AirLockAlpha.com

It probably wasn't the nicest thing to do with turkey comas still a recent memory, but an Airlock Alpha story last week warned that network viewing of science-fiction program was down 17 percent from the previous year.

While that might mean some once-favorite shows like NBC's "Heroes" might not be around next year, Daniel Malen from The TV Addict doesn't feel it might be the end of an era.

"I don't think that this point in television ratings matter nearly as much as people like to make it seem," Malen said for Thursday's broadcast return of Alpha Waves Radio. "They are not being measured correctly. People watch TV across many, many platforms and many different ways. Whether it's Nielsen or somebody else, these ratings are really meaningless."

According to the Airlock Alpha analysis released Nov. 29, "Heroes" has lost 33 percent of its audience compared to the year before, while other shows like "Fringe" on Fox and "Smallville" on The CW has lost around 40 percent. But that could simply mean those viewers are just not choosing traditional routes like television to get their weekly installment of these shows.

"Sci-fi viewership may be down 17 percent in the way Nielsen measures things, but there has been numerous studies that TV viewing is up across the board," Malen said. "I think more people are watching TV than ever, but they are watching TV in different ways, and it's not being counted."

The genre specifically may be noticing this the most simply because fans of such programming may be more acutely aware of their different viewing platform options.

"The viewers of sci-fi shows are the most savvy technologically," Malen said. "The odds are fairly good that they are watching it on Hulu, watching it online, watching it illegally. There is a plethora of different ways.

"Viewership is down, but is it really?"

At the same time, rumors are starting to circulate again that "Heroes" could be facing cancellation by NBC, rumors that were first reported by Airlock Alpha just before Halloween.

More of Malen's thoughts on the television industry can be heard on Alpha Waves Radio beginning Thursday at 8 p.m. ET at AlphaWavesRadio.com in its first official show back. Alpha Waves will be distributed live on tape beginning at 8, and then available after 9:30 in podcast form both on the site, and as a free download from the iTunes Store (simply search for "Alpha Waves.")

Alpha Waves Radio airs twice monthly on BlogTalkRadio.