AirLockAlpha.com

Give some loving to "Heroes." The NBC superhero show finished well ahead of Fox's "24" Monday night, letting Jack Bauer know that fans are far more interested in who Claire's (Hayden Panettiere) father is than whatever the hell Jack Bauer does every week.

"Heroes" earned an 8.6 rating/12 share in Nielsen Media Research Fast Nationals, beating out the 8.1/12 earned by "24" to take second place in the 9 p.m. hour. Unfortunately, it was CBS in control overall with sitcoms "Two and a Half Men" and "Rules of Engagement," which earned 11.3/16 and 9.8/14 respectively to win the houre, according to Zap2it.

"Heroes" also remained a darling of adults 18-49, a key audience demographic, winning the hour despite the power of CBS' sitcoms. "Heroes" was up 0.3 of a ratings point for the hour while "24" slipped 0.4 of a ratings point.

CBS ended up the overall winner of adults 18-49, however, getting a 5.0 rating, but NBC was close behind with a 4.8. For the night, CBS was crowned the winner with a 9.6/15 followed by NBC at 8.0/12. Fox had a 7.0/10 while ABC and The CW finished with a 5.4/8 and 1.9/3 respectively.

Fast nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets. 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.