broadcasters learned in the first half of the 2006-07 season that scheduling too many serialized dramas was a fool’s errand, then the season’s second half taught them that keeping viewers, even for successful serialized shows, isn’t easy, either. The networks hope to bolster ratings next season by airing an increasing number of those series continuously.

Earlier this month, ABC announced it would air Lost consecutively over 16 episodes next spring. CBS’ midseason drama Swingtown also will air nonstop, as will The CW’s One Tree Hill. Along with Fox’s 24 airing continuously, so will The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Canterbury’s Law. In addition to ordering 24 episodes of Heroes, NBC will produce six stand-alone episodes of the series entitled Heroes: Origins, each of which will introduce a new character for whom viewers will vote to keep on the show the following season.

In second place for the evening, NBC made a comeback with 4.1 rating/11 share thanks to the highly-anticipated season finale of Heroes. Heroes pulled a 6.3/15 for the 9 p.m. hour, blowing away all competition in the timeslot.

NEW YORK (AP) - The cheerleader, New York and the world are safe _ thanks to "Heroes." Every character still standing in NBC's "Heroes" universe played their role in stopping serial killer and superpower thief Sylar during the freshman series' gripping season ender.

Pint-sized human global positioning system Molly Walker (Adair Tishler) used her ability to track Sylar down. Mind reader Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) distracted him with a storm of bullets. Superpowered single mom Niki (Ali Larter) landed a crushing blow with a parking meter. And Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) slashed him with a sword (but not the same weapon he tracked down in previous episodes).

Of course, everyone should've been more worried about the superabsorbent Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), who was one flash away from turning into a mushroom cloud.

Leading up to the finale's big bang, which had been foreshadowed for months with psychic paintings and dream sequences, the biggest question became: Which man is going to explode and destroy most of New York? Evil foe Sylar or good guy Petrelli?

"Turns out you're the villain, Peter. I'm the hero," Sylar cooed before Peter started going nuclear. Uh oh.

Although Peter was willing to sacrifice himself, his brother flew in to help him out. Literally.

"You saved the cheerleader so we could save the world," flying congressman Nathan Petrelli told his blazing brother before sacrificing himself to hoist Peter up, up and away to safely explode somewhere among the stars.

Before the fireworks, Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), Peter and Nathan's witchy mother, was revealed to be working with the clandestine organization that's been very familiar with the "Heroes" all along and very interested in seeing Manhattan go kaboom. In one scene, she offered her indestructible granddaughter Claire "a place to belong and a family."

But, in one of her most fantastic feats, cheerleader Claire coolly whispered "I already have a family" before lunging out of her biological father's office window and faceplanting into the sidewalk stories below.

Of course, Claire being Claire, she nonchalantly stood up and strolled away to assist in the final fight.

Teases of what's to come were slipped in throughout the episode. Sylar's true fate was questioned with a trail of blood leading to a nearby manhole. Molly foreshadowed a boogeyman "a lot worse" than Sylar. And, at the end of the episode, Hiro found himself transported all the way back to feudal Japan, staring at a samurai warrior toting around the omnipresent "Heroes" double-helix-esque symbol underneath a shadowy eclipse.

Are these "Heroes" older than the moon?

Every new TV show wants to be The Show.

You know, the lucky series that elbows its way out of the crowded pack of wannabe hits and bona fide stinkers to become the must-see watercooler show everyone's buzzing about.

Once upon a time, that show was ER, a zippy medical drama that moved faster than a speeding ambulance. One year it was the gritty NYPD Blue, the envelope-shoving cop show that introduced the world to Dennis Franz's naked rear.

Years later, Lost, a trippy island drama, captured our imagination before it eventually started frustrating most of us. And those four suburb-dwelling gals on Desperate Housewives kept viewers riveted in the show's maverick first season.

This season, however, The Show has been Heroes, NBC's nifty superhero drama about a group of ordinary people who can suddenly do such way-cool things as fly, see the future, read minds and teleport across the globe.

Full Story:
"Heroes: Season 1" reveals some of the show's hidden secrets with interviews, mini documentaries and extensive profiles, including:

* Unaired Pilot: The Tim Kring Cut with Audio Commentary -- A full 73 uninterrupted minutes of the original, unaired, extended pilot episode, as Heroes' creator Tim Kring first envisioned it, with a character never seen.

* The Making of "Heroes" -- From concept to pop culture phenomenon, a behind-the-scenes look at the hottest new series on television

* Special Effects -- The secrets behind the eye-popping visuals that give the Heroes their amazing powers.

* The Stunts -- A back stage look at the show's hair-raising stunts.

* Mind Reader -- Matt Parkman's mind reading abilities reveal your inner Hero with a series of simple tests.

* Profile of Artist Tim Sale -- A look at the Eisner Award-winning comic book artist (Spiderman, Batman, Daredevil) behind much of the Manga-influenced artwork used in the show.

* The Score -- Go behind the scenes with Wendy Melvin and Lisa Coleman (of Prince's The Revolution) as they create their ASCAP Award-winning musical score.

* 50 Deleted and Extended Scenes

10. One of us gets whacked by Tony Soprano
9. Show’s slogan changed to, “Save the cheerleader, save the world, save 15 percent on your car insurance by switching to Geico”
8. Judges go nuts after the pulse-pounding rumba I do with Billy Ray Cyrus
7. We use our powers to lower gas prices, am I right, people?
6. Devote entire show to figuring out what the hell is happening on Lost
5. The telepathic cop wins a new car after reading Pat Sajak’s mind on “Wheels of Fortune”
4. New hero has the ability to reduce acid reflux
3. I beat the crap out of Spider-Man
2. The invisible man gets caught sneaking into dressing rooms at J.C. Penny
1. I use my teleporting powers to bust Paris Hilton out of the slammer

With its future already certain following NBC's upfront media presentation Monday, "Heroes" got even better news when overnight ratings ticked back in the upward direction, erasing a decline from the previous week.
"Heroes" earned a 6.9 rating/10 share Monday night, topping the 6.6/10 it earned last week and staying ahead of "24," which had a 6.3/9 for Fox, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

Both shows finished far behind reality television and a comedy series finale, however. "Dancing with the Stars" earned a 14.0/21 for ABC, while "The Bachelor" followed with an 8.1/12.

The very last episode of "The King of Queens" also had a strong night, picking up an 8.8/13 for CBS, Zap2it reported.

For the night, "Heroes"-led NBC finished third with a 5.8/9 behind ABC's 10.2/16 and CBS' 8.4/14. It finished just ahead of Fox, which ad a 5.4/9.

From tvshowsondvd.com:
Both releases will be a 7-disc set with 1.78:1 widescreen video, and English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio ("Dolby Digital Plus" on the hi-def release). Each one also offers an English and French subtitle track, but the DVD version's details additionally mention a Spanish subtitle track, while the HD-DVD's details leave that out. Cost for the standard DVD will be $59.98 SRP, while the HD-DVD set will go for $99.98 SRP.

Universal hasn't provided box art or extras just yet, but stay tuned for that (Update: Artwork has been added below). After last night's episode, building up to what looks to be an exciting season-ender, plus yesterday's announcement at the up-fronts that NBC will launch a short spin-off series next season (Heroes: Origins) to accompany the second season of the show, means that today's the perfect day to build excitement for a day-and-date release of both the DVD and HD-DVD of the first season. So we might even get at least the artwork later today! We'll see. In the meantime, here's the episode list, including next week's season finale:

1. Genesis (a.k.a. In His Own Image)
2. Don't Look Back
3. One Giant Leap
4. Collision
5. Hiros
6. Better Halves
7. Nothing to Hide
8. Seven Minutes to Midnight
9. Homecoming
10. Six Months Ago
11. Fallout
12. Godsend
13. The Fix
14. Distractions
15. Run!
16. Unexpected
17. Company Man
18. Parasite
19. .07%
20. String Theory
21. The Hard Part
22. Landslide
23. How to Stop an Exploding Man

Every fan of the series has been waiting for signs of when the first season will be released on DVD (and HD DVD), so this news will make a few million people smile...

August 28

That's right, Universal has pegged the release for the last Tuesday of August, so other studios should slowly back away from that date, 'cause we all know you can't take on a bunch of people with super-powers. Of course that date isn't official, and may change, but it's lookin' like there's a .07% chance of that happening.

And for those of you going to Comic Con in July, we've heard there will be some great Heroes things going on.