See Also: 'Fight or Flight' Episode Guide

After the successful ratings of the Enterprise premiere, yesterday's 'Fight or Flight' ratings slid by 20%, but the show managed to lure back a far greater percentage of its initial audience than any recent Trek show.

According to preliminary figures released by Zap2It, 'Fight or Flight' scored a 7.2 overnight rating and an 11 share, compared to last week's 9.1/12. This means that out of all households with television sets in America, approximately 7.2% were tuned in to Enterprise, while the show attracted 11% of those people actually watching TV at 8:00pm.

'Fight or Flight' dropped 21% from last week, when it scored a 9.1. Originally, Zap2It (and TrekToday) reported that the episode achieved a 9.9 overnight rating, but this has since been changed to a 9.1 on the Zap2It site, suggesting that the initial overnight rating was incorrect.

While a 21% drop is clearly substantial, this was also to be expected for the series. Most new shows experience a decline in viewership after their opening episodes, as a portion of the initial audience loses interest. The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager all experienced drops of 27%-29% between their first and second episodes, so if Enterprise's mere 21% audience loss holds up in the final ratings this is very good news for the show's ability to retain viewers.

With these ratings, Enterprise managed to place third for its timeslot, down one place from last week. 60 Minutes II on CBS again won the hour with a 9.5/14, but ABC's My Wife and Kids also beat 'Fight or Flight' with a 8.5/13. Still, Enterprise managed to stay ahead of NBC's Lost, which scored a 5.3/8, two FOX sitcoms (4.5/7), and the WB's 'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery' (3.2/5). For the entire night, UPN placed fourth, ahead of FOX and the WB.

Meanwhile, Enterprise's lead-out show, Special Unit 2, only achieved a 4.0 rating / 6 share. While this was up from the 3.3/5 the show's first episode scored last year, this rating is a bit disappointing considering the show now has the benefit of having Enterprise as lead-in show. Special Unit 2 placed 5th in its timeslot, beaten by one decimal point by the FOX line-up for the hour.

Please note that these figures only represent the overnight ratings from the top 47 television markets in the country. The final national ratings, measuring all markets, should be available within a few days. As Star Trek tends to be most popular in large urban markets, its final ratings are usually a bit lower than the overnight ratings - 'Broken Bow,' for instance, dropped from a 9.1 to a 7.0.

For the original report on Zap2It, please follow this link.

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