No, read: really low ratings that didn't justify it's budget. It hemorrhaged viewers every season. Reality shows don't necessarily bring in huge numbers rather they are dirt cheap to produce (biggest single cost is usually insurance).
Could Enterprise be revived?
- Thread starter BlueStuff
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No, read: really low ratings that didn't justify it's budget. It hemorrhaged viewers every season. Reality shows don't necessarily bring in huge numbers rather they are dirt cheap to produce (biggest single cost is usually insurance).
Isn’t all that exactly what I said?
Not really. Yours was, in my opinion, a half truth. You left out the context of it's terribly bad ratings as there have been many shows that had good ratings but were cancelled anyway due to cost or other factors: Original Battlestar: Galactica, Space: Above and Beyond, Farscape, etc.. Enterprise simply was not one of them - it was an unmitigated failure.
What are you talking about? ENT was UPN’s highest rated show. It wasn’t cancelled because it had bad ratings. It was cancelled because it was more expensive to produce than the ratings returns it was getting. That’s not the same as getting bad ratings.
Storywise,.. there's nowhere to take Enterprise.
The ship was put in mothballs. Archer becomes some policitian. Tucker, the best character, is dead. Berman and Braga sealed Enterprise's fate.
The ship was put in mothballs. Archer becomes some policitian. Tucker, the best character, is dead. Berman and Braga sealed Enterprise's fate.
Eh, it would be simple enough to "reveal" that TATV was crappy made-up holoprogram bashed together by Barclay while on a drunken binge and had nothing to do with reality, which was actually... cue music, fade in to new ENT episode about whatever they want. Since the books basically did this, why not do a finale fix on TV.
Buuuuut much as I would really really enjoy a fix-and-proper-sendoff TV movie or three a la Alien Nation, I don't think it'll happen, alas. The business of show feeds on profits, and TNG has a better track record, plus Patrick Stewart.
Buuuuut much as I would really really enjoy a fix-and-proper-sendoff TV movie or three a la Alien Nation, I don't think it'll happen, alas. The business of show feeds on profits, and TNG has a better track record, plus Patrick Stewart.
That just means UPN was getting lousy ratings across the board, and out of all their shows Enterprise was perhaps the least lousy. So bad in fact that it was folded into the WB to become the CW.
Um, that's actually a working definition of "bad ratings."
^^^
So, it was like EVERY OTHER post TNG Star Trek series then. When it was cancelled it was either the highest, or second highest rated show on the CW. Yes, it was expensive to produce, and also didn't draw in the demographic the CW wanted to cater to; and also Star Trek hasd been on the air for 18 years straight (no break) and 25 TV seasons across 4 series at that point.
^^^
All that was a part of the decision to give the entire Franchise a break. Hell, if JJ Abrams hadn't really wanted to do a version of 'Star Trek' - ST: D probably would have been the first revival of the franchise.
That didn’t happen until after ENT had been cancelled. And being the “least lousy” makes no difference. That’s not how the UPN execs saw things.
No, it isn’t. If ENT’s ratings were high, but it cost UPN three times as much money to produce the show than the ratings returns, then it doesn’t matter if the ratings are high. UPN is losing money. I’m not sure why that’s so hard for you to understand.
Except for the fact Enterprise's ratings were NOT, in truth, high and the series was trending downward year-to-year since its start. Yes, there have been shows, as I've listed, that were cancelled despite solid performances, however, Enterprise was NOT one of them. UPN needed to stay operational for a period until they could merge it with the WB - not something you do over night (affiliate agreements, etc.). So yeah, it was planned quite sometime in advance just like Enterprise's cancellation notice. Enterprise went off like April or May of 2005 and UPN ceased just prior to the traditional start of the 2006 season - no real gap between the two events. And of all the shows that migrated from UPN to the CW Star Trek: Enterprise was never considered to be one of them. So, with respect, I am not the one having a hard time "getting it."
Uh, NO. Enterprise was the only series aside from TOS to be prematurely cancelled. TNG, DS9 and VOY all went their full seven season runs. VOY aired primarily on UPN (I don't know if it was syndicated in markets not served by a UPN affiliate). TNG and DS9 were syndicated. No Trek series was part of the CW network programing.
The unmitigated failure of Enterprise forced Paramount to give it a break. Sadly, no lessons were learned as CBS vows to flood their All Access channel with non-stop Star Trek. You simply can't miss something and pine for its return if it never goes away.
Fixed that for ya.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
But you're right, they wouldn't let the final episode stop them.
And so did the ratings for DS9 and Voyager. And since we’re not talking about a comparison between UPN’s ratings and, say, NBC’s ratings, the fact that ENT was UPN’s highest rated show is all that matters in this discussion.
ENT’s cancellation had nothing whatsoever to do with UPN becoming the CW. As a matter of fact, the only reason why ENT wasn’t cancelled after its 3rd season (which was the original plan) was because there weren’t enough episodes to sell the series to syndication, so Moonves allowed a 4th season to happen solely for that purpose.
I don't know if it's implied that if Enterprise were revived that it would basically pick up after season four, but before the events the finale (since that was six years later). Otherwise, if they take into account the number of years that have passed in real time, they would either have to ignore the events of the series finale, which would be fine by me, or set it after that and have some plot device that gets the crew back together on the old NX-01. But even then, that's a stretch.
Dukhat and G. Kurto, kindly chill out and stop questioning each other's comprehension abilities. Now, please.
DS9 was syndications number one drama for several years. It was later only eclipsed by the Hercules/Xena. It maintained good, strong ratings and demographics throughout its 7 season run. It far out distanced other competitors such as Babylon-5 during its 4 seasons in syndication. Voyagers worst numbers were better than Enterprise's best throughout it's run. So even in a strict contest between VOY and ENT the latter loses across the board. Enterprise, by the numbers, was a failure.
The only instance we would factor NBC in is if we wanted to include TOS. TOS, though always on the bubble, was pulling in 15-20 million viewers during its run.
ENT was cancelled due to poor performance. Moonves kept it on for reasons outside of said performance. If ENT and the other network shows had performed better then UPN would not have folded. MY GOD, Enterprise was a real life "Doomsday Machine" that devoured an entire network!
I apologize and shall heed your admonishment.
The books retconned it pretty well with Tuckers death being faked so he could go undercover and infiltrate the romulans in the lead up to the earth romulan war.
Interesting. Isn't These Are The Voyages... set, presumably, after the Romulan Wars have happened?
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