. In this book, they will explore the history of comic books making their way to the screen, and how this show has been affected by the decades of comic book superheroes that precede it; the series’ archetypal characters; the fandom surrounding the show; its link to other current series such as Lost; creator Tim Kring and how he is the driving force behind the show. The book will include brief episode guides of each installment of the series.

Saving the World will finally help the large audience of the show understand the mysteries of the series.

We all know how good shows tend to suck after that first really good season.

So, the verdict, you ask? Well, it was a solid opener which raised a few tantalizing new questions (like, who's killing those old-time heroes? Is Mr. Nakamura really dead?) while answering a few old ones. I'm talking about Peter's alive! And he has no memory! And he's in Ireland! And he's chained in a cargo bin!

I'm talking about Nathan's alive! And he's a drunk who looks lousy in an unkempt beard! Man, that scene with Nathan getting plastered in some seedy joint was straight-ripped from Superman III. But, whateva.

AS MATT INVESIGATES THE DEATH OF ONE HERO, ANOTHER IS ATTACKED BY THIS NEW SINISTER FORCE STALKING THOSE WITH ABILITIES — THE HAITIAN RETURNS — DIRECTED BY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ALLAN ARKUSH — With one person dead, Matt (Greg Grunberg) enlists some unlikely help as the attacks continue on people with abilities. Claire’s (Hayden Panettiere) efforts to hide her healing abilities at her new California high school are jeopardized by a fellow student with a secret of his own. As part of his new job, Dr. Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) must track down The Haitian (guest star Jimmy Jean-Louis). While crossing into Mexico, Maya (Dania Ramirez) and Alejandro’s (Shalim Ortiz) abilities prove to be a threat to those around them. Meanwhile, disappointed by his hero Kensei (David Anders), Hiro (Masi Oka) resolves to rectify any damage his presence in feudal Japan has done to history. And another lost Hero falls in with a gang of Irish gangsters with clues to his past. Jack Coleman, Dana Davis, James Kyson Lee, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Milo Ventimiglia also star. Nick D’Agosto, Katie Carr, Ashley Crow, Cristine Rose, Barry Shabaka Henley, Dominic Keating, Holt McCallany, Eriko Tamura, Adair Tishler and Stephen Tobolowsky guest star.

NBC is the first network to utilize a new system by Nielsen that will allow some of its programming to have both the original airdate and the encore aired later in the same week included in a single ratings report, rather than two separate reports. The first show to utilize this new system is "Heroes," which premiered Monday night and will have an encore run Saturday. Instead of two separate ratings, NBC has opted for one single one that will include viewers from both airings.

The ratings will not include duplicate viewing, and only add new viewers from the re-broadcast. But because of the system, final ratings for "Heroes" won't be available to advertisers, networks and the viewing public until Oct. 2 when Saturday numbers are typically released.

A year ago, a hospice nurse and an office worker both took leaps of faith -- one jumped off the top of a tall building, the other traveled through time and space from Tokyo to New York.

By May, the adventures of Peter Petrelli, Hiro Nakamura and every other character in NBC's "Heroes" were all some viewers could talk about.

"Heroes," which returns for its second-season premiere 9 p.m. Monday on KING/5, would go on to be nominated for an Emmy for outstanding drama, and Masi Oka, who plays Hiro, received a nod in the drama actor category.

They were long shots to win, but the nominations speak much more about the way the show connects to viewers than whether it deserves a statue.

Scan the headlines: Our faith in the nation's leadership is low. We're in the midst of an unpopular war, fretting over a sagging economy and a mortgage crisis. For many, the American Dream is as attainable as, well, flight or X-ray vision or super strength.

While we can't be blamed for giving into the malaise, a hard-wired trait of American culture is the perpetual belief in the possibility of rising, of achieving the extraordinary. "Heroes" plays into the undying hope that the individual can triumph over the impossible.

...

The arrows are flying. A dozen of them, launched from the bows of 17th-century samurai warriors assembled on a watercolor green field and about to rain down upon the head of one Hiro Nakamura. But they don't. Instead, the squall of pointy death screeches to a cartoonish halt, frozen in space by the time-traveling/time-stopping supernerd with a clench of his bespectacled eyes. It's a surreal image, though for now it exists only in the mind of Masi Oka, the Emmy-nominated star of NBC's Emmy-nominated sensation Heroes, who actually finds himself sneaker-deep in farm grass, trying to bring this comic-booky moment to life. In this scene from the show's second-season premiere (airing Sept. 24), Oka is supposed to execute his character's trademark reality-pausing maneuver — they call it ''the squishy-blinky'' around here — yet he is being thwarted by the most insidious of bad guys: a breeze. See, when time stands still, wind shouldn't be rippling through the grass. The solution is simple — throw down a bluescreen, manufacture some lawn with F/X — but it's slow in coming, as the on-set producers are currently sipping smoothies and joking with Oka's dialogue coach about turning U.S. states into Japanese-sounding words. ''Or-ee-GON!'' ''Wash-ing-TON!''

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The integration of automakers and TV networks is getting deeper and deeper. With the 30-second ad going the way of the dodo bird, we now get characters driving the latest and greatest car or SUV during the shows themselves. It seems NBC’s hit “Heroes” will debut Monday with an extra reason to tune in. Nissan will be giving away one of its Rogue compact SUVs after the show — if you answer a question about that night’s show correctly. Then, for the next four nights, Nissan will do it all over again for other new shows.

You’ll probably remember a few weeks ago when Apple and NBC had a big showdown, resulting in the pulling of NBC content from iTunes for the upcoming season. Today, NBC answered with their own download service.

The upside? It’s free. The downside? It’s severely crippled.

Starting in October, Heroes, The Office, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will all be available for download from ”NBC Direct”. From the time a program comes available, the viewer has one week to watch before the show disappears. In the coming months, NBC will add other features, such as the ability to use on portable devices, HD content, and “expanded platform functionality”…non-Windows computers, to be sure.

Source: tvjab

“With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment[…]Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience.”