The new season has gotten off to a rather disheartening start for the networks, with ratings down from last year among major demographics and very few new hits to speak of.

The news didn’t get much better with yesterday’s much-anticipated release of seven-day playback digital video recorder viewership for premiere week.

Though already-established hits like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” and NBC’s “ER” saw sizeable DVR kickups for their premieres, they didn’t make up for all of this year’s losses.

Many shows were still down from last year’s live averages for opening week even with the DVR viewers added in.

And while a couple of new shows also saw their ratings rise 15 percent or more with DVR viewership added in, none got enough of a kick to be labeled hits or even to save a dud like CBS’s “Cane.”

NBC’s “Heroes” got the biggest DVR kick among adults 18-49, with its premiere rating up 2.3 points, or 27.3 percent, from a 6.1 to an 8.4. That includes same-day playbacks, which are included in the overnight ratings that Nielsen releases daily.

ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” rose the most among total viewers, with 3.9 million watching on DVRs, pushing the show’s total viewership up 16.9 percent to almost 23 million total viewers. That’s still 2.5 million fewer than the non-DVR audience that caught the show’s premiere last year.

Ditto for CBS’s “Men,” which was still down 1 million from last year’s premiere even with an 11.5 percent rise in total viewers for DVR viewing. And NBC’s “ER,” whose 4.4 seven-day-playback rating among 18-49s was off 35 percent from last year’s 6.8 live-plus-same-day rating.

Among new shows, the most-DVRed programs were also the two most-watched shows in premiere week. ABC’s “Private Practice” and NBC’s “Bionic Woman” saw double-digit bumps among 18-49s and total viewers.

Yet both shows dipped in their second weeks. DVR ratings won’t be available for those episodes until next Monday, but it seems unlikely that DVRs could account for all of that decline. That seems unlikely for other new shows as well.

Another new show with a sizeable week-one DVR audience, NBC’s “Journeyman,” also saw a steep decline in week two live ratings. In its premiere, “Journeyman’s” DVR rating among 18-49s jumped 18.4 percent over its live rating, from a 3.3 to a 4.07.

Meanwhile, CBS’s “Cane” saw its total viewers number rise only 9.6 percent with DVR viewership added, behind rises for other 10 p.m. new shows like “Journeyman” and ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money.”

Still, a few borderline new shows demonstrated enough DVR pull that they’ll likely be safe for a while. Fox’s “Back to You,” which has declined each week since its premiere, saw one of the biggest percentage boosts from DVR playback, with its 18-49 rating rising 21 percent, from 2.4 to 3.05.

The CW’s acclaimed new dramedy “Reaper” grew a promising 20.7 percent, from 1.38 to 1.74.

Among the returning shows that saw sizeable DVR kickups of 20 percent or more in 18-49s: CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother,” Fox’s “Prison Break” and NBC’s “My Name is Earl.”