'Heroes' soars; run away from 'Runaway'

As expected, NBC 'Heroes' managed strong ratings last night, with every statistic a good one - 14.3 million viewers, No. 1 in the timeslot, significant build-up from its lead-in, viewership increases as the hour went on. Ladies and gentlemen, this may be our first bona fide hit of the season.

'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,' on the other hand, had 11.2 million viewers: Good, not great. But NBC'll take it. ('CSI: Miami' handily beat it, with 17.4 million at 10 p.m.)

And you saw this coming from a mile away: The CW's first new show of the season, 'Runaway,' was allowed to run free, since no one seemed very interested in tracking it down: 2.3 million viewers, a real tank job. The CW should've learned from The WB's disastrous final season, where it tried to lure not only its base of teen audiences but also older viewers with junk like "Just Legal" and "Twins" and got nothing instead: Same deal here. Now, since The CW had weak development and has virtually nothing on its shelves (a mere one midseason scripted drama), it's going to have to watch this timeslot wither and die for several months or add yet a third airing of "America's Next Top Model" (actually more likely: a rerun of "Gilmore Girls") or slap together another reality show really quickly, thus ensuring it fails, as well. So, the launch of a splashy new network: 1 new scripted show that'll survive and two out of 13 hours of primetime devoted to repeats. Fans of "Everwood" must be chuckling bitterly over their bowls of cold bile.

CBS's new sitcom "The Class" could be on the verge of flunking out: 8.5 million viewers in week 2. Originally, the network was going to protect the show, pillowing it between "How I Eventually Got Around to Meeting Your Mother" and "2.5 Men," but, apparently deciding "The Class" was the stronger show, decided to lead with it. This doesn't appear to be working: Plan B, which is the original Plan A, should be in the works as we speak.

And I believe the above headline suggests that if I ever tire of this whole Mayor of Television thing, I have a viable career on a newspaper copy-desk in a mid-size market somewhere in the Midwest.