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A second week didn't make much of a difference to the number of people deciding to turn on NBC Monday night, nor did the premiere of a highly talked about new series.

"Heroes" earned a 3.6 rating/5 share, according to Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co., staying even with its young season average so far. The show is down from the first hour of its season premiere by nearly 8 percent, but is actually up slightly from the second hour of its premiere by nearly 6 percent.

However, it was still the 8 p.m. timeslot's worst performer outside of what The CW aired, being beat by ratings powerhouse "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC, "House" on Fox and a comedy block on CBS. It also served as a poor lead-in to the new NBC series "Trauma," which could only manage a 4.4/7 in its series debut, according to Zap2it.

The chances of getting a fifth season continue to dwindle each week for "Heroes," which remains 23 percent lower than its third season average, which until the past couple weeks, was the show's worst season in terms of ratings. Among genre shows last week, "Heroes" finished behind everything except what was shown on "The CW" as well as "Dollhouse" on Fox.

The only show that seems to be having just as bad as a time is "Fringe," which Fox moved to Thursday nights at the beginning of the season, and doesn't seem interested in moving it while it gets clobbered by all the networks' other high-rated shows. Still, "Fringe" is finishing slightly ahead of "Heroes" in the ratings.

Neither "Heroes" nor "Trauma" did much for the sagging ratings of "The Jay Leno Show," which earned a 3.7/6, nearly even with its audience the week before.

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.