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, 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 series a bit.

US TV audiences are more clued into NBC’s “Knight Rider” than any other new show so far. More than 60% of viewers are aware that the action series is zooming back into primetime — perhaps no surprise, given the talking car franchise’s place in pop culture history.