This image was lost some time after publication.

Believe it or not, we take no pleasure in Studio 60's consistently anemic ratings—should NBC eventually cut its losses and send to Cancellation Valhalla the show the network once believed would deliver it to a Nielsen Viking orgy, it will probably just push new hit Heroes back to 10 p.m. and offer it a two-hour lead-in of people shouting at briefcases, robbing us of our enjoyable Tuesday morning debates about how an episode we thought was going to be about Matthew Perry trying to get laid by bimbos who din't know what "writing" is could instead get clogged with stories about senile blacklist victims, resentful parents from Columbus who've been locked in an underground bunker with no access to the pop culture of the past half-century, and black comics getting plucked from obscurity and staffed on the show based on a poorly articulated joke about his barber's insufficient profit margins on high-quality marijuana sales. In any case, the overnight ratings for last night's installment don't look good, especially when framed as a "momentum stopper." THR runs the numbers:

"Heroes" averaged 14.3 million viewers and a 6.2 rating/15 share in adults 18-49, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. "Heroes" won hands-down at 9 p.m. (and the entire night) in the demo... [...]

Meanwhile, NBC took the 8 p.m. hour with "Deal or No Deal" (15.5 million, 4.4/12). [...]

But NBC's momentum was stopped cold at 10 p.m., when "Studio 60" (7.7 million, 3.2/8) was beaten by CBS' "CSI: Miami" (17.5 million, 5.9/15). ABC's "What About Brian" (6 million, 2.7/7) fell week-to-week.

We suppose that things might not be as dire as they seem; while preciously few in number, these viewers are "affluent and upscale," and nothing makes a network looking for an excuse not to cancel its highest-profile new show hornier than those two words.