Premiere week has arrived for NBC, and it all starts tonight with a massive (and long-awaited) Heroes event!

The last new episode aired last December, with Season Two cut short by the writer’s strike.  In the spring the writers decided to concentrate on the third season (premiering tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific), rather than jumping back into production to add a few episodes onto the second season.  That time allowed creator Tim Kring and his team to evaluate the show’s “sophomore slump” and retool the show a bit.

Heroes begins at 8 p.m. with a new recap special, hosted by members of the show’s large cast.  At 9 p.m. is the 2-hour Season Three premiere, “The Second Coming” and “The Butterfly Effect.”

On Wednesday we’ll be watching the series premiere of Knight Rider, which follows the February TV movie that souped up the venerable 1980s series that starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight.  The new Knight Rider isn’t a “reimagining,” but extends the original series mythology with new faces and a car fit for the twenty-first century.

Justin Bruening stars as new driver and action hero Mike Traceur.  Knight Rider premieres Wednesday at 8 p.m. E/P, and we hope its cool — especially after last year’s fiasco with a reboot of another 80s genre series, The Show Which Must Not Be Named.

Outside of the sci-fi and fantasy genre, of course, NBC will have lots of new offerings for those of us jonesing for The Office, 30 Rock (which won seven Emmys last night), E.R., and so on.