Tue 22 Sep 2009
HEROES Debuts To Series Lows, NBC Sharpens Axe (Or How Much Longer Will HEROES Last?)
Posted by Nick C under HEROES, NBC
[15] Comments
HEROES Season 4 debuted last night to dismal ratings.
6.27M people tuned in and 500k immediately tuned out before the 2nd hour started. Which basically means that nearly 10% of American viewers did what I wanted to do last night: tune out. The premiere was more of the same awful crap we’ve had to live through since Season 1 ended: bad writing, characters acting out of character, and Sylar now being weirder (and more stupid) than ever.
NBC wasn’t happy with the numbers and they’re already looking for ways to rid themselves of the black eye that HEROES has become. The problem is that for Universal the show is still profitable. As long as it can sell 500k DVDs in the states and continue to sell well overseas to other markets the show is worth producing. For NBC it’s not worth airing. The 2.7 in the demo is all that is saving the show.
Still it did better than CASTLE right? Not exactly. CASTLE was viewed by nearly 10M people and it scores extremely high with the over $100K per household crowd. That is one list you want to routinely make if you’re on a bubble. HEROES does well in the 18-34 and 18-49 categories. The 2.7 is strong for NBC (shame on you BS where ever you are) and thus the show isn’t necessarily done for. However for its cost and if it was on any other network… it would likely be canceled already.
What should Universal do? The show costs way too much money for syndication or USA. It would take huge budget cuts to make the show profitable for NBC. So what’s a company to do? My guess is fire the expensive “talent,” and lower the budget to manageable levels for USA or even syndication. If the show can continue to sell DVDs it can stick around, but it’s sad when the Network airing it is losing money on it, but the production company makes money and good money (and the parent company for both is the same).
A quick check shows that those were two of the three lowest rated episodes for the show. But realistically what can NBC do in the short term, it is a bit of a suicide slot and for anything to have a chance would require a strong promotion campaign. The next reset for viewers is after christmas, then NBC could use promotion on Sunday night football, but I think that the network are stuck with the schedule until then.
Ken, the 2nd hour was the worst hour of HEROES ever in terms of ratings. The first hour was 2nd worst for demo, 3rd worst in total viewers.
That was the premiere which is usually a strong note for returning series. If it goes down next week, they aren’t going to be happy.
The only things that I watched last night were Heroes & Castle and here we have a post dedicated exclusively to those two shows! THAT is service!
I watched Heroes last night as there was absolutely nothing else between 8-10 that interested me and I wanted to see exactly what it had become in S4. I don’t think that those 2 hours were the worst that the show has ever been, but don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to argue that they were by any means great either.
The two biggest weaknesses for me are intertwined and those are 1) That very little of what we saw last night doesn’t seem a rehash of something that the show has already done before. 2) Some (maybe many) of these characters just don’t seem interesting any more and it feels very forced to continue to bring them together.
Fixing those problems could be greatly aided by your suggestion of “fir[ing] the expensive ‘talent,’ “.
Currently they have:
- Claire going to college
- Parkman acting very unlikable and starting to lose his mind
- Sylar taunting Parkman
- Nathan acting crazy (because he’s really Sylar)
- Angela worrying over Nathan
- Peter not caring about anything other than an obsessive mission
- Hiro in trouble again as now it looks like he’s dying
- Ando not doing much of anything important
- Tracy killing some people on a deranged and obsessive mission until she suddenly is convinced to knock it off.
- Noah. A lot of angst there, but at least he actually did something.
- Some interesting new characters like Samuel Sullivan.
At least they eliminated a few characters from Seasons past, such as Suresh, but I’d argue that they need to go much much further. Just on paper, how many of those plotlines sound legitimately interesting?
I’d recommend taking the new characters, a SMALL group of the existing ones, Noah and 1-3 of the 9 others and fire the rest. I’m sure that that would save some money, but more importantly, it would tighten the focus of the show up by a heck of a lot and force the writers to try to think up some new stories instead of continually recycling the same crap. At this point, I don’t know if many (or any) would be willing to give it another chance, but at least that way they could try to stop the losses amongst the remaining viewers.
I doubt that it will happen and must confess that in the back of my mind wonder if this might not be what replaces Southland on Fridays at 9:00 (I don’t see Southland doing well, even on a Friday).
Meanwhile, it’s nice to hear at least some good news regarding Castle. This is the 4th of Nathan Fillion’s shows that I have watched and while I enjoy it the least, it’s amiable enough and I am really rooting for him to see some success, even if it’s modest.
All that HEROES needs for production to continue is 500k dvd sales? Really? It already has nearly 400k. Surely 500k wouldn’t bring back close the $ that NBC spent on the show last season?
500k sales in US, plus dvd sales overseas, plus sales to foreign TV networks. That’s far from insubstantial. HEROES is probably a money spinner if viewed from Universal’s perspective.
Hudson, NBC isn’t Universal. For it to be profitable for NBC they need a miracle and for the show to pop back up over 4.0 in the demo. Universal can have it profitable for them however.
The problem is this is NBC we’re talking about and not The CW. The CW can argue all they want about shows being profitable for their studios but not for them and it making up for it. No one expects The CW to have a hit.
Nick C. Help me out here. I don’t watch HEROES anymore (not after last season) so I don’t really care about the fate of the show. However….. If it’s NBC that’s airing the show, doesn’t it’s survival depend on whether or not it’s making $$ for NBC?? Does NBC CARE if Universal is making $$ off of it it NBC isn’t?? I would think that for NBC all that would count is THEIR wallet, not Universals. Help me out here – or am I missing something obvious. Thanks! (Like the new site, too).
I say give it a 13 episode 5th year just so we can get our 5 years gone fight with Super Powered Hiro, Peter and Sylar and end it on a semi high note.
In My opinion, NBC is going downhill anyway. If you think about it, their ratings for EVERY show is dismal compared to other networks. Heroes is actually the top scripted show for them on their network. Mercy is getting horrible reviews and I highly doubt that will last and Trauma may flop because it comes on after Heroes. Also, NBC is STUPID for airing it on Mondays against House and Dancing With the Stars which are rating Powerhouses. The Biggest Loser is maybe getting 8-10 Million and their “Comedy” night isn’t successful much at all except for The Office which is doing decently. So overall, NBC is screwed either way.
This does appear to set the bar of success pretty modest for Chuck.
“6.27M people tuned in and 500k immediately tuned out before the 2nd hour started. Which basically means that nearly 10% of America [...]
The 2009-2010 HH estimate is almost 115 million. How do you obtain “10% of America”?
Rick,
I think it largely comes down to the sometimes competing interests of the various divisions of a big corporation like NBC Universal.
Universal Media Studios make the show, and another NBCUni company, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, distribute the DVDs. For them it’s a win.
NBC (the network) are lumbered with the production costs, and having to actually air it. I presume they don’t see the revenue from DVD sales. I think it’s fairly clear that if HEROES was being made by Warner Bros it would have been cancelled by now.
Maybe Universal should bring in Stan Lee to help write the show. There are already stealing his ideas. They might as well have him to consult.
First off Syler should be dead, so should Nathan having him play body double is dumb. the Parkman character is a decent one but is giving too little screen time, and horrible story lines. The Hiro character should be acting like his future self from the first season and not like a kid still. Peter’s now limited powers make less sense but his role should be broadened. The Clair character makes little sense as of now, the cheerleader has been saved, move on story wise. Ando now has powers, why? Killing his character could have made Hiro a more heroic character.
Lastly the group shouldn’t be so scattered, I’m not saying they should be like the Xmen but having all these story lines that all slowly blend into one is really annoying and people are loosing interest. people want explosions, cool fights, and maybe romantic interests, and that’s it, and this show fails to bring that.
Finally airing a 2 hour Heroes vs 2 hour House and the CBS comedy line up was a poor idea. If it aired a week early maybe it could have gotten better numbers.
Boris, 10% of the American viewers who were watching the show, and I said nearly.
Rick Holy, NeilG already answered your inquiry.
Some Guy Named John, HEROES is a zombie because they allowed hacks to write the show and argued with people who understand the art of telling a story.
Nick C is right, King has no clue what made the show a hit in season one. And he’s made sure to get rid of those who could repair it.
Now the show is staggering around like a drunk goose on a tricycle.
It could be fixed, but is unlikely to be. Pity, it was good for a brief moment.