'Heroes' bows out to 4.4 million

The season four finale of Heroes had a disappointing performance for NBC last night, early ratings figures show.

'Brave New World', widely rumoured to be the show's series finale, pulled in 4.41m during the 9pm hour, improving slightly on last week's episode.

Season four's opener, which aired Monday, September 21, managed 6m, down around 4.09m from the previous season premiere. Since then, the show's ratings have fluctuated, but hit a series low of 3.93m on Monday, January 18.

Also on NBC last night, Chuck logged 6.61m at 8pm, and The Jay Leno Show had 4.31m during the 10pm hour.

Over on CBS, How I Met Your Mother and Accidentally On Purpose grabbed 10.11m and 9.23m during the 8pm hour, then 17.56m watched Two And A Half Men at 9pm. The Big Bang Theory followed at 9.30pm, drawing 16.2m, then 13.46m tuned in for CSI: Miami at 10pm.

The latest episode of House, which focused on Lisa Edelstein's character Dr Cuddy, drew 13.55m for Fox at 8pm, then the audience dropped to 10.18m during the 9pm screening of 24.

The Bachelor: On The Wings Of Love averaged 12.34m for ABC between 8pm and 10pm, then Castle interested 9.48m.

One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected attracted 2.22m and 2.01m to The CW at 8pm and 9pm respectively.