I'm sure that many of us could go round and round over the quality of the episodes in this latest chapter of Heroes. If you're following along with the weekly reviews, you've no doubt seen it play out in the comments. The thing that is a little harder to argue is the ratings. Over these last few months, the one time flagship NBC drama has seen its numbers drop to drastic levels. Put another way, if Heroes was a space ship, and dropping ratings signified an increase in speed, the show has gone plaid.
That's not to say that Heroes is the only returning show having troubles. Over at ABC, the performance of Pushing Daisies has been abysmal. Fox has had their own problems with the highly publicized Terminator:TSCC. That one has done so poorly that it's being sent to Friday to die. The network can claim they are building a new night of sci-fi all they want; I think they're cutting their losses.
The difference here though, is that Heroes was supposed to be the show on NBC. ABC has Grey's and the Housewives. CBS has their crime empire. FOX has Dr. House. And NBC has... The Office? And I don't mean to disparage The Office there. It is among the finest comedies on TV, and it holds its own every week in the toughest time slot on television, facing down Supernatural.. and, ya know, CSI and Grey's.
As good as it is though, it's never going to get those big time numbers that make it the flagship. That's a job that was given to Heroes, and it's one that the show has now completely failed at. Things have become so bad that the big winter break finale wasn't even close to the highest rated show on the network that week. That honor went to The Biggest Loser, and not by a small margin. Try nearly four million viewers and nine tenths of a point in the demo. It's not like this is Idol or Dancing With The Stars we're talking about. It's The Biggest Loser. The obvious question is, "what happened?" It's hard to say, exactly, but we can talk about a few of the theories:
DVR: This one was brought up again by none other than Tim Kring, in his infamous "saps and dipshits" comment. There is a kernel of truth to it, with the latest numbers I've seen showing Heroes as the number 6 most DVR'd show. There are a couple flies in that ointment, however. You have to look at the other shows on the list. Who is DVR'd even more than Heroes? Grey's Anatomy, House, The Office, CSI, and Desperate Housewives. And none of those shows has suffered nearly the same collapse. Even more damning, two spots below Heroes on the DVR'd list you will find NCIS. Not only has it not suffered a collapse, the numbers are as strong as they have ever been. To top it all off, even with the roughly 2.5 million additional viewers the DVR adds, the show is still struggling to nudge above 10 million viewers.
Timeslot: There is just too much to watch Monday at 9. Early in the season, I would have been more receptive to this argument. After all, it was a pretty packed time slot. Dancing With The Stars, Two and a Half Men/Worst Week, and Prison Break do make for less than ideal conditions. Unfortunately, there are problems with this one as well. To start, I would point you back to Thursday at 9. The Office has to find viewers in the midst of Grey's Anatomy and CSI duking it out for the #1 slot each week. And it still manages to easily outpace Heroes. The worst bit though, is what happened as this latest chapter wound down. If you were going to hang your hat on the time slot argument, it really all went to hell at the end. Dancing With The Stars finished up and ABC trotted out Samantha Who? and a line of Christmas cartoons, giving away between a half and two thirds of the Dancing audience. Add to that the fact that the FOX Monday has imploded and Prison Break is as weak as it has ever been, ratings wise. Why, then, has Heroes not rebounded? The numbers stayed down.
The Emperor Has No Clothes: To put it quite simply, Tim Kring has f'ed this thing up. In the beginning, I think he had a great idea for a television show, and I think he knew what it was he wanted to do. But I haven't believed that for a long time now. His admissions that the show has problems don't exactly instill confidence, and it would seem that more and more viewers are no longer giving him the benefit of the doubt when he says it will all get better. Given the nature of the show, Heroes needs someone with a steady hand and a clear vision running things. I don't think Kring is the best person for that job anymore. Much has been made of Bryan Fuller coming on as a consultant, and that could very well improve the show. But I can't help thinking that consultant is the wrong job title. Kring has had his chance, and should be replaced.
The good news is that Heroes isn't close to being canceled, so there is time to fix things and bring it back. The numbers are certainly down, but a 3.6 in the demo is still well above average. And given the state of the rest of the NBC lineup, it would be very hard to let it go. It leaves a door open. The decline of the ratings was a big story for 2008. Now we need to sit back and see what 2009 will bring.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-24-2008 @ 2:47PM
mosbutnotall said...
The problems with Heroes that became evident in season 2 would have been relatively simple to fix, they needed a reasonably clear view of what was going to happen, who was going to do what, and then to keep track of everything. In addition to keeping track of things that had already happened they had to stop the characters from being incredibly stupid. Sure there are other problems, but doing the things I mentioned would have given the show a fundamentally sound basis to work on, instead they just gave us a load of nonsense that was seemingly made up as they went along with no thought as to what had happened in previous episodes, or seemingly in the same episode.
It all started so well, they had interesting and appealing characters with the promise of a good payoff or at the very least a watchable ongoing story. Now I honestly couldn't care less if any of them live or die and have no faith that anything is going to happen of any interest. I have recorded episodes via sky+ and whizzed through them in blocks but if there has been anything else remotely worth doing Heroes is put to one side.
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12-24-2008 @ 3:54PM
Modwild said...
I think Heroes suffered from the same symptoms many super hero shows suffer...they want to have more and more heroes with cool powers rather than use the characters and the powers they do have to tell a story.
Short of a miracle, I'll never watch again. "The check is in the mail" only gets you so far, and it got me three episodes into season 3, although I have been faithfully reading and hoping that I would see a cause to return. I'm afraid reading up has had the opposite effect.
If only we had a true understanding of who watches what, when, and not the crappy Nielsen sampling, in which I have absolutely no faith.
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12-24-2008 @ 3:56PM
socrates said...
I have not been paying attention to what has been said about Heroes just as I have lost complete interest in the show that I once waited for each week. Let's see, add way too many story lines that don't intersect with too many characters that I don't get to know or care about. Oh, and my personal favorite kill off some of the best characters and bring them back as themselves or someone else or as tree. ITS a new world people no rules apply! Make it up as you go along Yea!
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12-24-2008 @ 6:02PM
mdaby3 said...
I have the last 8 episodes waiting for me on the DVR. I just don't find it interesting anymore--and I loved it when it premiered. They lost me along the way and now, I just don't care.
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12-24-2008 @ 7:03PM
Midnight13 said...
As a fan of sci-fi/fantasy I would hate for "Heroes" to end up ending its run shortly after the next season, which I see happening if its ratings don't improve. Sci-fi/fantasy on major networks have always had problems getting an audience, "Heroes" was supposed to be a return of sci-fi getting a big, mainstream audience again, and they squandered it with silly storylines and lackluster characters. Which sci-fi lovers know, without character and story or with nothing to say, your sci-fi is just flash and lights and litte more.
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12-24-2008 @ 8:39PM
Man said...
You do realize the ratings drop has nothing to do with writing, DVRs, or who's in charge.
The alleged fans are mostly young and have the attention span of a elderly goldfish. With 500 channels and the internet every show from now until the the merger of TV and computers will not be a ratings winner for it's second or third season.
Shrinking it to 8 episodes or making a 3 year show is what people can handle.
Read the comment "I don't find it interesting...They lost me.", this has less to do with writing and more about watcher.
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12-24-2008 @ 10:48PM
Tony said...
If that's the case, why isn't every show with a similar demographics dropping in the number of viewers like Heroes? Your explanation of shorter attention span killing TV is total BS.
12-25-2008 @ 1:09AM
Man said...
The two-hour premiere of Grey's Anatomy won the night with 18.3 million viewers but was down 18% from last year's premiere.
Ugly Betty had 9.8 million viewers - off 15% from last season's opener.
Survivor aired it's first HD episode and its first two-hour premiere - but it ranked as the lowest-rated premiere of the show with 13 million viewers, down 12%.
My Name Is Earl garnered just 6.4 million viewers, down 29% from last year. The Office was off 6% with 9.2 million viewers while the final season of ER opened with a new premiere low of 7.9 million viewers, down 20%.
Google is your friend please use it.
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12-25-2008 @ 1:21AM
eugene said...
ah yes... let's fall back on the good'ol "if you don't like it, it must be because there's something wrong with you"
And not the much more plausible, "We don't like it because it's crap."
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12-25-2008 @ 2:07AM
Michael Moncur said...
Here are the problems I see with Heroes in random order:
1. Some heroes are too powerful. (Peter, Hiro, and Mr. Petrelli). If you have a character that can travel through time and space, they can pretty much solve any problem at any time for any character. The writers realized that, I think, which is why Hiro keeps getting stuck in various situations (Ancient Japan, The Past, Africa...) to get him out of the way.
2. Too many weak characters, not enough strong ones. You could pick any two of the original characters - Hiro and Ando, Peter and Claire, Sylar and anyone - and make an interesting show by themselves. IF you knew what you were doing. Instead, we have an endless supply of new people, too many of whom are played by Ali Larter.
3. Bad writing. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad writing.
4. Mohinder.
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12-25-2008 @ 3:44AM
Sy said...
I lost interest at the beginning of season 2. The writing was on the wall. The show was going every which way while going nowhere at all. There were too many characters convoluted into too many story lines with too many pretentious poignant moments ...which in the end, makes them less poignant.
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12-25-2008 @ 4:20PM
Gordy said...
Prison Break won at 9PM in my house. I didn't even record Heroes when Samantha Who? came on...I'd just download a torrent.
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12-25-2008 @ 7:55PM
R.H. Golem said...
I bailed in Season One, when it seemed the show had nowhere to go after the "Save the Cheerleader" arc. Since then, I've heard nothing about how disappointing the show has been. I kind of hope NBC cancels it so I can stop reading about had bad it is.
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12-26-2008 @ 9:06AM
Karen said...
I wish we could tie the Heros writing staff to chairs and make them watch the entire run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer until little light bulbs finally go off over their heads. That's how you make good fantasy fiction - even the most minor characters had rock solid cores of personalities, abilities & quirks THAT NEVER EVER CHANGED. Even if the events of their lives radically altered their outlooks or motivations, who they were was always who they were when we met them, and their histories always dictated what happened next. Without that backbone of realistically drawn characters and iron-clad worldbuilding, you just don't have anything to hang all your sci-fi frills on.
I think Heros has already gone where the X-Files went in it's later seasons; a bunch of pretentious general murkiness masquerading as mystery.
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12-27-2008 @ 4:42AM
KenMo said...
I like a good metaphore as much as the next guy, but...
"if Heroes was a space ship, and dropping ratings signified an increase in speed, the show has gone plaid.
???
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12-28-2008 @ 12:26PM
Brett said...
Hey KenMo, the plaid is a Spaceballs reference. Have a look at the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk7VWcuVOf0
12-27-2008 @ 4:42AM
KenMo said...
Sorry
"Metaphor"
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12-27-2008 @ 7:38AM
STUDENT said...
What will 2009 bring for Heroes, Tim Kring and NBC?
If the American justice system is worth anything, then 2009 will bring a jail cell for Tim Kring, cancellation of a lame ass show called Heroes, Jeff Zucker viewed as The Bernard Madoff of all network tv and the original creators of the Heroes concept" The Twins" will go back to creating art that can see the future to save lives, as The Twins did with "The Atta Page "before MR. Atta destroyed the WTC on September 11,2001.
The Twins are the only artists worldwide that produced art that gave us the information that there are 9 letters in the word Manhattan and 11 letters in the name Mohamed Atta and that atta's name is in the word
manh-ATTA-n, before September 11,2001.
The Twins also taught at Hunter College in 2005, that when all of us look at the word Manhattan , we will always remember the name ATTA and what ATTA did to ManhATTAn and the WTC on September 11, 2001.
It's clear to me why Heroes FAILED, it's STOLEN intellectual property.
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12-27-2008 @ 11:50AM
Fan said...
I liked Heroes better when it was called THE 4400!
Oh sweet sweet 4400!!!
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12-29-2008 @ 10:18AM
Bukster said...
I believe there is a LOT of network meddling going on with this show. The show started as a drama with sci-fi/mystical/comic overtones. Now it has completely flipped. I liked it when it was character driven, "normal" people learning that they were different and how to deal with they they were discovering. Since the network is obviously betting the farm with this show I feel every exec at the network has put there 2 cents in on how to make this show a "powerhouse" and it has hurt it. I too switched to Prison Break and was DVR'ing Heroes on G4 later in the week. Now, I don't even do that. I'd rather watch a year-old repeat of The Office than a new episode of Heroes.
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