Weekly Update – Fuller Could Return to Heroes; Lost / Dollhouse Premieres Set; Ratings Update; New Batman Premieres; CW Withdraws The Graysons

Fuller Could Return to Heroes: Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me) has been approached to return to NBC’s ailing Heroes. This past week, show-runners Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander were released in light of the show’s slumping ratings and severe criticism of the show from fans and critics (TV Guide recently polled its readers on how they would fix the show). Fuller served as writer / co-executive producer during Heroes' well-regarded first season writing such outstanding episodes as “The Company Man”. Fuller is currently committed to Pushing Daisies which is in its second season but has been experiencing a significant ratings drop-off. He has indicated that if ABC does not pick up additional episodes of Daisies, he could definitely return to Heroes.

ABC Sets Lost Premiere: ABC has announced January 21st as the return date for Lost which will also be moving back to its original timeslot on Wednesdays at 9 PM EST. The series will have a 3 hour premiere for its fifth season which will include a clips show lead-in followed by the first two episodes of the season back to back. Season 5 will have a total of 17 episodes.

FOX Sets Dollhouse Premiere, Sarah Connor Move: FOX has announced February 13th as the premiere date for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. The series will air in the Friday 9 PM EST timeslot and will have a lead-in from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which will re-locate from its Monday night timeslot (no word yet on when this change will occur). While FOX’s The X-Files once flourished on Fridays, that night has since become a slow ratings time for the major networks. CBS’s supernatural series The Ghost Whisperer has done well on Fridays, though, so perhaps FOX’s two genre entries will develop a following as well. A new trailer for Dollhouse is available online: www.dollverse.com/trailer/

Ratings Update: Most of the series from the first half of the week took a bye with election coverage taking the forefront. NBC’s Knight Rider took a serious hit this week, dropping to a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and pulling fewer total viewers than the Spanish network Univision in that hour. On Thursdays, CBS’s The Eleventh Hour and ABC’s Life on Mars seem to have settled in to pretty stable numbers and will likely both receive a full season pickup. On Friday, The Ghost Whisperer pulled its highest numbers of the year (11 million viewers / 2.8 rating in 18-49 demo) in a pivotal episode for the series. Keep up with the weekly ratings with our Network Ratings Tracker as well as the likelihood of cancellation with the Renew/Cancel Index at TV by Numbers.

Batman Premieres on Cartoon Network: Friday November 14th marks the last of the Fall premieres in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre when Batman: The Brave and the Bold bows on Cartoon Network at 8 PM EST. The series will team up Batman with a different superhero from the DC Universe each week similar to the comic book it is based on. The team ups for the first three episodes will be The Blue Beetle, Plastic Man, then Aquaman.

CW Withdraws The Graysons: Plans for a Smallville-like series based on Dick Grayson’s pre-Robin years have been dropped by the CW Network. Word is that Warner Brothers Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov changed his mind about moving forward with the project. No word on whether the CW’s struggles to remain viable played a part in the decision.