Production hiatus in Enterprise at the end of season 3

To understand why Enterprise was almost cancelled after only 3 seasons, one must come back to season 2. At mid season, the audience continuiously falls from one episode to the following. If season 1 was marked by high scores, placing the series at top of its categorie in audience, season 2 ratings makes it fall at the bottom of the charts, and the audience has never been so bad in Star Trek history. At the beginning of December 2002 (shooting of 'Dawn'), UPN programming chief Dawn Ostroff confirmed that ENTERPRISE was being slightly retooled by promising sexier and action-packed episodes, to try and curb the decline observed in the ratings since the beginning of the season 2. In one year, the audience has been cut by 15 percent while rival WB has increased by 17 percent on the same period. TV Guide then just called Enterprise the series 'lost in Space'. In January 2003, Paramount makes an attempt to dope the series ratings by spending more money in advertising than for any other episode of this season for the first new episode of the year, Stigma, after the mid season hiatus. The result is a failure. If the audience has actually risen of 10-15 percent compared to Dawn (the worst ever rating for a Star Trek episode), it is still the 3rd worse audience of the season. The future of Enterprise seems then very dark, while UPN changes and renews its programmation by cancelling bad audience and old series (Buffy finishes in June 2003). In February 2003, we are at -24 percent in ratings in one year. Executive producers then promise a dramatic change of direction in the subject. Finally, UPN threatens the producers and forces them to find another concept in the stories, and the finale cliffhanger of the season 2 introduces new bad guyes, Xindis, who want to destroy Earth. So Enterprise will have a complete 3rd season written on a unique mission, with numerous new recurring characters, and even muscled military supplement in the casting.

The change of style works... at least for half a season. The audience rises, then fall again, without reaching the bottoms of season 2. In December 2003, during the mid season hiatus after the airing of a temporal episode, Carpenter Street, a rumour talks about the reduction of episodes from 26 to 24. Why ? Budget shrinking, still allowing to reach the magical number of 100 episodes in 4 seasons de 100 épisodes, better sold in syndication than series having less than that number. Then the catastrophic rumour appends. January 15, 2004, internal shotting sources announce the possible cancellation of the series, following the sudden and surprising cancellation of 'Jake 2.0', a series that Paramount had defined, exactely as Enterprise, as 'sure' for its future. At this time, it seems the executive producers (Berman and Braga) were trying to find another TV network to allow Enterprise to go on. One week later, January 21, while one of the best episodes is aired, Proving Ground, the worse information comes to us. Paramount direction (Les Moonves and Dawn Ostroff) refuses to announce the renewing of Enterprise in September, while other series are officially renewed. This is then the worse sign of cancellation.

Fans then launch signature campaigns against the cancellation of the series, and even pay advertising pages in papers. The debat reaches magazines, with some supporting the movement while other argue about the inevitable falling of public interest for the Star Trek phenomenom (the latest movie, Nemesis, launched in December 2002, was a commercial failure, sign of the end of the Next Generation actors interest for these movies). The audience stays stable, but however bad. the airing time slot is changed for April reruns, going from Wednesday evening 8PM (traditional time slot for Star Trek) to Friday evening (nicknammed the death time slot, because of the lower ratings due to people out that night). Another rumour pretends that the producers are then asked to leave their leading role in the series if Enterprise would to be renewed. The suspense will go on until beginnning of May 2004.

In May 2004, good news come back. The shooting of season 3 is then completed since the end of March. Actors declare having been called to come back soon to stages for the shooting of new episodes. Finally, on May 20, 2004, while there is only one episode left to be aired, Zero Hour, UPN directors officially announce the renewing of Enterprise on their channel for a 4th season, that will be aired on Friday nights. Producers and part of the direction declared thent that the fan signatures campaigns had been a factor for the decision against the cancellation.