We thought that all the anti-hero sentiment around the net lately (especially Entertainment Weekly’s high-profile article title “Five Ways To Fix Heroes”) was rumor based on the falling ratings of the NBC show, which has been hovering a little over 8 million viewers, largely down from the 11 million ballpark we usually see Heroes in.

Some suggest that the show is approaching Lost territory, where you should have been watching from the beginning if you want to understand anything, and some suggest that the complex, comic-book-like storyline is too complex for prime time network television. We thought that Heroes was slowly on its way towards a rebound. Or that’s what we wrote about. We assumed that the producers of the show had a solid idea and were pushing through to the end of Volume 3, where some Heroes would have their arcs ended and new Heroes would step in to tell the story of the Petrelli Family.

Well, looks like 2 of the shows executive producers have been fired by the network…

From Variety:

Big shakeup on the staff of NBC’s “Heroes” came down on Sunday with the axing of co-exec producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb.

Both scribe-producers had been with the show since its first season and were known to have led the day-to-day production operation under the direction of creator/exec producer Tim Kring.

“Heroes,” produced by Universal Media Studios, has struggled in the ratings its third season. It’s understood that Alexander and Loeb were let go because of Peacock execs’ frustration with the creative direction of the show. The show is also said to have been grappling with hefty budget overruns this season, that are going well beyond its already sizable $4 million per-seg pricetag.

To be fair, comic fans, Jeph Loeb messed with Marvel’s The Ulitmates pretty badly, so we see this as some sort of comeuppance for Ultimates 3.

Either way, this is a drastic move for NBC as Loeb was one of the main draw for comic fans and – it’s suggested – one of the producers pushing for more similar storylines to those featured in mainstream comic books.