Heroes ran for four seasons on NBC, before being canceled and was followed up by a revival, only to have it canceled again. Heroes was wholly unique for its time. A few years before superhero movies took over the film industry, the series was part of a much smaller superhero boom in the mid-2000s. Following in the footsteps of shows like Smallville, Heroes proved that superhero stories didn't require the budget of a theatrical movie to work.
The premise for Heroes was relatively unique, seeing ordinary individuals suddenly gaining super abilities like reading minds, rapid cellular regeneration, and space-time manipulation. Led by protagonist and hospice nurse Peter Petrelli, the new group of amateur superheroes had to band together to face off against the superpowered serial killer Sylar (Zachary Quinto) in season 1, and faced various other threats like the mysterious Shanti virus. With the stellar Heroes cast, heart-pounding action, intriguing plot, and critical acclaim on its side, it seemed like Heroes could do no wrong. However, things changed drastically as the show progressed.
Heroes Was Canceled After Season 4 Due To Low Viewership
After Heroes season 4 aired in 2010, NBC decided to cancel the series due to falling viewership. Heroes started out incredibly strong, with an average of 13.8 million viewers for the premiere season. While season 2 garnered similar viewership numbers, the amount of people watching dropped noticeably going into season 3, seeing only 7.6 million people watching. By the time that season 4 rolled around, only 6.5 million people were tuning into Heroes (via Deadline), and NBC decided this wasn't nearly enough. Ratings dropped for the series as well, putting Heroes below shows like The Cleveland Show and Dancing with the Stars.
Between falling ratings and viewership, Heroes simply lost its way. The conundrum that NBC found themselves in was that the series was expensive to make thanks to its high-octane action sequences and ever-growing cast. The only solution for Heroes to remain on the air with the viewers it was pulling in would be to slash the budget considerably. The problem was that this would inevitably cheapen the show, turning an aesthetically pleasing superhero drama into low-budget show that would no longer the same visual effects that helped make it so popular in the first place. Therefore, NBC made the decision to ax Heroes — until the series was brought back into the limelight in 2015.
Heroes Reborn Was A "Limited Series" - Sort Of
While the 2015 series Heroes Reborn is now billed as a miniseries, the cliffhanger ending suggests otherwise. Creator Tim Kring returned to executive produce a revival of his original breakout series, with Jack Coleman's Noah Bennett character connecting the two shows. Rather than go through with a continuation of Heroes, Heroes Reborn takes place a considerable amount of time after the events of its parent series and sees a mostly new cast of ordinary people gaining superpowers. Audiences were treated to a six-episode web series titled Dark Matters to introduce viewers to the new characters in July 2015.
The first episode of Heroes Reborn premiered in September 2015, and it was clear immediately that the show didn't have the same appeal as the original. While special effects had grown leaps and bounds even since 2010, those improvements weren't enough to save Heroes Reborn. Possibly due to there being much focus on the action, the writing and character development suffered considerably. It was announced in January 2016 that Heroes Reborn wouldn't get a second season. The network played the decision off like the show was only meant to be a miniseries, even though the series ended with returning Heroes character Angela declaring that Hammer was coming back, and they couldn't be saved.
Heroes Was Never The Same After Season 1
The fact stands that Heroes was never the same after its critically acclaimed first season, and this is due to numerous factors both within and outside of showrunners' control. After the runaway success of season 1, Heroes hit a wall when the WGA went on strike in 2007. This bump in the road cut the episode count considerably for a disappointing Heroes season 2, with an original 24 episodes planned and only 11 making it to air. Even with this slash in content, Heroes decided to go ahead with a complex storyline for season 2, adding new characters to the mix and bringing the deadly Shanti virus to the forefront.
Heroes couldn't recover after the WGA strike, which caused a massive scramble of rewrites and reshoots. Heroes season 3 saw a massive dip in viewership and ratings because of the poorly-handled sophomore installment and audiences weren't impressed with the third season's offerings despite Sylar's powers being back and an increased focus on character development. Heroes season 3 even saw the episode count climb up to 25, but it still wasn't enough, and the show was canceled after season 4. Ultimately, Heroes began as a series with a great deal potential, but wasn't able to continue for nearly as long as season 1's success implied.