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    NBC

    Heroes Fumbles Third Season Opener

    Stephen SchleicherBy Stephen SchleicherSeptember 24, 200814 Comments1 Min Read

    heroes_promo.jpg

    There were a lot of complaints about the second season of NBC’s Heroes – from the lackluster storyline to the writer’s strike causing the season to end abruptly, fans were less than amused with the sophomore trials of the series.  Unfortunately, those feelings are still reverberating into the third season.

    The Hollywood Reporter has viewership for the season three two-hour premiere down 25% from last year.

    The “Heroes” debut (9.9 million viewers, 4.9 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and a 12 share and matched its lowest original episode rating ever. (“Heroes” was actually down even more, 33%, if you include NBC’s heavily protested move last fall to roll its Saturday encore rating into its premiere). Clip show lead-in “Heroes: Countdown to the Premiere” (6 million, 2.6/7)  placed third in the hour.

    If the ratings don’t pick up, you can expect some heavy changes and shuffling to occur as the network scrambles to save the show.  I did get a chance to watch the premiere, and while good, it felt a lot like season one mixed with the remake of the Fly movie.

    via Hollywood Reporter

    6 Million Adults clip show Countdown debut feelings Fly heavy changes Heroes hollywood hollywood reporter million viewers NBC premiere 6 season opener second season sophomore Third Season viewership
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    Stephen Schleicher
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    Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...

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    14 Comments

    1. Schaferlord on September 24, 2008 9:31 am

      I think they over compensated for the complaints leveled at last season. They packed too much in and some really cool and interesting things seemed rushed and glossed over to make room for the next thing to happen.

      Also full of moments that didn’t quite scan, notably HRG looking at papers rather than seeing to Claire despite knowing she’d been attacked and the “lets show Peter at the Garage rather than the person he’s inside” thing which showed that they refused to credit the audience with any inteligence at all.

      Season 2 might not have gone anywhere and been too slow but at least it was intriguing at the moment there is only the Parkman storyline and the Nathan/Linderman thing that holds any interest for me.

      Reply
    2. Josh P. on September 24, 2008 9:47 am

      yeah, i’m one of the lapsed fans. but it has less to do with last season (which i enjoyed) and more to do with not really caring enough to watch any tv. i might catch up online, or just wait til the dvd next fall.

      seriously, the writer’s strike really killed tv for me (not the writers’ fault, as they deserve everything they fought for)

      Reply
    3. steviecool on September 24, 2008 9:56 am

      I liked it, as long as you don’t count “The Fly” ripoff. Much better than an entire episode devoted to just one character – which is great for an “origins” story, but after ten origins, team them up already.

      The writers strike killed a lot of TV for me as well.
      But it wasn’t all on them.
      The “we’ll release it when we’re ready” schedule hurt TV, a lot before that. (Lost, Shield, Sopranos)

      Just like comics, I wait for the collected edition of new shows, also without ads.
      If it never comes out, oh well, I have other options of “Tier 2” shows to choose from.
      Because if I really wanted to see it, I would have seen it when it came out.

      Reply
    4. Brother129 on September 24, 2008 10:02 am

      I for one am sick of the time travel stuff. Plus, I think there are too many character to focus on at different points.

      Reply
    5. Schaferlord on September 24, 2008 10:20 am

      I like the twist of them making the future worse this time (only Hiro should mess with time he does it better) and having an angsty damaged by the future more powerful Peter could be interesting, it should’ve been interesting already but we haven’t really got to know him. The number of characters is only harmful if you insist on covering them all constantly (especially with the new urgency to get the plotlines moving forward apace which renders the show detrimental to itself)

      Reply
    6. Bryan on September 24, 2008 10:32 am

      OK everybody, let’s see how many different ways we can write the same premise… “Something terrible is going to happen in the future, and we must do things to stop it.”

      Reply
    7. Maximus Rift on September 24, 2008 11:02 am

      Truth is that if a friend didn’t tell me I wouldn’t have remembered to watch. Still, I did enjoy the full 2 hours of the show. The only thing that annoyed me was 1) the repeating theme of time travel and 2) the whole “evil wins” vibe of the current season. Now, 2 is more of a spill-over of comics which I feel have done this to death. 1, however, really needs to be reigned in. You can only do the “future is dark” storyline so many times before it becomes tired.

      Reply
    8. Lifeisaglitch on September 24, 2008 11:11 am

      @Brother129 To be completely fair it might be that the 1st two episodes seemed packed because they are packing in all of the forehadowing and build up…besides it was a double dose.

      This season seems more reasonable nd it even looks like they will explain some lingering questions that might seem small but annoy us geeks..think lost. So instead of just starting from scratch we are getting something for watching earlier seasons.

      @Bryan when should it happen then if not the future ;) Come on its the delivery of the conflict and not the conflict thats unoriginale…then again it looks like this is leading up to a very un-originale 4th season involving Sentinels…

      But i like having a bunch of supervillains without causes but rather motives, also these dudes albeit asshole psychos seem interesting in a WW2 ragtag team movie kinda way.

      BUT! Like always with Heroes it seems like some semi-talented peopel fell over a great premise which unfortuntely much more talented people cannot work with because..it would be a rip-off.

      I will let them build up the season for me but the sec quality goes away im out of there no matter what amount of cliffhangers, just like i did with Lost.

      Also do you think Mom Petrelli was bulshititng Sylar at the end of ep2 or is this season gonna be crazeee?

      Reply
    9. Lifeisaglitch on September 24, 2008 11:17 am

      Sorry about the typos im in a hurry. By the way how awesome was this:

      Clair: Are you going to eat my brain?
      Sylar: No Clair, that’s disgusting.

      Reply
    10. Usagizero on September 24, 2008 1:11 pm

      I personally enjoyed it, not sure why people are complaining so much about a season opener. I think of it less as “the fly” and more of how the Beast in early X-Men got blue and more “beasty”, but in reverse. Also, remember that future that hinted at a sentinel type future now won’t happen, it’s on to the new worse looking one.

      Reply
    11. MarkCalifornia on September 24, 2008 2:41 pm

      I’d also lay some of the shortfall in viewership to the fact that it’s the third season. They need something really different going on and the 2hr premier I rank as better than season 2, just had too many reminders of things past. I’ll hang around to see if they have any twists coming that will hopefully change this.

      Reply
    12. Cory on September 24, 2008 4:10 pm

      The Outrageous thing is that it still did better than the creatively superior “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”.

      Heroes lost me at the Finale of Season 1. All that build up for virtually NO PAYOFF.

      Reply
    13. jim on September 24, 2008 8:08 pm

      I didn’t really like the premier either. The 1 hour “buildup” was aweful, i want to watch the TV show, not watch the emmies. All the “red carpet” thing, the interviews, the bla bla bla. Cute girls in hot outfits wasn’t bad though.

      As for the 2 hour premier. Bland! Lackluster. Confusing. Suddenly we have a entire set of hero “villains” who were held up in a secret area, oops they are out! got to fight the evil villians! ick. And the Fly… i just sat slackjawed at that entire rippoff scene. What happened to imagination, obviously the Hero’s writing crew lost it and are now ripping off old sci fi films.

      No character build up. New people with powers.. zilch buidup.. oh look someone has such and such power.. ok move onto the next .. And our favorite doublemint twin.. now freezing people? What the hell.. the sexy outfit shot was worth it though. And when ever you have a cool peoplewithsupernatural power show throwing in religious god talk, that makes me turn the TV off. If i wanted God talk i’d go to church. I want even super villians taking over the world.

      Reply
    14. Kurt Fenreer on September 24, 2008 10:30 pm

      My wife enjoyed the show, but I didn’t. I’m sensing that this isn’t a coincidence.

      Reply

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