NBC's Heroes Reborn

[Mr Mole]

No, no, no no... I'm not going to invoke Firefly and rant about the unfairness of it all... How Heroes got hyped and was given repeated chances while hardly anyone had even heard of Firefly until after it got the axe... I'm not gonna... Gonna just keep it to myself...

[Jason Langlois]

I think the problem with HEROES is that it started out being an interesting story, got moderately popular, and had to shift gears into being a Network Television Show. Which meant Sylar, because he was popular, had his story arc changed so he could come back for a second season. New characters had to be introduced to allow for the potential to remove characters who's actors may have demanded more money. Plots had to become more important than character or story progression, because character development might lead to the show ending too soon.

The same thing happened to LOST, but there, once the ratings went into free fall at the start of second season, they did a major course correction and tried to right the ship. HEROES, not so much.

[DSumner]

I think the problem with HEROES is that it started out being an interesting story, got moderately popular, and had to shift gears into being a Network Television Show. Which meant Sylar, because he was popular, had his story arc changed so he could come back for a second season. New characters had to be introduced to allow for the potential to remove characters who's actors may have demanded more money. Plots had to become more important than character or story progression, because character development might lead to the show ending too soon.

The same thing happened to LOST, but there, once the ratings went into free fall at the start of second season, they did a major course correction and tried to right the ship. HEROES, not so much.

Ding, ding, ding. We have winner.

[roguescribner]

The ratings for Lost didn't dip until after season 3 and the 2007 writer's strike.

[saint_matthew]

I think the problem with HEROES is that it started out being an interesting story, got moderately popular, and had to shift gears into being a Network Television Show.

Close, but I think it goes deeper than that: Its not that it became popular, so much as it was "popular" before the first episode even had its pilot airing.

No idea how they achieved that result, but if you remember every person in Hollywood was talking about how good it was before it even aired.

[Jason Langlois]

The ratings for Lost didn't dip until after season 3 and the 2007 writer's strike.

As you can see from this chart of LOST ratings (http://forum.lostpedia.com/showthread.p ... ar-to-year), after opening with a higher than the previous season, Season 2 ratings went into a dive, until the course correction and announcement that the show would only run 6 seasons. While it never regained the lost viewers, it was respectable until the momentum died at the start of Season 5.

HEROES had a similar plunge and minor recovery in Season 2 (see http://danowen.blogspot.ca/2009/06/hero ... n-1-3.html), but by 3rd season it was pretty much on fumes.

[King Snarf]

I think the problem with HEROES is that it started out being an interesting story, got moderately popular, and had to shift gears into being a Network Television Show.

Close, but I think it goes deeper than that: Its not that it became popular, so much as it was "popular" before the first episode even had its pilot airing.

No idea how they achieved that result, but if you remember every person in Hollywood was talking about how good it was before it even aired.

They had a great ad campaign. Superhero stuff was just starting to take off again in mainstream media after failures like Batman & Robin, Elektra, and Catwoman. Heroes had tapped into a desire and the marketing cleverly played both sides. "You like superheroes? We got ya. Don't like superheroes? These are real people with superpowers, not goons in spandex."

[saint_matthew]

"You like superheroes? We got ya. Don't like superheroes? These are real people with superpowers, not goons in spandex."

An to think that they lied to both sets of people... We got neither real people or superheroes.

[roguescribner]

The ratings for Lost didn't dip until after season 3 and the 2007 writer's strike.

As you can see from this chart of LOST ratings (http://forum.lostpedia.com/showthread.p ... ar-to-year), after opening with a higher than the previous season, Season 2 ratings went into a dive, until the course correction and announcement that the show would only run 6 seasons. While it never regained the lost viewers, it was respectable until the momentum died at the start of Season 5.

HEROES had a similar plunge and minor recovery in Season 2 (see http://danowen.blogspot.ca/2009/06/hero ... n-1-3.html), but by 3rd season it was pretty much on fumes.

That chart proves my point: S2 ratings on average were on par with S1 and the beginning of S3. The real dip didn't occur until the second half of S3. But I'm not here to hijack this thread, so moving on...

[Cinder]

I think the problem with HEROES is that it started out being an interesting story, got moderately popular, and had to shift gears into being a Network Television Show.

Close, but I think it goes deeper than that: Its not that it became popular, so much as it was "popular" before the first episode even had its pilot airing.

No idea how they achieved that result, but if you remember every person in Hollywood was talking about how good it was before it even aired.

They had a great ad campaign. Superhero stuff was just starting to take off again in mainstream media after failures like Batman & Robin, Elektra, and Catwoman. Heroes had tapped into a desire and the marketing cleverly played both sides. "You like superheroes? We got ya. Don't like superheroes? These are real people with superpowers, not goons in spandex."

This is how I remember it too. Those teaser eclipses were intriguing and the buzz was great for it.

As for the show, it was cool on and off for the first season (more off IIRC). Then it felt like I was watching it because it was one of the shows that I watched. I do this with shows sometimes, stay on out of some strange duty as opposed to enjoyment. I had to cut the cord with Marvel AoS, as the same thing was happening.

A new show could be better, but I am not optimistic.

[Mr Mole]

Close, but I think it goes deeper than that: Its not that it became popular, so much as it was "popular" before the first episode even had its pilot airing.

Yes, this.