Psst...Did You Hear There's a Big Death on Heroes Tonight? Do You Care?

Unless you've been living under a rock with noise-canceling headphones (or recently encountered a sexy Haitian), you've probably heard by now that—I guess we should saySpoiler Alert here?—Adrian Pasdar's character, Nathan Petrelli, is getting killed off of Heroes tonight.

It is without a doubt the worst-kept secret of the TV season.

After we reported Adrian's impending exit as ablind riddle, executive producer Tim Kringconfirmed the news to TV Guide magazine, and now USA Today has a big flashy interviewwith Adrian himself (and also Kring).

Yo, NBC and Kring, people like read that and stuff!

This is…odd. Usually such major character deaths are kept under lock and key, even if something has been leaked by the press (think George/T.R. Knight on Grey's Anatomy), but NBC and Kring seem to be shouting Adrian's "surprising" exit from the rooftops.

Why? And why should you care?

Well, clearly, they're hoping you'll watch tonight. It's no secret that Heroes has been dipping in the ratings this season (currently No. 62 in the Nielsens with less than 7 million viewers). And the only thing worse than having to kill off an integral castmember as a ratings ploy is for no one to tune in to see it, right?

Also, after rumors spread that Pasdar may have learned about his firing from reading Nathan's death in a script, Kring had a little damage control to do, telling TV Guide: "We talked openly with Adrian about [his departure] several months ago and have kept him abreast of where his arc was headed—he always knew what was going on."

So why are the killing Nathan (for realsies this time)?

According to Adrian, "Some deaths need to stick."

According to Kring, "We were starting to run out of ways to keep that character around."

Regardless, something tells me Adrian could be considering this move as a blessing given the onetime hit's southbound direction. He tells USA Today simply, "I'm happy to have had the opportunity to have this long of a run." Kudos to A.P. for keeping his head held high. (Not an easy task with all that Fight Club chaos going on inside there courtesy of Sylar.)

Do you think they are doing the right thing killing off Nathan for good? Will you be watching? Is there anything Heroes could do to get you watching again if you haven't been this season?