heroes premiere

When this fall's NFL schedule was announced earlier in the year, locking down the local broadcast rights to the Saints-Titans "Monday Night Football" game was an easy decision for WDSU-Channel 6.

What wasn't known then was that NBC would be kicking off its fall prime-time lineup that same night.

The result is that New Orleans "Heroes" fans have to wait until Saturday to see that series' season premiere.


Also delayed are the debuts of newcomers "Chuck" and "Journeyman," which NBC teamed with "Heroes" to build a Monday night fantasy lineup around its only scripted shining star from last fall's freshman crop of shows.

For the broadband-enabled who can't wait, all three will be available as video streams beginning Tuesday at www.nbc.com.

Because of the "MNF" shift, "Chuck" is scheduled to air Saturday night at 7, followed by "Heroes" (8 p.m.) and "Journeyman" (9 p.m.).

The "Journeyman" premiere is also scheduled to air Thursday at 6 p.m. on the Sci-Fi cable network.

The upside to WDSU in carrying ESPN's "MNF" broadcast was that the station provided the Saints game to the small percentage of area viewers who don't have cable or a dish.

Nielsen estimates that slice at less than 10 percent of the media market, but it was a gesture -- actually more of an NFL-ESPN contractual mandate than a gesture -- those viewers no doubt appreciated.

Some cable and dish subscribers who otherwise would have watched the game on ESPN might have accessed it instead at WDSU, though the game broadcast itself wasn't the economic driver for the deal: It's the wraparounds.

WDSU packages pre- and post-game shows around the game itself that place its news and sports personalities in the feel-good halo that surrounds a high-profile, high-circulation TV event starring one of the city's most beloved -- and, yes, occasionally be-loathed -- institutions.

Needless to say, the station also places locally sold commercials in those wraparound programs.

The downsides to bumping NBC's Monday night lineup are less tangible.

You irk a few viewers, yes, but they're a comparatively wee contingent beside the Saints-interested.

Worse, perhaps, is that the station risks diminishing the local appeal of the bumped shows.

The first episodes of "Chuck" and "Journeyman" introduce all of the mythology that subsequent storylines will build on. (Crib notes: One's about a geek whose brain is accidentally injected with a massive download of government secrets, the other about a guy who time-travels.)

"Heroes" is an ongoing fable about super-powered average citizens. It was Nielsen's No. 21-ranked series in its first season, averaging 14.4 million viewers a week. It was also NBC's highest-rated scripted series. Its return has been hotly anticipated by fans. "Heroes" and "Chuck" would've rerun Saturday anyway, further evidence that NBC has high hopes for both.

NBC's prime time, ailing for several years and now near comatose on once-mighty Thursday night, feeds audiences into WDSU's 10 p.m. newscast. Local stations typically make up to 50 percent of their profit from advertising time sold in local news. It's much to WDSU's benefit for NBC's prime time to get better.

Last week, I asked Joel Vilmenay, WDSU's general manager, if he'd had any second thoughts about taking the Saints game and forcing viewers interested in NBC's new Monday Night Fantasy lineup to time-shift.

"No," he said. "I think the fact that we're (airing) them all in prime in the same week will give viewers the opportunity to see those shows."

At other networks, downloads would be one work-around on this Monday night dilemma, but NBC and Apple have folded their iTunes relationship over download pricing differences, so none Good luck, Chuck. It looks like you're going to need it.

The first night of TV's new fall season was a war with more than one winner―and more than one loser.

ABC's Dancing with the Stars led the way as Monday's most-watched show, averaging 21.3 million people who forgot how much they missed hearing the name Scary Spice, per Nielsen Media Research. The season premiere was up 1 million viewers over last September's opener.

NBC's Heroes was the night's highest-rated show among 18- to 49-year-olds who don't particularly care if Marie Osmond can fox-trot or not. But audience-wise, the show failed to build on its first-season buzz. Monday's opener was no bigger than its first-season premiere: an estimated 14.1 million viewers.

Publicly, NBC was upbeat about the show's premiere. But its atypical request of Nielsen seemed to speak louder than its press release.

NBC has asked the ratings service to hold off on compiling final numbers for Heroes until the network reairs the premiere on Saturday night, Nielsen confirmed Tuesday.

A "newish" rule, dating back to 2006, allows networks to combine a show's ratings from multiple broadcasts, as long as the same commercials are aired each time, Nielsen Media Research's Gary Holmes said.

As a result, barring a Saturday-night blackout across the nation, Heroes will not go down in the books as having run even with its first-season premiere; it'll go down as averaging more―thanks to people who tuned in on Monday, plus however many million tune in over the weekend.

Holmes said he believes at least one other broadcast network has taken advantage of the double-your-fun rule. As to whether it'll become a numbers-crunching trend, he said, "I think it'll depend on how the industry reacts to this."

According to an NBC spokesperson, the Nielsen loophole likely will be used sparingly because of the commercial sponsorship rule. Monday's Heroes' was a candidate for it because the show aired with limited commercials supplied by one sponsor, Nissan, who also signed on for Saturday.

Per the network spokesperson, NBC decided to combine Heroes' Monday and Saturday numbers before the Monday numbers were released.

Elsewhere, CBS took the 10-11 p.m. hour with the singularly scheduled CSI: Miami. But in a stat that might make David Caruso drop his shades in surprise, or disgust, the veteran crime series was down more than 2 million viewers from its 2006 premiere―from 17.6 million to 15.1 million.

CBS' 8-10 p.m. comedy block was down, as well, with the exception of Rules of Engagement (12.2 million), which was pretty much even with what The New Old Adventures of Old Christine did in the 9:30-10 p.m. time slot last year.

Everywhere, for CBS, it was a night of diminished returns: Two and a Half Men (13.6 million) was off 1.5 million viewers; How I Met Your Mother (8.1 million) was off 2.4 million; and freshman comedy The Big Bang Theory (9.5 million), while an improvement over its How I Met Your Mother lead-in, was a downgrade from last fall's season opener posted by the since-canceled The Class (10.5 million). 'Legion of Super Heroes' concludes its two-part season premiere, entitled "The Man From The Edge Of Tomorrow," on September 29 at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT as part of the Kids' WB! Lineup on The CW Network.

In the episode, the Legion has returned from the 41st century with Kell-El, a genetically-enhanced Superman clone. But Imperiex, the destroyer of galaxies, has reached the 31st century first -- and unleashed all of the Legion's greatest enemies. To restore order and combat this near-invincible foe, the Legion will once again turn to the past for help in the form of an older, more matur