Usually, viewers can hardly wait for the season premiere of their favorite show. They turn off their phones, dim the lights and prepare for the encounter with their favorite characters.

NBC was sure that the “Chuck” and “Life” die-hard fans would be glued to their screens on Monday night. They certainly had a long wait, as Chuck’s season finale was in January 2008 and Life’s – in December 2007. Despite expectations, the numbers showed the grim truth: 28% of the fans who watched Chuck’s previous season premiere missed this one, while 30% of Life’s initial enthusiasts didn’t tune in. There’s still hope for Life, though, as it will soon be assigned a different air time - 10 p.m., on Fridays. Heroes lost 750,000 viewers in a time-span of just one week, between the season premiere and the episode aired this week.

ABC had a different night – a slightly more successful one, as Dancing With the Stars and Boston Legal did lose some viewers, but not nearly as many as NBC or the other networks.

CBS also had a decent evening, as The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men lost below 10% each, and although CSI: Miami lost 17% of its viewers. Furthermore, all the shows’ ratings exceeded the average of their last aired seasons.

Fox had a blue Monday: Prison Break is losing viewers by the episode, which may have two possible reasons. Firstly, the fans who wanted Sara Tancredi resurrected are unhappy with the writers’ inability to come up with a convincing explanation as to why the decapitated woman (whose head was seen by Lincoln Burrows!) is still alive and kicking. The second possible reason is that other fans are upset by the writers giving in to the pressure and reviving Sara.

The best results registered go, however, to CW: both One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl had their most high rated episodes.

Have the shows lost their It-factors? Do characters have nowhere else to go? Are the stories in a rut? Or did the writers’ strike drive fans away from their most beloved shows to such an extent that they refused to see the seasons’ premieres? Any of the above reasons are perfectly valid, just as the phrase “Out of sight, out of mind” can be applied to this situation. And speaking of “out of sight” - any news on Nip/Tuck?