Heroes is coming back for a fourth season.

There's been doubt about this show's status because ratings have been awful (and that's being generous).

NBC plans to order 18-20 episodes for next season, according to NBC entertainment president Angela Bromstad.

Calm down, Matt. Heroes is coming back.

Despite the low numbers, Heroes is tied with The Office as the network's number-one show in the key 18-49 year-old demographic.

"Every single place you go has heard about Heroes - whether you’re in China or Japan or Russia," Bromstad said. "And to me, that is global content."

Perhaps this news will boost the ratings on Heroes:

Set to air later this season, Bryan Fuller - the creator of Pushing Daisies and former Heroes writer, who has returned to the latter show - has written an episode similar to his much-ballyhooed season one effort, "Company Man."

According to Michael Ausiello, Fuller's episode will focus on Angela Petrelli, as Fuller told the Entertainment Weekly writer:

"We're going to understand her in a way that we hadn't before."

We can't wait!

The main focus of next week's all-new episode of Heroes, titled "Shades of Gray," is on Sylar meeting his father and Parkman trying not to blow up Washington, D.C.

What is Claire up to during this hour? Based on the clip below, the former cheerleader is seeking a new job...

Ratings for last night's episode of Heroes were scarcely an improvement over last week's series-low figure.

Might this spell the end for the once-popular series? Ali Larter sure hopes not.

"[Cancellation] would be terrible in my book. The cast just loves the show," the actress said to E! Online this week. "We have such amazing writers. Bryan Fuller is coming back, which is so incredible... If the network doesn't want to bring us back I'll be really sad, but you know what, I just can't even go there. I think that the show was so strong first season, and we'll come back and get it back to where it should be."

NBC has yet to make any kind of official announcement regarding a possible fourth season of the show.

Meanwhile - Heroes Spoiler Alert! - what might Larter be up to in the weeks ahead?

"We did an incredible episode that Greg Yaitanes shot and that Bryan Fuller wrote," she said. "It's his first episode back. It's just so complex. It's so compelling, and he really has come up with another interesting power - another interesting way to understand what these characters are going through."

We're intrigued. We just hope we have the chance to see it.

Following an episode of Heroes that focused on parent/sibling relationships - Claire saw a new side to her mother; while Sylar remembered an old one to his father - what can viewers expect on next week's installment?

Here are a couple of clues, courtesy of E! Online:

• Sylar finally meets his biological father, played by John Glover. The elder Mr. Gray has a wry personality, a fondness for taxidermy and a significant health problem that will factor into his relationship with his son.
• Nathan must regain Tracy's trust... or the Hunter will have both their heads.

Unfortunately for Parkman, it looks like he really might be the next Isaac.

Matt's paintings come true during the latest episode of Heroes, as the installment ends with him possibly facing the same fate that befell the season one visionary: death.

Read more about last night's new episode, "Exposed," right now.

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