21 June 2007

Heroes to end sescond season in April; spin-off Origins to air during May sweeps

When NBC renewed Heroes back in January, there was little surprise. The series had done extremely well, and was quickly becoming one of the few break-out hits of the 2006-07 TV season.

But the ever increasing problem that serialized shows have fallen into is when they go on hiatus -usually during the holiday season and post February sweeps. The Peacock Network did order two additional episodes, bringing season two to 24 “chapters”. Plus, the network had ordered a semi-spin-off called Heroes: Origins. Speculation at the time was that these six shows would fill in during the parents series hiatus.

Now, with the show resuming production on Monday, creator Tim Kring confirmed at a press conference held today, that Heroes will end its second season in April instead of the usual May, and that the spin-off/miniseries will air during the May sweeps. He mentions that there will still be 24 episodes, but the hiatus gap will be smaller, meaning that while some shows are in re-runs during the month of March and April, Heroes will air new shows.

Kring also talked about what Origins is about, and its basically an anthology (apparently, this is a rarity in TV these days) series set with in the Heroes universe, but focusing on a new superhero every week.

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