HEROES TODAY
Now that Heroes Season 4 has officially come to an end, but Heroes owner NBC has not yet confirmed a fifth Heroes season, fans all over the world are becoming truly worried. The internet, as the ultimate meeting point of gossip, displays lots of rumors about Heroes coming back or not and a lot of webblogs are making lists about reasons pro and against. You can even sign an online Heroes petition to support a fifth Heroes season.
The series follows the lives of ordinary people across the globe who discover various superhuman abilities as they struggle to cope with their everyday lives and prevent foreseen disasters from occurring. Heroes is popular and carries a strong following, although the official ratings are weak. Additionally, Heroes was the MOST downloaded and streamed television show last year. So many people are watching it, but most are not tuning in the moment it airs.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it’s up to NBC to decide if the show is worth bringing back, financially speaking. Networks are in the money making business, and if the show can still make them enough, they’ll bring it back regardless of criticisms leveled at the show by fans and critics. The expensive NBC series has always performed well overseas, but the network needs “Heroes” to pull decent numbers in its own backyard too. During season 4, Heroes continued its decline and has dropped to a level that would normally lead to cancellation. The deciding factor here is NBC’s internal balance sheet for the production. Yes, it’s all about the money…
A FIFTH SEASON?
The main question is not only if there’s enough profit to be made but also if Heroes’ writers can recover the award winning quality of the first season and thereby restore NBC’s trust. The answer to these questions lead us to three possible outcomes, from which only two seem realistic to me. The first one is, obviously (and hopefully) a resumption of Heroes, either in it’s current or (more likely) a renewed form. The second option is the release of one or more ‘rap-it-all-up episodes’ (don’t be surprised if NBC announces a 12-hour “final chapter” for next fall). The third (to me most improbable) option is the series coming to a definite end, leaving all the fans on a limb wondering what happened after Claire did the unthinkable. At this point, it seems unlikely that NBC will leave us with so many loose ends to tie up.
CONCLUSION
We’ll find out when they figure it out, I guess. But I do have a strong gut feeling we can enjoy new Heroes episodes soon. And then there is hope! Greg Grunberg, who plays Matt Parkman on the show, said “I’m hearing rumors, I’m hearing good rumors”. “We clearly did not wrap up the overall lure and story of Heroes (Source: TV Guide Magazine). Grunberg also said on his Twitter that he “Can’t imagine not coming back” when a fan asked him if Heroes will come back for season 5. If the NBC is really considering to pull out the plug, we should all pray for the help of some true Heroes out there working hard to prevent this disaster from becoming a reality.
