The fall TV season is widely considered to be a failure, with a few new hit shows and troublesome ratings across the board. In fact, aside from Tina Fey, the biggest stories of the fall TV season is the dramatic downfall of two former hits. Once upon a time, Grey’s Anatomy was the hit drama on TV. Also, once upon a time, Heroes was the newest sci-fi smash. Now, in the span of a few years, both Grey’s Anatomy and Heroes are making the most negative TV headlines of the fall.
For Grey’s Anatomy, once again it can’t go more than a few months without backstage drama that makes it and ABC look bad. For Heroes, an unpopular second half-season has been topped by an even more nonsensical third season that is losing even more fans. Nowadays, it wouldn’t be a TV week without critics and fans ranting about the latest horrible twist on Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, or both.
As individual shows, Grey’s Anatomy and Heroes have pretty much no reason to be linked together. But since both shows have taken the biggest nosedive with fans and critics this fall, Grey’s Anatomy and Heroes are paired together, if only to see who’s fallen the farthest this week. The two former hits do have a few things in common, both in their glory days and in their seemingly never ending free falls.
Here are some of the categories in which Grey’s Anatomy and Heroes share both fame and infamy- more often infamy these days.
Former status:
Grey’s Anatomy: Hit medical soap opera
Heroes: Hit super hero soap opera
Biggest heights reached in:
Grey’s Anatomy: 2’nd season
Heroes: 1’st season
Traditional genre powers that they overthrew:
Grey’s Anatomy: ER
Heroes: Lost
Tough but loving supporting characters:
Grey’s Anatomy: Dr. Bailey
Heroes: Noah Bennett
Comedic highlights
Grey’s Anatomy: George
Heroes: Hiro
Resident hot men
Grey’s Anatomy: Patrick Dempsey
Heroes: Zachary Quinto
Breakout movie star:
Grey’s Anatomy: Katherine Heigl
Heroes: Zachary Quinto, in about six months
Somewhat unpopular lead character:
Grey’s Anatomy: Meredith Grey
Heroes: Peter Petrelli
Narrators that won’t shut up:
Grey’s Anatomy: Meredith Grey
Heroes: Mohinder
Cracks began to show in:
Grey’s Anatomy: 3’rd season
Heroes: 1’st season finale
Behind the scenes troubles:
Grey’s Anatomy: Too many to recap
Heroes: Producers getting fired
Unnecessary departures:
Grey’s Anatomy: Dr. Haun
Heroes: Ellie Bishop
Necessary departures
Grey’s Anatomy: Dr. Burke
Heroes: None, since no one stays dead
Addictions that they can’t break away from:
Grey’s Anatomy: Sex
Heroes: Time travel
Formerly beloved characters who nosedived:
Grey’s Anatomy: Izzie Stevens
Heroes: Hiro
Number of regulars:
Grey’s Anatomy: Countless
Heroes: Countless
Homosexual controversies:
Grey’s Anatomy: Gay slurs and cancelled lesbian subplots
Heroes: Failing to add a gay hero in Season 1
Guest stars who couldn’t salvage this season:
Grey’s Anatomy: Kevin McKidd as “Major Hottie”
Heroes: Robert Forster as Arthur Petrelli
Creative nadir:
Grey’s Anatomy: Ghost sex
Heroes: Pick your outlandish plot twist
Level of current popularity
Grey’s Anatomy: More popular with TV gossip magazines
Heroes: Watched by people that are killing time until Lost comes back
Only reason they are still around:
Grey’s Anatomy: Shonda Rhimes owns the half of ABC not owned by Lost
Heroes: Owns the 20% of NBC not owned by Tina Fey
Sources
Entertainment Weekly- “Grey’s Anatomy fan backlash” www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20243272,00.html
SF Signal- “Can Heroes Be Saved?” www.sfsignal.com/archives/007387.html
