Time to Kiss Off Heroes?

NBC

How'd that sapphic smooch look on Heroes? What was Southland's Nielsen crime? And why is Fringe falling out of the mainstream?

The answers—and more questions—in the latest TV ratings quiz:

1. What did the Claire-Gretchen kiss do for Heroes' ratings? Not much. The audience for last night's show was up, but barely, from last week's show, per preliminary Nielsen estimates. Overall, the show is still running well behind ABC, CBS and Fox's 8 p.m. Monday fare.

2. Is this the end for the show? Just for a major character, apparently. We'll see how that moves the needle. If at all.

3. What did Southland do wrong? Since the Ben McKenzie cop drama (now reportedly being eyed by TNT) never made it to air on NBC this season, it's hard to tell, so we're going to go with (a) it didn't get barely there numbers like Parks and Recreation this fall or (b) it didn't get barely there numbers like Parks and Recreation last season. Chuck and 30 Rock were two other renewed NBC series that averaged smaller audiences than Southland in 2008-09.

4. What's wrong with Fringe? Its new time slot: Thursdays at 9 p.m., opposite Grey's Anatomy, CSI and The Office, which is a top 10 draw among all-important young adults who might watch Fringe, too, if it wasn't on at the same time as Pam and Jim's wedding. Last week, when The Office held its long-awaited nuptials, Fringe fell to 61st place and 5.6 million viewers, per the latest Nielsen rankings, nearly half the audience of its Fox lead-in, Bones.

5. What's the fall's biggest TiVo star? Grey's Anatomy. The audience for its season premiere beefed up by 3 million once seven days of DVR playback were counted, the largest single gain by any series for the week of Sept. 21, ABC said. According to the CW, 90210 scored the largest percentage gain. Heroes, for what it's worth, is adding on a better-than-average 1.6 million viewers, per NBC.

6. If NCIS was the No. 1 broadcast prime-time show, why wasn't it the week's No. 1 show? Because ESPN's Monday Night Football, featuring the Brett Favre soap opera, scored more viewers: 21.8 million versus NCIS' 20.7 million. The upset marks the first time since the summer of 2007—and the premiere of Disney's High School Musical 2—that a cable show outdrew everything on free TV.

7. How can you tell your new show's in trouble? When you're on ABC, and the network picks up just about everything for the rest of the season except you (Hank, 57th place last week) and you (Eastwick, 71st place). Or when you're on CBS, and you (Accidentally on Purpose, 51st place) are the weak comedy link between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. 

8. How much is CBS loving The Jay Leno Show? A lot. At this point last year, David Letterman's Late Show was trailing Jay Leno's Tonight Show by 1 million viewers, 3.9 million versus 4.9 million. Now, Letterman's leading Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show by more than 2 million viewers, 4.7 million versus 2.5 million.

9. How much is NBC loving The Jay Leno Show? Only its accountants may know for sure. Yes, Leno's drawing a smaller audience than the 10 p.m. shows he replaced (5.7 million versus 7.4 million), but he's still cheaper than the 10 p.m. shows he replaced, which presumably was the point.

As an added bonus, here's a select rundown of the week that was:

• Top new show: CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles (third place, 16.3 million viewers)
• Top new show you had no idea was so popular: CBS' The Good Wife (11th place, 13.7 million)
• Top competition-reality show, slippage or no: Monday's Dancing With the Stars (second place, 16.4 million)
• Top NBC show, not including football, an exclusion which really puts the network at a disadvantage: The Office (26th place, 9.4 million)
• Top CW show: Vampire Diaries (89th place, 3.5 million)
• Top prime-time cable shows, not including football, baseball or pro wrestling, an exclusion which eliminates everything in the Top 10: Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place (4.6 million), USA's Monk (4.4 million) and Lifetime's Army Wives (3.9 million).
• Top TLC show: Jon & Kate Plus 8 (1.7 million), which should explain why the network's not going to give up its littlest Gosselins without a fight.