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We remember the kinds of shows that were out last season that didn't draw the viewers they expected. Programs like "Knight Rider" on NBC, "Pushing Daisies" on ABC, even "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" on Fox.

While those shows might be fading into distant memory by now, there was one positive about that fateful season: More viewers were turning out for genre shows in the first part of the 2008-09 season than they are now.

An Airlock Alpha analysis of the two seasons through the end of November sweeps shows viewership among genre shows to be down nearly 17.1 percent. The drop is actually being led by returning shows, none of which are showing anywhere near a stable audience from the year before, let alone an increase.

"Heroes" on NBC is the biggest surprise. That show is averaging a 3.5 rating/5 share in Fast National overnight ratings from The Nielsen Co., a 33 percent drop from the 5.2/8 it had at this point last season. "Fringe," which Fox moved from Tuesdays to Thursdays, is having an even harder time, losing more than 38 percent of its audience from a 6.0/9 last year to a 3.7/6 this year.

Even some of the historically more stable shows have taken hard hits. "Smallville," which surprised The CW with strong ratings last year, has now lost nearly 41 percent of its audience falling from a 2.7/4 to a 1.6/3. Even "Supernatural" has felt the sting, losing more than 26 percent of its audience since losing "Smallville" as a lead-in from a 2.3/3 to a 1.7/3.

Although a lot of people are talking about the new The CW drama "Vampire Diaries," which has been getting the network's highest ratings, it's not performing as strong as "Smallville" did in its Thursday lead-in spot the year before. In fact, the audience for that timeslot is down more than 7 percent since "Vampire Diaries" took over.

One thing that has remained the same is ABC's dominance in the genre field for the last two years. Although the network is second only to CBS for the fewest genre programs aired (CBS doesn't air any), it leads both seasons so far in audience numbers.

Last year, the leader was "Life On Mars" with a 6.0/10 by this point. This year, ABC has two shows in at the top: "V" with a 6.7/10 and "FlashForward" with a 6.0/10.

Does this mean we might need to start planning for a huge genre massacre going into the 2010-11 season? Possibly.

Shows on the bubble include "Fringe," "Heroes" and "Smallville," while Fox has already pulled the plug on "Dollhouse." Those shows are averaging a 2.6/4. Last year, the networks axed four genre series -- "Life On Mars," "Knight Rider," "Pushing Daisies" and "Sarah Connor." Interesting enough, those shows averaged a 4.3/7.

The bubble shows will need a strong half of the second season, and some of that may need to come from some schedule shifting. NBC has already announced it will move "Heroes" to an hour later, making "Chuck" its new lead-in. But nothing else seems to be budging, including "Fringe" which many say is in trouble because of its poor scheduling on Thursdays during the height of many networks' schedules, and not because of any drop in quality.

Without some kind of improvement in the first part of 2010, fans could be looking at a much smaller genre schedule for 2010-11.

Top Network Genre Shows 2008-09 -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]
1. Life On Mars (ABC) -- 6.0/10 -- [77.9]
2. Fringe (Fox) -- 6.0/9 -- [73.2]
3. Heroes (NBC) -- 5.2/8 -- [85.3]
4. Knight Rider (NBC) -- 4.1/6 -- [83.7]
5. Chuck (NBC) -- 3.9/6 -- [97.5]
6. Pushing Daisies (ABC) -- 3.7/6 -- [88.1]
7. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- 3.4/5 -- [82.9]
8. Smallville (CW) -- 2.7/4 -- [93.1]
9. Supernatural (CW) -- 2.3/3 -- [92.0]

Top Network Genre Shows 2009-10 -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]
1. V (ABC) -- 6.7/10 -- [78.8]
2. FlashForward (ABC) -- 6.0/10 -- [77.9]
3. Fringe (Fox) -- 3.7/6 -- [78.7]
4. Heroes (NBC) -- 3.5/5 -- [89.7]
5. Vampire Diaries (CW) -- 2.5/4 -- [80.6]
6. Supernatural (CW) -- 1.7/3 -- [81.0]
7. Smallville (CW) -- 1.6/3 -- [94.1]
8. Dollhouse (Fox) -- 1.4/3 -- [87.5]

Data collected from The Nielsen Co., as distributed by Zap2it. BlipNetwork tracks non-news, non-event programming, and figures for this story reflect airing of new episodes only. For more information on the Audience Loyalty Index, click here.