Heroes: Origins cancelled for now/Tim Kring optimistic about upcoming episodes.

[The Clown Prince]

Not all is well it seems for Heroes lately. It's been dropping in the ratings literally every week with the exception of a slight jump in episode 4 over episode 3. This past Monday's "The Line" episode was the lowest rated episode of the season yet....

Episode 2.1- 8.1 (14.12 million)
Episode 2.2- 7.0 (11.94 million)
Episode 2.3- 6.4 (10.75 million)
Episode 2.4- 6.8 (11.26 million)
Epiosde 2.5- 6.3 (10.70 million)
Episode 2.6- 6.1 (10.45 million)

With the ratings woes going on, and the possible WGA strike starting possibly today, now comes word that NBC has pulled the plug on Heroes: Origins at least for now. From Comingsoon.net and Variety....

Variety reports that NBC is putting the kibosh on "Heroes: Origins" -- and the possibility of a strike contributed to the decision.

The network has indefinitely shelved production on the planned six-episode spin-off of its Monday hit. The series -- which had attracted heavy hitters such as Eli Roth, Kevin Smith and Michael Dougherty (Superman Returns) -- was set to premiere later this season while "Heroes" was on hiatus.

Now NBC has decided to not move forward with the production, at least for now.

The trade says that NBC Universal entertainment co-chairs Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff didn't want to move forward with the project given the financial uncertainties of a possible WGA work stoppage.

Insiders cautioned that "Heroes: Origins" isn't completely dead and could very well be revived at a later date, perhaps as soon as next season.

Meanwhile TV.com has posted this article about Tim Kring talking to the Los Angeles Times....

Tim Kring not bugged about criticisms of hit NBC show, says episodes 7 to 11 are "best episodes we've ever done."

Heroes has been on the tips of television-viewers' tongues a lot this year, but not for the same reason as last season. The superhero show was a breakout hit last year, but this season it has been the target of critics who cite disjointed storylines, too many characters, and a lack of direction for disappointing fans. Viewers have also tuned out; last week's episode rang in the worst numbers in the key 18-49 demographic ever for the series, according to Nielsen Media Research.

But there's one man who isn't fazed and thinks fans shouldn't be worried either: series creator Tim Kring.

Speaking with The Los Angeles Times, Kring dismissed the numbers much like many other television executives have: DVRs, online episodes, the Internet. What's more, ratings drops are taking their toll on almost all shows, not just Heroes.

As for the rest of the criticism, Kring is promising that it will all make sense. "It will all be paid off by episode 11," Kring said. "From seven to 11 are the best episodes we've ever done." The Heroes crew has always said that this current season would be split up into "volumes," with the current one, titled "Generations," concluding midseason.

"One of the things that we found is that, by the end of the (first) year, we were dragging a tremendous amount of story behind us that had to be paid off in that final episode," Kring said during a conference call, according to Salt Lake City's Deseret News, "which made for an episode that the (audience) expectations are so high that it's hard to meet everybody's expectation."

But that didn't stop the writers from adding several new characters in the offseason, and the result is too much story to pack into one hour of television per week to satisfy everyone.

"Part of what happens on any show is that you enter a relationship with your viewers where you teach them how to watch your show and they teach you what they seem to be responding to," Kring said, reports the Deseret News.

"And we, I think, are in this process right now of teaching the audience how to get used to the idea that not everybody is going to be in every single episode."

Some think that Heroes is just undergoing a sophomore slump. However, Kring may be thinking that viewers are looking at season two a bit too harshly by elevating season one unrealistically. "People tend to look at last season and see things in it that were not in it. We haven't deviated that much [from last season's formula]."

The Clown Prince

[Peter Paltridge]

Tim Kring not bugged about criticisms of hit NBC show, says episodes seven to 11 are "best episodes we've ever done."

Well, for his sake, I hope so.

"And we, I think, are in this process right now of teaching the audience how to get used to the idea that not everybody is going to be in every single episode."

NO, YOU'RE NOT. THERE ARE STILL TOO MANY PEOPLE IN THERE.

Some think that Heroes is just undergoing a sophomore slump. However, Kring may be thinking that viewers are looking at season two a bit too harshly by elevating season one unrealistically. "People tend to look at last season and see things in it that were not in it. We haven't deviated that much [from last season's formula]."

AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM. BREAK THE MOLD. Blow us away with an episode directed at one or two people; not eleven at once.

[JLApe]

Get rid of a few characters. West and Kristen Bell in particular.

[Hades]

And 6.1 ratings are bad HOW??????????

With that said, I kind of think Heroes would have been A LOT better as a single season series. I mean seriously, why must EVERY US show go on until it is on the brink of being cancelled? Why can't they just say, "Okay, let's end the show this season and spend the entire season concluding every story???"

I think the problem is that people thought Heroes was such a great show becaue it was different from the current crap on TV that they are finally realizing how lackluster it is. Oh, do not get me wrong, once the show actually started going somewhere it became interesting, but it was no where near as good as people praised it to be.

[Temple Fugate]

Hey, does this strike hopefully apply to Variety column writers too?

With that said, I kind of think Heroes would have been A LOT better as a single season series. I mean seriously, why must EVERY US show go on until it is on the brink of being cancelled? Why can't they just say, "Okay, let's end the show this season and spend the entire season concluding every story???"

$$$

To television's credit, they've tried making one-season shows, like Reunion and Day Break. Unfortunately we know what happened to them.

Mini-series have tapered off over the last decade, although some have still proven to be pretty good. Take The Lost Room, for example. That was amazing. I kind of wished that it was really a series, but looking at Lost and all those other serial shows, I fear for what lows Lost Room might have dipped to in order to fill all the extra time tv series require.

[Bahamut_King]

Well, for his sake, I hope so.


NO, YOU'RE NOT. THERE ARE STILL TOO MANY PEOPLE IN THERE.


AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM. BREAK THE MOLD. Blow us away with an episode directed at one or two people; not eleven at once.

But that's not what Tim Kring original envisioned for this show. He wanted a big cast of disparate people with these abilities who live all around the world. Tim Kring wanted the season one cast's story concluded, and in season two a new cast brought in. However since the fans grew so close with the season one characters, especially Hiro, Peter, and Claire, he changed his plans to appease the fans. He did a complete overhaul of the season two story to keep them but still managing to introduce new characters (Maya, Monica, Kensei, and Elle.)

They're going to have to find a balance between Kring's vision for his show, and what the viewers want to see. Nothing but bad things come about when the creators start only giving what the fans want (or what the higher ups think the fans want.) Just look at what happened to Xenosaga. Let's just hope NBC doesn't butt in and sideline Kring and a lot of the other writers/directors in order to "make the show better."

At this point, it seems like maybe some of those season one favs should have been written off the show. Over the summer, it seemed like Hiro would be have the best part on the show, but now his story is proving to be kind of a dud. Meanwhile, Monica is proving to be one of the best parts of the season and yet, she's a newbie.

[Moto Pete]

WGA strike is why it was cancelled

[ShadowGUN]

Crap. So we won't get to see Kevin Smith and Eli Roth episodes then .

[Hanshotfirst113]

I hear Heroes is in the dreaded....SOPHMORE SLUMP!

With that said, I kind of think Heroes would have been A LOT better as a single season series. I mean seriously, why must EVERY US show go on until it is on the brink of being cancelled? Why can't they just say, "Okay, let's end the show this season and spend the entire season concluding every story???"

For the same reason that most good shows like Wonderfalls and Firefly get cancelled when the they deserve a larger lifespan: ratings and ca$h. People catch onto them years later on DVD or in reruns, at which point it's too late. The first season was a hit, so they decided to keep it going. That's why The X-Files ran a lot longer than Carter had planned and kept going when he had no more story to burn. Unless, of course, you try to plot out a series, like JMS did with Babylon 5 (Must watch that one day), and the networks dance around cancelling you or not.

Just look at what happened to Xenosaga.

What happened to Xenosaga?

[wonderfly]

I can't believe the reason they cancelled it was for the stupid writer's strike...hell, I thought half of "Origins" was already filmed?!? I thought "Heroes" already had most of this season in the can...

I also don't buy that Heroes is in a "sophmore slump". I've enjoyed the episodes overall this season. So what if the ratings are down a little bit? People are reading too much into this...it's still NBC's best property at the moment...

[Dogbert]

The ratings for Heroes may be down overall, but that is not the bottom line. First, it is still doing consistently well in the adult male category. It was in fourth place (out of 17) this week. Moreover it is doing much better than NBC's other Monday night shows.

Another big problem is that its lead-in show, Chuck, and the program following it, Journeyman (notice the popularity of single word titles following the success of Heroes last year), are doing very poorly. A great show (Heroes: Season 2) surrounded by flops will always do worse than a great show (Heroes: Season 1) surrounded by decent shows.

Between its success relative to other NBC shows, its still good but not as stellar ratings, and its high ratings in the key adult male demograph, Heroes will still be around for awhile. I think Origins being cancelled or delayed had much more to good with the possibly upcoming strike than anything else.

[Darklordavaitor]

What happened to Xenosaga?

It was supposed to be a six-part series, but the barely-above average sales and creative conflict caused the game to be cut down to a trilogy, where a lot of the story had to be crammed into the finale game.

And dang, this is lame. I was looking forward to this, as I'm really getting into the show now.

[The Huntsman]

I guess I’m just easily entertained, but I thought this season of Heroes has been pretty good so far. Sure, some parts are slower than others, but I don’t think it’s a train wreck or anything of that sort.

[Hanshotfirst113]

It was supposed to be a six-part series, but the barely-above average sales and creative conflict caused the game to be cut down to a trilogy, where a lot of the story had to be crammed into the finale game.

And dang, this is lame. I was looking forward to this, as I'm really getting into the show now.

What does that have to do with the fans? If anything, the fans got the shaft because a saga couldn't be finished because of behind-the-scenes feuding.

[Bahamut_King]

What does that have to do with the fans? If anything, the fans got the shaft because a saga couldn't be finished because of behind-the-scenes feuding.

Well, there was more to it than that. Because the sales weren't as high as Namco hyped it to be, they tried to change a lot of things in order to bring in more consumers. What they did was sideline the original creator, and got rid of the original writers. Namco's reasoning was that because it sold more in the US than in Japan, that they should "westernize" it in order draw in more buyers in the states. So, the intricate and complex aspects of the story were simplified, or eliminated all together, in favor of faster action and more explosions. This resulted in a weak story with many plot holes. Also, the character designs were changed. It went from an anime inspired art style to something more "realistic." Little did Namco realize, the fans of the game like anime. The results weren't good. The male characters looked decent enough, but the female characters looked, well, ugly and kind of...like street walkers. In the end, all Namco ended up doing was alienating the fans the games did have and turned an underrated sleeper hit into a disaster.


But I digress, my point was, that if a creator's vision is ignored completely in favor of what executives feel will bring in more ratings, it could turn out a disaster.

[Russkafin]

Now, not only will we not get Heroes: Origins, but we might get a truncated season as well. Superherohype.com and TV Guide are reporting that Heroes may end the second season as early as December, because of the strike.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6490

[laactor101]

i think Heroes is an slump so hopefully Kring is right about those 5 episodes being the best they've even worked on.

[Hades]

Now, not only will we not get Heroes: Origins, but we might get a truncated season as well. Superherohype.com and TV Guide are reporting that Heroes may end the second season as early as December, because of the strike.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6490

Wait a minute, I'm lost. Is it being canned for bad ratings or for some strike??? Actually, WHAT STRIKE?????

[The Clown Prince]

Wait a minute, I'm lost. Is it being canned for bad ratings or for some strike??? Actually, WHAT STRIKE?????

Are you kidding me Hades? Where have you been? This has been talked about for months!

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-wr...3616.htmlstory

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-s...la-home-center

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=200268

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-en...roes/800026358 (Heroes early ending to the season story)

The Clown Prince

[Wonderwall]

$$$

Couldn't have said it better myself.