Image Credit: Chris Haston/NBCIt seemed inevitable but the news is nonetheless shocking: NBC’s drama Heroes won’t be back for a fifth season. The beleaguered drama only averaged 6.5 million viewers this year. It last aired on Feb. 8, when it only brought in a mere 4.4 million.
The show never managed to recapture those stellar ratings from its critically-beloved first season, when it averaged a whopping 14.5 million. There has been talk that NBC may air a movie that allows the producers to wrap up the story, but nothing has been set in stone. NBC will announce its fall lineup to advertisers Monday in New York.
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Can’t say I won’t miss it. But not devastated either with all the hero-themed pilots that got picked up.
Finally. But PLEASE do a TV movie to wrap it up. Or a movie every year or something. On TV. Then they could perhaps write a plot line that worked.
At least your show had 6 years. My beloved Legend of the Seeker had only 2 and Human Target may only have 1. I never liked Heroes,but I sympathize with those who may have lost a favorite show – at least it was somewhat original and the same old cop/lawyer/medical melodrama
Heroes had three years, and Human Target has been renewed for 13 episodes next year.
Whoops, I meant Heroes had four years. I skipped most of the fourth season, so I guess I forgot about it.
It has gone down hill but the dvd sales are good enough that it deserves a movie or wrap up to end it. I hate having paid for a series and have it just be left open. Close it up and NBC and it will more than pay for the expense of mini series or movie.
I thought “Legend of the Seeker” had something like 8 seasons (the first 6 being the ones when the series was called “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”).
legend of the seeker has NOTHING to do with hercules lol. its based on a series of books by terry goodkind… fantasy but nothing to do with greek mythology in any way. never saw the show but the first 4 books are good.. then the books totally took a dive. like heroes did after season one. havent watched 4th season but will prob get on DVD IF they close it with a movie otherwise ill take the series three ending. how absurd turning sylar into nathan.. id kind of be glad NOT to see season 4 and see how that panned out. so much potential in its first season…
yea ripped off Gerard’s comic book The Umbrella Academy with the white violin Google it all you little fans THIS SHOW IS A RIP OFF
Big fan of the first season… tried to hang on but every chapter after that got worse and finally, I just gave up after a few eps into S3…. The storylines and the characters got too scattered and lost my interest… This decision is no surprise but for the fans that remain, I can see doing some kind of a wrap up.
@Dani – Heroes is a rip off? Holy cow – the fact that it was actually good and came out before that piece of crap really threw me off the scent of plagiarism, but thanks.
@Evie-
FYI- Legend of the seeker is based off of a book series, which is like 10 books long or so.
Hey, @Brett…Don’t be ridiculous.
@ Evie-
“Legend of the Seeker” was 2 seasons too long if you ask me or any other true fan of Terry’s books. What a travesty! Read the books.
oh my god i actually dont believe you, are you stupid it was the best television series in years, im absolutely devestated and depressed by this.
I had just finished season 4 because I had recorded the episodes and I was actually hoping for another season. The end had me wanting more. People these days just hate it when you actually have to pay attention to something to get it.
Yeah, I’m more than a little annoyed at how they ended things. I supposed they didn’t really get a chance to “end” it…but you get what I mean. It feels like getting immersed in a book series only to have the author die or decide not to finish it. Total letdown.
Chapters 1-3 were great. Then it just sucked sucked SUCKED!
I agree. I was hooked the first season, but it didn’t hold up well after that. I bailed somewhere in season 3 and never went back. It’s a shame, because it started out brilliantly.
Stopped Watching last fall. So no surprise there.
overall a Good week for SCfi and Fun
I know! Chapters 2-3 were great! Season 1 were awesome! But after that, wtf?
All of you who gave up missed a really great season 4 ending. That’s really too bad since the ending really gave Heroes a place to go in Season 5 that would have reinvented the show…!!! I hope we get a tv movie wrap-up!!! But, to be honest, season 4 ending could have been considered a wrap-up as well. I will sincerely miss Sylar on my tv! Please NBC give me a few more moments with my Heroes.
If Heroes was On the CW, We wouldve had 10 seasons
Heroes had some serious potential, but it started to lose viewers into the final couple of seasons. You know it’s getting bad when the writers make Claire into a lesbian to try to get our attention.
@ Tony, Yeah it should switch over to CW. Smallville is ending its final season (10) and maybe Heroes should fill up its spot next year. or sooner. sooner.
I think it was good enough to be pickud up by sci-fi or something… There are terrible shows that get 10 years.. This one was getting better toward the end.
I’ve been saying this on EW for the last 24 hours. Nice for EW to finally catch up to me.
Yeah. Nice for EW to catch up with an overly persistent Internet fanboy. Do you want a medal or something?
Best news I’ve heard today!! This show has been nothing but an embarrassment for the unfortunate actors that stayed past the first season!! There were definitely a few actors that deserved better, at least now they are free from this burden!
Nooo kidding… good luck to the cast getting new work, though many of them don’t need it. Heroes post-season 1 is the ultimate fanboy test. If you liked it after season 1, yes, you are a frikkin fanboy.
CRAZY. heroes was one of the BEST shows i have ever watched. if NBC does not do a movie serious then I don’t think I will ever watch anothr show from their network again. How can they leave us just hanging there!! shame on them.
apparently i’m the only person left in america who liked heroes. i agree that the second season was garbage and the third struggled to get back on track, but the season 4 finale ended with claire jumping off of a ferris wheel on live tv. i’m just sad i won’t get to see what happened. oh, and t-bag from prison break could have been left out of the show entirely.
No you weren’t the only one. I loved Heroes from beginning to I guess what is now the end. Maybe I’m easy to please. I’ll definitely miss it.
Your not the only one. Even when I was mad at the show I still watched it.
Great, there goes the surprise ending for those of us watching on DVDs. I agree the first series was best, but the second and third had their moments, enough to buy the DVD set anyway. And I hear Dollhouse is gone. What is left?
I loved it, too. Yes, season 2 and 3 could have been better but season 4 had a total new set of characters which I thought was awesome. When I heard a couple of months back that they want to end the show this with the 5th season I thought “okay, as long as they don’t mess up the end like they did with Pushing Daisies” but canceling the whole thing is just plain unfair. I think Heroes deserves a proper ending, even if it’s just a TV movie.
@ Jen
Watch Fringe. Way better than Heroes. You won’t be disapointed!
Tess–no you are not alone–i completely agree. I loved Heroes and will surely miss a weekly dose of my beloved Sylar. Those who are bashing it didn’t stick with it. Season 4 gave us some new hope and the ending would have given us a whole new series in Season 5 if written correctly. I am truly sad and hope to see these characters again in a movie.
I’ve got to agree with you. I own the Season 1 DVD set and still enjoy watching it. Season 2 sucked. Season 3 fixed all the mistakes that Season 2 started but made a whole bunch of new mistakes.
Season 4 was could have been a lot better without the annoying stalker that was Gretchen. The ending was okay, but not Season 1 good.
Add me to the list of people that are sad to hear this news. Lost is ending, Flash Forward axed, Heroes gone..if Rupaul’s Drag Race gets the axe I might as well get rid of the tv.
I LOVED heroes!! even though the last season was pretty strange I was hangin in there!! @JEQP Dollhouse is gone and it was the saddest day in the history of…i don’t know EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re not alone, I loved heroes. It’s unfortunate that’s it’s cancelled because now they have room for another freaking reality show.
I really loved heroes. I think it’s the best (after lost of course!) I dont know what to say i’m just depressed!
I hope next tv series go to an end!
@ Ruby I think you meant that to JEQP, and yes fringe is awesome. If you like fringe, Supernatural on CW is also pretty good.
I loved this show. So pissed that NBC cancelled it. The network has to realize that 9pm on a Monday night was 24. I was a huge 24 fan so I watched 24 and went online the next night to catch up on Heroes. They should have moved the show to a different time before they cancelled it. I hope they make a DVD or movie to at least give us fans closer.
Finally….! It should’ve been gone after the awful season 2! Good riddance
I hope Hiro goes back in time and alters your preception. Honestly the Season 3 finale was tremendous and Season 4 had some bright spots too. The Adam Monroe/ Hiro sword fight for Hiro’s life was outstanding and the Sullivan Brothers Carnival story line was at least inventive.
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Heroes was a good show untill it got a little difficult to follow , first peter had all the powers , and then he could only use one power at a time – they killed the flying dude , syler was the best part of the show- and he was the bad guy ,i didnt really understand why they focused the attention on the cheer leader she couldnt fight , but she can take a punch lol. At the end of the day heroes was a good idea gone worng.
Frist of all i loved heroes i was liking forward to season5 i think that cw should pick it up since smallville went off the air or a mini moive they need to do something
This sucks! This was a well written show that appealed to us closet sci-fiers. BRING IT BACK> Cancel reality crap that is mindless and makes stars out of complete losers. (Jersey Shore, Real World and any type of lame competition show that beats down on the nice people to win and ends up making them into celebrities because of their lame behavior)
I am with you. I hate the Jersey Shore and I live here. Too much reality tv. Well writen story line and deep. The people who can’t follow the story line I am guessing are the same people who watch the Jersey Shore.
NOOOOO, please don’t cancel my favorite show man. Thats messed up if they dont have a fifth season all these BS Shows that get 7 and 8 seasons and you get this great idea for a different type of show and they cancel it.
Awesome news!!!!!!!
i agree, start the decade with some new shows
I agree. The first season was great and totally sucked after that. Lost had that happen to them during season 3 but rebounded incredibly after that one down season. Now that is a show I am sad to see go. See ya Heroes, no loss!
I agree, but next time get some shows that have a future. I read that the Heroes team wanted to kill off Heroes and have new Heroes each season and when the fans won’t have that, they didn’t know where to go with their stories. WOW! bad planning and it showed after season 1 they had NO plan.
i’ll politely assume you know the new decade begins in 2011 and not 2010 and that i offer this truth for those others who do not. lets not make the same mistake so many misguided souls made when they celebrated the millenium on 12/31/99. any shows launched this fall season, will therefore, be products of this decade.
@sho5mo you are annoying.
You are right about the millennium, but a decade or century is just a measure of 10 or 100 years respectively and can begin from when you choose. In fact, the standard convention is to start decades from the 0 year to 9, so it includes all the 10′s, 20′s 30′s etc, If the 30′s started at 31 it would end at 40, so you then couldnt refer to it as the 30′s etc…
Shocking…NOT. They killed off Nathan..there went the show.
nathan failed
No, Nathan didn’t fail. Adrian Pasdar pissed off the show runners and got written out. Of course, he was pissed off because the scripts were crap. Loved season 1, but I don’t think the writers knew where to go from there. I’d be ashamed too.
Yeah, he did.
did claire hookup with peter, militarysinglesdate
The show was dead long before they killed off Nathan. It was a goner just a few episodes into the second season. It still boggles my mind how fast it went downhill, though.
It started the decline at the season 1 finale and never recovered.
Season 2 was during the writers strike. Those first two or three episodes were before the strike… then after, well. The proof is in the pudding, I guess.
The show started to fail after they saved the cheerleader. Then she and Sylar took over the show and it was all about them.
It was a great show…. I believe it was the writers strike that killed it. Shame on them. They ruined something that could lasted a long time.
lol @ Amy….Yeah, blame the writers striking….Not the bazillionaires that write the checks, blame the writers. ‘They should just shut up and do what their betters tell them to do! Damn unruly serfs!’
Word. Never should have killed Nathan, he was awesome. If they do get a movie to wrap things up, I only hope they bring Nathan back for it.
Never should have killed him? why, so he could betray them a 4th time? all he did was make terrible decisions, change at the last second, get hurt in the proccess, then do it again. I’m glad he’s dead, he was one of the main villains of the series.
Doh!
About damn time!
Finally! I’m so glad that show got put out of its misery.
Well, I think it just became to tangled and messed up for it to even continue with any fans. I didn’t bother with the last few episodes because it was just soooo confusing.
Confusing? It’s a serialized drama dude. It’s supposed to be a bit confusing. Go watch Happy Town or an old Full House re-run. Less confusing. Heroes tv movie is a must. C’mon NBC shake a feather.
I totally agree. It seems that when a show is in any way challenging people start looking for something else. The show had the right amount of plot, the only problem was they kept changing good writers.
If you think it was confusing you need to consider what you’re saying. If you didn’t watch the episodes, of course it was confusing, it’s a serial drama.
YES! FINALLY!
I hope that they do a two or four hour special to wrap up the series for the fans, like I heard a rumor about.
They’re not.
Says who…? The article says this is still a possibility.
They rarely do that, I’m still waiting for my Jericho 2-hour special.
Heroes had way more fans than Jericho though. Just a fact and I do believe NBC will do some type of series wrap up. But I think it would have to be at some point in 2011 or not at all.
It seems like not at all.
Hah! This show never had a cohesive “storyline.” Season 1 finale proved the writers were just pulling stuff out of their assses and seeing what stuck.
Glad to see NBC finally putting this show out of it’s misery.
Too bad networks don’t do this more often with their old and worn-out shows (I’m looking at you, Smallville).
Diss Heroes any day, that’s fine. but taking a stab at Smallville is not cool. Smallville has had new life this season, and has been better than it’s been in years.
HA! Sorry, but Smallville sucks. Your indignation makes me hate it more.
Hey Katie, have you seen Smallville this season? It is great, one of the best seasons in years!
I’m with Alex all the way, and I’ve watched Smallville since season 1!
No sorry…Smallville = sucksville
The whole Zod storyline is boring and this checkmate crap…Pam Grier looks like she is acting in a neck brace…..I want to go on but I have wasted to much time to this already.
smallville is better this season but the show still sucks. I continue watching it cause I love the superman mythos but it’s more out of obligation. Smallville has its moments of greatness surrounded by massive suckiness.
I don’t think a show has ever dropped in quality so drastically from Season 1 to subsequent seasons.
Did you see Twin Peaks?
Exhibit A: “The O.C.”
If Heroes made half as much money for the network as Smallville did, it’d still be on the air.
Um, Heroes actually made a lot more. The CW just has really low expectations. I’m not a fan of either show, but as a big ratings guy, that statement was ridiculous.
If you do not like “Smallville” don’t watch it. My friends and I “Tivo” it and get together to watch it every week. Great show…too bad about Heroes…dumb NBC…wonders what is on during that time slot on the CW
“Dumb NBC”??? Didn’t they cancel a series called Star Trek?
They also cancelled a phenomenal series called Journeyman after one season (despite great writing and huge fan support). NBC has a history of cancelling shows at the wrong time and ticking off their talent and viewers. Just look at the whole Conan/Leno debacle. And I don’t even watch L&O, but at least give them the shot to break Gunsmoke’s record, NBC.
remember “the black donnelly’s”? very good show! they pulled it after perhaps 6 eps.(5?) then allowed the remaining episodes to run online but that was one great show, killed in it’s prime. dumb nbc is right!
they are serial killers.
WHOO HOO!
I watched from the beginning, but I’m neither shocked nor traumatized. My only regret is that they did not get a short order next year to wrap up the show on their own terms and perhaps give some closure to the long-suffering viewers who stuck with it.
I agree with you Ralph. I’m OK with this decision, but at the same time, the last season especially was miserable and I would have liked some finality. Even if it was just a big explosion that killed everyone or something equally lame.
Good never watched it
And if Lucy didn’t watch it, it wasn’t worth watching to begin with. What were the rest of us thinking?
Because not watching it was taking up so much of your time?
All the shows Lucy never watches should go off air.
lol Frank
I’m confused. Why would you even have an opinion – strong enough to write a comment at that – if you never watched it??
Despite the fact that I stopped watching during early season 3, I’m still a little sad that NBC didn’t at least let them do a 13 episode closing season. Though I guess I shouldn’t, since the writers should have known to get their act together after the fan reaction to the disaster known as season 2.
It’s about time! Good riddance. I stopped watching mid-season 3 after Kristen Bell left.
The show got to be so stupid – no consequences, no real deaths, people kept “coming back”. Sylar’s good, no bad! no good! no bad!
Terrible, terrible writing.
i 100% agree with u, don’t understand were exactly they are going with the whole good-bad sylar thing.
Neither did the writers, shelly. Neither did the writers.
Come on guys. It kept the story interesting … it’s not a Marvel comic where the goodies are always good and the baddies are always bad!
i like boobies
I got 200$ wrapped up in seasons1234. If I would have known they weren’t gonna have a ending to the story I wouldn’t have bought seasons1234.
I want a refund. NBC has stolen my 200$. I want it back or I want an ending to the story. Shame on u NBC