ABC’s The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love once again rose in its ratings from the previous week, according to preliminary overnight ratings. The dating reality hit scored 12.3 million viewers, an increase of 600k from the week before. Meanwhile, CBS’ Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory both delivered huge numbers with 17.6 and 16.2 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, NBC’s Heroes aired its season finale with a very weak 4.4 million, a sign that the once popular series may not see another season. (Source)

Way to go, kids! It’s all your fault that Heroes will be canceled! Well, not really, but you’re pushing it. According to the blog TorrentFreak, which reports on the Internet black market known as file-sharing, NBC’s Heroes was the most illegally downloaded television show of 2009.

The stat shouldn’t be taken as gospel, however, as the site merely lists the number of downloads for a show’s most popular episode and not its entire season run (not to mention that it’s tough to swallow empirical data from a site with “freak” in its name). Still, TorrentFreak claims that the most-pirated episode of Heroes (the particulars of the episode were not disclosed) was “stolen” approximately 6,580,000 times. That’s over half a million more than the show’s average TV audience.

Overall, sci-fi and action dominated the list of most-pirated shows, with Lost (6,310,000 downloads), Prison Break (3,450,000), Dexter (2,780,000), and House (2,590,000) rounding out the top five. Eight of the top ten entries were broadcast shows, and two were premium-cable shows (Dexter and no. 10 True Blood), indicating that TV piracy isn’t committed primarily by those who don’t want to pay extra for HBO and Showtime, but rather by those who don’t want to pay for cable at all and are willing to watch on their dinky computer monitors.

And while online piracy is thought to be the realm of the male basement nerd, both Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives made the top ten list. Either female basement nerds are getting into the act too, or the guys out there are getting soft. That’s what happens when you dudes gender-swap and level a female night elf to 70 in World of Warcraft.

Overall, the takeaway from these numbers isn’t that there are millions of horrible people out there stealing TV (a large chunk of the downloads is thought to be from foreign markets that can’t get the shows legally), it’s this: Television viewing habits are changing. Networks shouldn’t be looking for ways to stop illegal downloading, but rather to find a way to make it work to their advantage.

The list:
Show Title, Downloads of most-popular episode
1. Heroes, 6,580,000
2. Lost, 6,310,000
3. Prison Break, 3,450,000
4. Dexter, 2,780,000
5. House, 2,590,000
6. 24, 2,440,000
7. Desperate Housewives, 2,180,000
8. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 1,960,000
9. Grey’s Anatomy, 1,740,000
10. True Blood, 1,600,000

Source

“Heroes” hottie Hayden Panettiere has locked lips with Zachary Quinto. Sexy cheerleader Claire finds herself kissing evil Sylar in an upcoming episode of the show, which has aired in the U.S. Sylar tracks down Claire after a tattoo of her face appears mysteriously on his arm.

But things aren’t quite what they seem as Sylar uses his latest power to read her mind by kissing her. Claire isn’t too pleased about the smooch from the killer who previously tried to slice her brain open and killed her biological father Nathan – and afterwards attacks him with a pencil to the eye. Source

Ask Ausiello posted a “Heroes” spoiler:

Question: Any Heroes scoop? —Adam
Ausiello: Just this one cryptic tease from my good buddy Greg Grunberg: “The only way to get rid of or really handle the evil guy Sylar is to get more dark and more evil than he is, and that’s pretty much where my character goes.” Parkman more evil than Sylar? Wow, I’m really behind on Heroes.

With rumors circulating around that NBC may cancel “Heroes”, fans of the show have started an online petition to “Save Heroes” to bring the series back for a fifth season. If you are a fan of “Heroes” and want more, make sure you sign – and get your friends and family to sign as well:

Sign the Petition: “Save Heroes” Petition

NBC has finally dispatched with Jay Leno at 10 p.m., but that means their troubles are just beginning. The Peacock now has to fill up those five hours a week with something. (NBC boss Jeff Gaspin suggested they were looking for two hours of scripted TV, one hour of reality and two hours of miscellany like news magazines and repeats.) However, there are not a lot of 10 p.m.-ready programs waiting on the network’s bench right now.

For Heroes to come back, would that require budget cuts?
No, actually Heroes has already been very responsible in having a good budget, so I don’t think we’d be cutting it.

If you do not decide to renew Heroes, would they have time to do a series finale?
No, they’re out of production. They’ve wrapped production.

What does the end of this season currently look like? Is it open-ended?
I can’t give anything away about the Heroes finale.

Source

“Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere will steam up our screens with a girl-on-girl smooch in the new season of the hit US show. And the 20-year-old actress admitted she loved shooting the scenes. Her character, cheerleader Claire Bennett, goes to college and meets new room-mate Gretchen – Madeline Zima of Californication fame – who swiftly develops a major crush on the cute blonde.

Hayden said: “Claire has a room-mate who is the biggest relationship in this season because she has finally got what she had with Zach, her friend in the first season, which was a confidante and somebody who she can tell her secrets to. She hasn’t had anyone like that since then. Then this new character Gretchen comes along, and she becomes that person for me. It’s a very interesting relationship because there’s a little bit of a flirting with, ‘Are we friends? Are we more? Do I have feelings for you in that way?’ That’s the relationship so far and where exactly it’s going, I have no idea. I absolutely enjoyed playing that kind of complicated relationship. Oh, yeah. I kissed a girl and I liked it.”

Hayden admits the new element in Claire’s story has made the series more exciting for her – in fact she can’t wait to get her script each week to find out what she’ll be up to next in the superheroes drama.

The people have spoken – and they love Vampires! Not surprisingly ‘Twilight’ snagged the most nominations for the 2010 People’s Choice Awards. The ‘Twilight’ franchise stars earn six nods while it’s TV counterpart, ‘True Blood’ receives three.

Fans cast more than 18 million votes online to select the nominee slate and will also choose the winners in 35 categories. The ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS on Jan. 6, so tune in!

TV Sci-Fi/Fantasy:
Heroes

I received a couple of emails wanting to know when “Heroes” starts up again, below is a ‘basic’ Monday night cheat sheet for shows returning the same night.

Monday, January 4
The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love premieres (ABC), 8 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager returns (ABC Family), 8 PM
Heroes returns (NBC), 8 pm (moves back to 9 PM on Jan. 11)
Make It or Break It returns (ABC Family), 9 PM

Heroes: So you’re saying there’s a chance it might stick around?! That’s the latest word coming out of camp Heroes, now that NBC has recast Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes’ Mohinder) in the net’s own pilot Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, giving the role to Jerry O’Connell instead. An NBC rep said Ramamurthy pulled out of Rex because of a scheduling conflict with Heroes, which was in first position. So maybe with Eastwick’s cancellation, it’s Rebecca’s turn to stay home with the twins?

Source