Media Scribbler

The big word that NBC has been putting out about “Heroes” in recent weeks is that the new season is so incredibly awesome that it will bring the viewers back who tuned out during its’ second season.

Well, if that’s the case, it’s going to probably take a few more weeks for it to happen. Although it’s not all bad news for the superhero drama, they were definitely overshadowed on their premiere night by another show’s debut.

“Dancing With the Stars” won the Monday night ratings with 21.12 million viewers from 8 p.m. to -10 p.m, according to early Nielsen results. The show also scored a 5.4 in the 18-49 demographic.

For its three-hour season intro (one hour of a preview documentary/recap and then the actual 2-hour episode — and I heard more than one fan say on Twitter that three hours was overkill) “Heroes” only had 9.89 million viewers. However, it had a 5.0 in the 18-49 demo and outperformed DWTS in the 18-34 demo, meaning that it’s strong enough to keep ad power and not be in huge trouble. However, it’s a huge drop-off from last season’s premiere, which had 16.97 million viewers and a 9.9 share.

“CSI Miami” came in second place for Monday with 16.866 million viewers and a 5.1 in the 18-49 demo at 10 pm. Since that show was directly in competition with the “Heroes” premiere episode, it stands to be a huge threat to “Heroes” if the latter stays on Monday. “Two and A Half Men” also made CBS proud with 14.926 million viewers and a 5.3 in the 18-49 demo.

The big losers were “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles“, which had 5.816 million viewers at 8 p.m., and “Gossip Girl“, which had 3.35 million viewers at 8 p.m.

(NBC Photo: Chris Haston)

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