save the cheerleader, save the world. when did heroes get so bad?

this show started out so well. underrated concept (what was the last live action comic book show on tv? wonderwoman or incredible hulk?), interesting story arcs, a myriad of characters to relate to.. season 2 sort of lost me a little, but i was still committed. now i find myself 5 or 6 episodes into the 22 episodes of season 3 and i am wondering what happened. why is this one of the last shows i gravitate to on my weekly tivo list? too many characters, especially too much of the brother/sister where the sister cries black tears and kills everyone. too much arcing and rearcing and time travelling. too little repetition of the original cheerleader saves the world overarching theme. in short, it moved so far away from where it started.
it was an interesting mystery you honestly felt you could figure out - who were the heroes?, how did they get their powers?, was claire's dad really bad? was the company working for or against the heroes? how would the cheerleader save the world?. the good vs evil themes do make for successful tv ratings. other viewers must have been finding themselves in the same place because ratings have dropped (aka plummeted). from daily cynopsis - "Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb, co-executive producers on NBC's Heroes were laid off Sunday. Both had been with the show since its inception and led the daily production operation reporting to Tim Kring, creator/executive producer. In its third season, Heroes, produced by Universal Media Studios, has posted lower than expected ratings and the show is dealing with budget overruns this season. Alexander and Loeb were apparently cut because NBC's executives are concerned about the creative direction of the show. "

i fully expected the peacock to look for a fall guy (or guys) when their 'can't miss' show starts missing. but am surprised they didn't pick Tim Kring - the guy has 54 writing credits under his belt while the other 2 have total combined writing creds of 7 episodes. ultimately, Kring holds the creative direction as the shows creator, exec producer and overwhelmingly primary writer and would have been the better choice if they were looking to revamp. my guess is contractually they couldn't get rid of him. perhaps they should change the tagline to fire the producer, save the show....