Heroes Has a Secure Future, NBC Says

NBC announced several renewals this week and, in the process, assured fans that the troubled fantasy series Heroes has a "very secure" future.

This vote of confidence did not, however, include an actual early renewal like those that NBC gave The Office, 30 Rock, and The Biggest Loser during the same set of announcements.

"Heroes is very secure," said new primetime entertainment president Angela Bromstad, according to THR. "We have a great relationship with Tim Kring. ... What's important is we never lose sight of being responsible in production."

What that last comment means is open to interpretation, but it may indicate that NBC wants to tighten the screws on a show that has immense potential, but which has been flapping around wildly for the past two seasons. "They may have taken on too much in terms of characters and multiple storylines," Bromstad said in explaining the show's decline from its powerhouse first season.

Kring has promised the current volume, which constitutes the bottom half of season 3, will return the show to its roots. "This volume starts us pretty much from scratch," creator Tim Kring said in a statement Thursday, as reported in TV Guide. "There is almost nothing that the audience needs to know from the previous volume in order to follow the storyline."

Optimism for Heroes is fueled by confirmation that Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has returned to the Heroes writing staff to help replenish the show's creative juices now that work on the Daisies series finale is complete. Word is, Fuller has already created a guest role for Daisies's Swoosie Kurtz on Heroes.

Knight Rider's future, by the way, may not be quite so solid. In her renewal announcements, Bromstad included the sagging revamp, which was recently retooled in desperation, among shows that shows that "may or may not come back."

Heroes returns to NBC on Feb. 2.