Why did people tune out?

[Bad Atom]

There seem to be a lot of topics here lately regarding which show "killed" Trek, and some posters believe it was DS9 that started Trek's downward spiral. While it is true that DS9 bled viewers during its initial run, there are many reasons this could have happened.

So here's the question...why did people tune out?

 

[14thDoctor]

There is no option for those of us who refuse to accept your premise.

 

[Bad Atom]

14thDoctor said:
There is no option for those of us who refuse to accept your premise.

It's a fact that DS9 lost viewers during its run. The question I'm asking is why.

 

[Anna Yolei]

I think it was many things overall, but the weak first season definately did not help. No wonder it was called "Deep Sleep nine" And coming off the heels of a damn popular Trek series? Hell to the no.

 

[Orac Zen]

I can only relate why I tuned out. I'd be one of the few people who didn't find any of the characters - with the exception of Kira - especially compelling (for example, I found Sisko boring - Brooks' portrayal had quite a bit to do with that - and Quark outright repulsive), and if I can't get interested in the characters in a show I can't get interested in what they do. I'm also one of the (apparently) very few people who enjoyed the first two and a bit seasons more than what followed. Once the Dominion and the war shoved almost everything else into the background, my interest waned and eventually became non-existent. I have no problem with serialised story lines (after all, Babylon 5 is one of my favourite shows ever), but I didn't find the Dominion particularly interesting and the war arc didn't interest me in the least. Basically, the show turned into something I no longer found worth watching.

That doesn't mean I don't plan to give it another go at some stage. To each their own. If we all liked the same things it would be kinda boring.

 

[MacLeod]

Anna Yolei said:
I think it was many things overall, but the weak first season definately did not help. No wonder it was called "Deep Sleep nine" And coming off the heels of a damn popular Trek series? Hell to the no.

DSN's first season was certainly no weaker than TNG's first season.

 

[toughlittleship]

And DS9 season two was much better than TNG's final season.

 

[MyCylon]

I think it's a mix of reasons. And certainly people tuned out for different reasons re. combinations of reasons. Many of the reasons above certainly apply, I think (oversaturation, stationary setting, serialization, weak early season, TNG and VOY in parallel, too dark).

I'd also add a general decline in viewer numbers (as far as I know) as well as more competition (X-Files, for example, other SciFi and mystery shows). I also personally got the feeling that DS9 didn't get the backing or promotion that could have helped make it more successful. From a certain point onwards, everything seemed to just focus on VOY.

One thing I've always asked myself: I wonder how many people came from watching TNG, checked out DS9 and didn't like (among other things) the stationary setting, saw in VOY something more familiar, checked that out, got disappointed by the show and never looked back at Trek again.
I certainly think Trek overall would have faired a lot better with just one show on the air after TNG, i.e. DS9. There would have been more incentive for people to keep watching it, I think.

 

[DostoyevskyClone]

I started watching TNG in my early teens. I loved TNG but I initially tuned out of DS9 because I found it boring. It seemed whenever I caught an episode, it was either politics or religion and done with a pacing completely different than what I had experienced with Trek. I think age had a lot to do with it, because I have subsequently revisited the series and watched all seven seasons on DVD and actually found it to be slightly better in overall quality than TNG.

Reading other people's comments for the last few years, "boring because it was set on a space station," and "lacking Roddenberry's spirit" are the two most common answers I've encountered to explain why DS9 was not watched as much as TNG.

For me, neither of these points is as concerning as the writers and producers attempts to "pull in" more fans: I think season four was a subpar season and suffered because they tried to write things around Worf and the Klingons; seasons six and seven were also disappointing for me because they tried to increase the action quotient by focusing more on the war and got away from "thematic" storytelling.

 

[benny]

Not scientific in the least, but a couple people in my art class gave up on DS9 before S2 ended because it was "boring". The addition of the Defiant didn't bring them back.

There are lots of reasons a show bleeds viewers and this one can't be pinned to just one of them.

 

[Bad Atom]

Justtoyourleft said:
I'd also add a general decline in viewer numbers (as far as I know) as well as more competition (X-Files, for example, other SciFi and mystery shows). I also personally got the feeling that DS9 didn't get the backing or promotion that could have helped make it more successful. From a certain point onwards, everything seemed to just focus on VOY.

Good point. I didn't include the increased competition from other sci-fi shows or the rapidly expanding syndicated market at the time. TNG basically pioneered the syndicated first-run market and had a free pass. DS9 had a tougher time.

As for promotion, Voyager was on a network and therefore a different situation. It was also UPN's flagship show and it was hyped like crazy. TPTB did make a few attempts to promote DS9 after the premiere (Worf joins the cast, the "Tribbles" episode) but they kind of gave up on it.

 

[Photon]

Bajoran Politics (yawn) Bajoran Religion (yawn) Bajorans (yawn)
The only thing that kept me watching was a few good Caradassian shows. I now enjoy the same shows I hated (except for Move Along Home (or just go away Home) but it was really really boring. No starship, little too heavy on the Bajor stuff-little Klingons, Romulans, and bad guys.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Photon said:
Bajoran Politics (yawn) Bajoran Religion (yawn) Bajorans (yawn)

Yeah, that was my major early complaint, too. I shuddered if I saw guest actors with ridged Bajoran nose pieces before the opening credits. As well written as "The Circle" trilogy was written, it left me cold. It didn't help that so many early DS9 novels were similarly lacklustre.

I was such a big fan of TAS, TMP, Saavik, and TNG, but I found it difficult to open my heart to yet another cast of ST characters. From the beginning, I really loved Bashir, Garak and Dax (even though many people claimed that Terry Farrell couldn't act), but I felt myself finally being won over more fully by "Blood Oath" and then "The Search".

By the time of "You are Cordially Invited", "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" and "What You Leave Behind", I was a huge fan.

With VOY, I didn't resist the new characters, but I found that VOY missed all the character and story opportunities it set up. DS9, however, exploited all of its story set-ups. It amazes me that we learned so much about the semi-regulars: Nog, Rom, Leeta, Morn, Garak, Damar, Winn, Kasidy Yates, Weyoun, and so many others who weren't headliners in the opening credit sequence.

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Why, oh why, did people abandon DS9???
The show's stationary setting / boring
Serialized storylines / too hard to follow
Weak early episodes
Too dark / gritty / un-Roddenberry

I myself tuned out during Season 2 due to weak episodes and the boring space station setting. I caught a few Season 3 episodes, but the show just didn't grab me. I returned for the Season 4 premiere when Worf joined the cast and watched the rest of the series. I have since gotten Seasons 1-3 on DVD. They were pleasently good years except for the Ferengi episodes. Those people have no morals. Anyway, I don't think DS9 was too dark and gritty. The only times I got upset with the show is when they had characters do some bad things for the greater good, because I don't believe in shades of grey. How far is too far, and who is to be the judge of that? If an action is wrong, it's wrong. If the show is given a chance, the space station setting is kind of fun to watch. It's like a little city floating in space. Plus, if they want to go somewhere, they can take a Runabout.

I would say the only things that really hurt the show were the dark, gritty, ethical shades of grey atmosphere, Bajoran politics, and Ferengi episodes.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Well, here in Los Angeles DS9 ran against Seinfeld and Must See Tv in its prime on a non-national network. That couldn't have helped.

 

[BriGuy]

Bad Atom said:

14thDoctor said:
There is no option for those of us who refuse to accept your premise.

It's a fact that DS9 lost viewers during its run. The question I'm asking is why.

Yup. All one has to do is bring back up that great ratings chart showing all the shows together. The decline starts during DS9.

Why, I can't honestly say. I watched all of DS9 and enjoyed it. Just as I did TNG, Voyager and Enterprise, from first airing all the way through to finish.

 

[Jonesy]

Orac Zen said:
I can only relate why I tuned out. I'd be one of the few people who didn't find any of the characters - with the exception of Kira - especially compelling (for example, I found Sisko boring - Brooks' portrayal had quite a bit to do with that - and Quark outright repulsive), and if I can't get interested in the characters in a show I can't get interested in what they do. I'm also one of the (apparently) very few people who enjoyed the first two and a bit seasons more than what followed. Once the Dominion and the war shoved almost everything else into the background, my interest waned and eventually became non-existent. I have no problem with serialised story lines (after all, Babylon 5 is one of my favourite shows ever), but I didn't find the Dominion particularly interesting and the war arc didn't interest me in the least. Basically, the show turned into something I no longer found worth watching.

That doesn't mean I don't plan to give it another go at some stage. To each their own. If we all liked the same things it would be kinda boring.

DS9 never really "grabbed" me when it was originally broadcast (and my reasons for tuning out of the show were mostly related with not having a focus on watching t.v. in my early twenties) but I have found it more than worthwhile to catch on dvd.

I'm kind of like you - I don't do backflips for pretty much all of the characters on the show, save for Garak and Quark. (athough the doesn't mean I hate or really dislike the others) But I always felt that the writers gave serious, serious attention to the show - and to the kind of stories it was trying to tell (once it got over its early first season-ish rocky start).

I am really of the opinion that if DS9 was premiered today, it would be a success. One of the things that I just could not avoid noticing (and I don't go out of my way to try to focus on the religious or political aspects of any television series) is how socially relevant the show is today. I don't know if other fans of this series feel the same way, but in a way I am glad that I watched this show today than 14 years previous.

 

[Nebusj]

I stopped watching in first run because the first and second seasons were just too weak. The Bajoran-centered episodes, ``Duet'' excepted, were just frightfully boring, since someone inadvertently failed to notice the Bajorans have no interesting properties to them. The species-of-the-week, disease-of-the-week, or real-character-in-crisis-of-the-week episodes were too often things like ``Move Along Home'' or ``Babel'' or ``Invasive Procedures'' that already felt like the tired retreads that were chasing me off of The Next Generation. Yeah, there were great episodes mixed in there, but at the time there weren't enough great ones to make slogging through the mediocre ones worthwhile.

As I'm not a particularly exceptional person in any way, we may therefore safely conclude the overwhelming majority of Deep Space Nine potential viewers had the exact same feelings at the exact same time, and weren't generally lured back by hitting blasted time-travel or alternate-universe stories every single time they tried watching from the third season up until February of this year.

 

[darthvincor]

Other:
Those who tuned out were idiots who wouldn't recognize a good show if it came bit them in the ass.

But seriously, when I first saw DS9, I didn't like it either.
-It took place on a space station, that just sat there and didn't 'go' anywhere.
-Sisko struck me as bland and lame.
-The station and the show didn't 'feel' like star trek at all.

It's not a show one can instantly like, it has to grow on you. That's what happened to me.
Now I'm worship show, love it's premise, admire Sisko.

 

[Computer Voice]

I struggled with DS9 on first viewing, I was 13 at the time. I liked most of the characters, I just found Bajor pretty boring in the first couple of seasons. But now I can appreciate those slower stories much more.

Charles Trip Tucker III said:
They were pleasently good years except for the Ferengi episodes. Those people have no morals.

Of course they have morals, they are just different morals to yours.

Charles Trip Tucker III said:
... because I don't believe in shades of grey. How far is too far, and who is to be the judge of that? If an action is wrong, it's wrong.

What if two people have differing views on what is right and wrong? Who's view takes precedence? Right and wrong can't be absolutes.

Morality changes over time. 100,000 years ago it was morally acceptable to club your neighbour over the head to steal his meat. Now it isn't. 300 years ago it was morally acceptable to rape your wife, because she was your property. Now it isn't. 150 years ago it was morally acceptable to claim that whites were superior to non-whites. Not it isn't. Right and wrong can't be absolutes.