Chuck, Heroes Is Back

"Chuck" earned its best numbers of the season, and "Heroes" came back with its strongest audience since before Halloween, as NBC finished a strong Monday night on the heels of the Super Bowl.

"Chuck" earned a 4.9 rating/7 share, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research, for its 3-D episode, continuing an upward trend that began just after November sweeps. The last new episode of "Chuck" just before Christmas earned a 4.7/7, which at the time was a season high. The latest outing finished more than 4 percent above that, and 19.5 percent above its season average so far.

Sadly, it's still struggling against its competition on other networks, including "House" which had 78 percent more viewers, the comedy block of "The Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS, and "The Bachelor" on ABC.

"Heroes" also posted a strong night with the start of its fourth volume, earning a 5.2/8, according to Zap2it. That's the first time "Heroes" has been above the 5.0 household mark since Oct. 20, when it earned a 5.1/7. It matches the 5.2/8 it earned Oct. 13, and finished slightly above its season average so far. It also finished nearly 11 percent higher than its last outing Dec. 15. 



That was the end of the good news, however, as it still finished behind CBS, ABC and Fox. In fact, "24," despite a drop in viewers, still finished with 27 percent more viewers.

"Chuck's" night finished about 2 percent above its overnight rating average from last year while "Heroes" is still down by more than 21 percent.

NBC finished in fourth place in the network race for Monday night with a 5.2/8 behind CBS (8.3/13), Fox (7.7/11) and ABC (6.1/9).

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisionsturned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.