Thu 29 Oct 2009
NBC to HEROES – Start planning that Finale
Posted by Brad L under Brad L., HEROES, NBC
[16] Comments
Over at Airlock Alpha, an interesting story has gone up about how NBC is telling HEROES Producers to start planning a Series Finale…
And its probably about time. The show has once again come to a grinding halt with stories going no where, plot lines left dangling, characters disappearing for several episodes and Sylar trying to figure out if he is good or evil. Sigh.
Since NBC already ordered a shortened 19 episode Season, perhaps they will give Producers the final 3 to let them wrap up everything? Looks like Gaspin is serious about trying to fix the Network. (And ordering 6 more episodes of CHUCK is a good sign he is serious about keeping the show).
Sylar is the only reason I watch the show anymore. At least he actually does something entertaining, unlike Claire and whoever Ali Larter is playing this season.
Spock/Syler should have died in season one. New enemies should have popped up in the latter seasons. The show is going no where creatively.
I think this is false. The HEROES cast confirmed that they have heard nothing of this and if it is true, NBC should have told them earlier due to the fact that Episode 16 out of 17 was just written and a conclusion (for the series as a whole) was probably not in mind.
Edward Herman when he was with the Gilmore Girls found out his show was canceled through his video rental guy. The CW didn’t even bother to tell him the show had been canceled.
Why would the cast admit the show is going to wind down so soon?
Could this be the first shot in a renegotiation of licence fees. A Heroes getting demos of 2.5 may be of no interest to NBC at $3 million per episode (a complete guess on my part) but it may be of some interest at $1.5 million. Or is NBC simply not interested at any price.
Ken, Heroes budget for Season 4 is roughly about 1.5mil per episode.
Brad, why would they not? They haven’t really never been good at keeping secrets.
Airlock Alpha has news??
Where is Nick C when you need him.
Not surprising at all considering the ratings.
That said, I personally think the actual season is mostly good for the moment, Claire’s storyline being the only I don’t find entertaining, at all, in contrast to, well all the others. Of course, Heroes is so easy to bash… So I guess I can expect to be called stupid for liking it.
Until NBC can show me something with better ratings I don’t think they are going to cancel Heroes. All their other shows are doing just as bad.
I suspect that there is some truth to these rumours.
Looking at the numbers and the general fan and industry feelings toward Heroes right now I find it relatively easy to believe that Kring and co. have been told to write a series finale this year other a season finale. It simply makes sense although it should be added that, that doesn’t mean that it will actually be a series finale.
From all the numbers and projections I’ve seen Heroes is still a profitable vehicle for Universal and I think the big question at the end of the year will be (as it was last year) are the profits big enough to write off the loses NBC is making with the show?
Personally I think this absolutely should be the series finale for the show as it is. I’ve said this before but I think if Universal is serious about keeping Heroes on the books they need to make dramatic changes both on screen and behind the scenes. They need a new creative team that Tim Kring has absolutely no involvement with and they need a brand new cast. Oddly enough I think it might be time to resurrect the Heroes: Origins mini-series they were throwing about at the end of season one. That was going to be a series of stand alone specials written and directed by people outside the Heroes team with all new characters and no involvement from Kring and co. and from where I’m sitting that seems like the best way to see if Heroes is still a viable property. Do people still like the concept but hate the writing?
It also gives you time to dramatically retool the show for another season with a new cast and creative team for 2011-2012.
And Chris whilst Heroes may be on of NBC’s stronger performers it’ll be losing them a hell of a lot more money than Trauma, Mercy etc. are.
I just don’t think NBC has enough good shows to cancel Heroes. I could see them giving it a final 13 episode season next yr. That would actually be the best thing for the show.
They don’t need strong shows on the schedule now to decide to wrap Heroes this year.
Gaspin should be looking at developing a whole new slate of shows for next year and getting rid of as many of the current shows as he reasonably can. For both financial and creative reasons Heroes should be on the top of his list of shows to ditch, its a huge loss leader for NBC and there simply isn’t the creative juice in the show to keep it rolling another year.
As things stand I don’t think anything outside Biggest Loser, The Office and 30 Rock is a safe bet for next season on NBC everything else is very much up in the air. However like I said before the big question about Heroes will be whether its still profitable for Universal and how big those profits are. If they’re still projecting to make money on Heroes then I don’t think NBCU will be quite ready to give up on the show just yet, which will then come down to whether Gaspin has enough power/spine to fight his bosses on its fate.
Its also worth noting that with Abrams new spy show and the folks at NBC high on Chuck, Gaspin already has his potential Monday night line-up for 2010-2011 pencilled in. That would leave Biggest Loser on Tuesday and the comedies on Thursday with Wednseday (SVU and another drama?) and Friday to work on.
Assuming Leno stays at 10PM next year NBC really isn’t in that big a need for new shows. If Parenthood hits (and that’s a big if) they have a Wednseday block of Parenthood and SVU pencilled in for next year as well, which would just leave Friday to fill, unless they axe SVU.
every girl on Gilmore Girls is pretty. i kind of admire them and have a great crush.—
the cast of Gilmore Girls are very pretty, i wish i could marry one of them.`,`