'Heroes' Season 3 Premiere Ratings Not Exactly 'Super'

The return of NBC's Heroes didn't receive a heroes welcome by American TV audiences Monday night, or likely the ratings the network was hoping for. The debut of the show's third season, and its return to the air with new episodes for the first time since last December, drew a 6.1 rating/9 share in the 9pm hour, good for third place behind the second hour of ABC's Dancing with the Stars which drew a 13.5/20, and a combo of CBS sitcoms - Two and A Half Men (9.1/13) and Worst Week (6.8/10).

"Rating" represents the percentage of total U.S. households tuned into all or part a program, and "Share" represents the percentage of U.S. households watching TV during the hour that tuned into all or part of a program.

Those ratings are well off the program's season one highs and essentially unchanged from the ratings the final episodes of season two received late last year. "Powerless", the final episode of season 2 before the series went into extended hiatus due to the WGA strike, received a 6.6/9 on December 3rd 2007.

Additionally, the 4.9% of the all-important advertising demo of adult viewers 18-49 Monday's premiere episode drew is down 25.76% from its season two launch, according to figures at the futoncritic.com.

All these ratings could be discouraging news for NBC and the show's producers, which has been billing this new season as a rebound from a disappointing season 2, both in ratings and fan/critical reception.

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