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Final Ratings: Still Less Viewers Even as Rating Up for "The Breach"

PROMENADE





Posted: 00:45:24 on April 30 2003
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Enterprise | stenterprise.com
Last week's first-run presentation of "The Breach" reclaimed overnight rating losses that bottomed with "Horizon" (3.5/5, story) with a 3.8/6 (story), matching "Judgment," "Dawn" and "The Crossing" in the fast national numbers. But the improvement in the final numbers, now available, was unfortunately mixed.

While the final household rating for "The Breach" creeped up a tick to 2.3/4 over "Horizon"'s series-low 2.2/4 (story), the audience size continued to decline. Now the least-watched episode of ENTERPRISE, "The Breach" was seen by an estimated 3.19 million people last week, according to the Los Angeles Times. This is yet another drop from "Horizon"'s 3.36 million viewers two weeks ago. ENTERPRISE fell to the 104th spot last week overall, just below rival WB's DAWSON'S CREEK at #102 with 3.47 million viewers.

"The Breach" is now the episode with the lowest audience figure ever, while "Horizon" remains the lowest-rated episode. "The Breach" is the second-lowest rated episode ever, bumping "Vanishing Point" up a notch to third-lowest with a 2.5/4 back in November. March hasn't been particularly kind to the fifth STAR TREK series, with each week setting successively lower records for overnight rating, final rating, and overall viewership figures.

You can read the April 21-27 viewership wrap up at the LAT here.

React to this story below and see what others are saying at the STAR TREK BBS.
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Season Two (2002-2003)
Prod #Title Airdate
128 Shockwave, Part II 9/18/02
127 Carbon Creek9/25/02
129 Minefield10/02/02
131 Dead Stop10/09/02
130 A Night In Sickbay10/16/02
132 Marauders10/30/02
133 The Seventh11/06/02
134 The Communicator11/13/02
135 Singularity11/20/02
136 Vanishing Point11/27/02
137 Precious Cargo12/11/02
138 The Catwalk12/18/02
139 Dawn1/08/03
140 Stigma2/05/03
141 Cease Fire2/12/03
142 Future Tense2/19/03
143 Canamar2/26/03
144 The Crossing4/2/03
145 Judgment4/9/03
146 Horizon4/16/03
147 The Breach4/23/03
148 Cogenitor4/30/03
149 Regeneration5/7/03
150 First Flight5/14/03
151 Bounty5/14/03
152 The Expanse5/21/03
Season One (2001-2002)
TREKWEB TALKBACK
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Cogenitor
By starbaseops ( starbaseops@yahoo.com) at 21:56:46 on April 30 2003
URL: http://www.geocities.com/starbaseops | User Info
I just watched Cogenitor...the episode was excellant. My prediction though...the ratings will be down. Why you ask? Well, did you see the promos for it? It almost sounded comical. After watching the episode, it was anything but. Very dramatic character moments, a surprise ending, Archer finally getting some cajones, and beautiful visuals.

If it just didn't have the stupid promo with the whimsical music...

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Unbelievable!
By Hbasm ( ) at 06:32:32 on April 30 2003
URL: http://home3.inet.tele.dk/huas/st_enterprise/ENT-page1.htm | User Info
Unbelievable! What are people thinking about?? I can understand why only 3-4 millions "stick" to Enterprise, as sci-fi is too old to excite people on a weekly basis, and character development can be found everywhere, not only in sci-fi.

But after a run of good episodes, why would anyone hide?

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Enterprise would share the same fate of TOS
By Grand Admiral Thrawn ( ) at 05:31:29 on April 30 2003
URL: | User Info
In terms of ratings only. I am willing to bet now if Enterprise rating dont rebound significantly from Regeneration all the way into S3, enterprise will in no way come back for S4. It may become the first modern trek series to get cancelled for good. Plus with TNG Nemsis bombing and enterprise in a ratings free-fall I think Star Trek legacy and saga is finally nearing its end :(

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"Lets make sure that history never forgets the name, Enterprise"- Captain Jean-luc Picard

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Declining weekly popularity-A Solution
By Realthang ( ) at 23:44:19 on April 29 2003
URL: | User Info
I would like to see even more narrative tension in Enterprise episodes. Timothy Zahn, writer of several best-selling Star Wars novels, once stated in an online interview that he studied such older books as "The Guns of Navarone" to fine tune his ability to create narrative tension. By narrative tension he referred to an ever increasing intensity in a particular book that compells the reader to continue reading until the conclusion.

I create this narrative tension in my own writing by using a series of narrative hooks. Each scene except the last few scenes of resolution includes a cliffhanger. Every scene first includes either a steady buildup of emotion such as anger or fear, an increase in danger, or an intensification of drama or intrigue or discovery. Each buildup then ends with its own cliff hanger. I don't resolve the cliffhanger until I've created similar new cliffhangers for several other characters in my writing. After I've finished with the other characters, I return to my first cliffhanger and slightly resolve it before beginning a buildup to an even greater cliffhanger. Then I go back to the other characters or storylines. After I finish creating more buildups and cliff hangers for the other characters or storylines, I go back to the first character or story and do it again. I do this repeatedly for each character or storyline in my story until I reach the final scene or scenes in which I finally resolve the tension once and for all in a short concise explosive conclusion. I don't include any scenes in the story that don't in some way contribute to this buildup. If a scene doesn't include this tension-increase and somehow end with a cliffhanger, I simply don't include the scene.

I'd like to thank the writers of Enterprise for each of the times they have used this formula to add dramatic tension to Enterprise. It works, and people like it! And in the end, it doesn't really matter "what" a writer writes. What matters is "how" it is written. I'd like to see future Enterprise episodes contain even more narrative tension than they already contain. I think over time, this would give a boost to the show's popularity.

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How low will it go?
By Corran_Horn ( ) at 22:59:24 on April 29 2003
URL: | User Info
I am no expert on Nielsons ratings or how TV shows make a profit when there is no audience, but ENT's ratings just keep getting worse, and worse, and worse and UPN may very well be keeping an open mind about a replacement show. Granted, everything that has every been on UPN is crap, but I don't see how this show is generating much of a profit from the American audience, regardless if it is making on from overseas. UPN should be ENT's main source of income for Paramount, and overseas revenues just gravy.

I don't think we ever expected ENT to be in the Nielson top 20, but a 104 ranking? This show may already be greenlighted for a 3rd season, but I guarantee if ratings don't improve dramatically, there will be no season 4. We all hope that ENT is going to get better, I want it to get better. Butin a way, I kind of hope that if the show doesn't improve quality-wise, I want to see ratings drop even further until even Berman can't make an excuse for huge failure of the franchise.

Who else has ideas on how much farther you think ratings could drop, or how much longer UPN/Paramount continue to tolerate this without making drastic changes?

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"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum."

Roddy Piper, "They Live"

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