Berman Not Fazed by Ratings, Blalock Criticisms

Executive producer Rick Berman reiterated his belief that the Nielsen ratings do not accurately reflect the number of viewers watching Star Trek: Enterprise each week and said that he still has no news on the likelihood of a guest appearance by William Shatner.

During his regular chat with columnist Ian Spelling for Star Trek Magazine (courtesy Sci Fi Pulse), Berman also played down reported negative comments by Jolene Blalock about her unhappiness with some developments involving T'Pol and said that he was very pleased with both the stand-alone and arc shows currently being produced on Enterprise.

"I think everybody is pleased that we've managed to hold onto most of our audience even though we've moved to Friday," said Berman, citing the fact that among TiVo users, Enterprise is 25th on the list of shows that people record every week: "It was way ahead of some very major shows. That says that a lot of people are going out on Friday nights, but TiVo-ing the shows."

Concerning Blalock's complaints, Berman noted that she was not the first Star Trek actor to "mouth off a bit in interviews" (likely a reference to Voyager's Robert Beltran, who was infamous for his criticisms of the franchise). "I think it's unfortunate, but it's not unusual," Berman added. As for the likelihood of an appearance by Shatner as Captain Kirk, "It's totally out of our hands...happening between agents and attorneys," said the executive producer, who noted that he was not optimistic but still believed it might come together.

The interview with Berman appears in issue #119 of Star Trek Magazine, now on sale in the UK. These excerpts are from Sci Fi Pulse.

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