... so confused ... Who's arguing for what now?
About whether or not VOY's audience was already out to dislike the show when it started and whether or not the show got a more hostile reception than its predecessors.
Also VOY's audience had unrealistic expectations (tensions between the crew lasting 7 years straight with no ending until the series finale).
Oh. Well, that's easy:
Star Trek fans weren't collectively biased against VOY anymore than they were against any other post-TNG
Trek show. You could always find
some slice of fans who weren't going to accept it, no matter how it turned out once it aired, for this or that reason. Far and away, most fans gave it a fair shake.
As for the general audience, it was the most receptive it could have been, given that TNG had been reasonably accepted in mainstream circles.
If you look at
the Nielsen ratings, VOY lost viewers by attrition, just like every other post-TNG
Trek show. Just look at the ratings of the premier: it's right in line with TNG. People gave VOY a chance. But then people tuned out for some reason; it must have been because they didn't find VOY sufficiently engaging, despite having given it a try.
That initial relatively sharp drop-off before settling into steady decline is the same for each of DS9, VOY,
and ENT. With but one exception, the situation doesn't really merit singling any of the three out over the others*. Their curves are too similar for that. It's just that each show did worse than the one preceding it, despite people having had high expectations at the outset. Clearly, though, by the time ENT rolled around, people were getting tired of it, and therein is the exception: ENT is the one show of the three whose premier didn't equal or exceed TNG-level ratings.
* -
ETA: To clarify, I mean singling out for being
notably worse than the others,
beyond the general evident overall trend of going ever downward to lower ratings. DS9 is notable for having the highest rated episode of all, its premier, but even though VOY's was lower, it wasn't notably lower.