its third year, the series ranked 55th and was viewed by an average of 15.40 million viewers, an increase of almost seven percent over the second season, making it Fox's top-rated program in the 1849-year-old demographic. Although the first three episodes of the fourth season aired on Friday night, the fourth episode "Unruhe" aired on Sunday night. The show remained on Sunday until its end. The season hit a high with its twelfth episode, "Leonard Betts", which was chosen as the lead-out program following Super Bowl XXXI. The episode was viewed by 29.1 million viewers, the series' highest-rated episode. The fifth season debuted with "Redux I" on November 2, 1997, and was viewed by 27.34 million people, making it the highest-rated non-special broadcast episode of the series. The season ranked as the eleventh-most watched series during the 199798 year, with an average of 19.8 million viewers. It was the series' highest-rated season as well as Fox' highest-rated program during the 199798 season. The sixth season premiered with "The Beginning", watched by 20.24 million viewers. The show ended season six with lower numbers than the previous season, beginning a decline that would continue for the show's final three years. The X-Files was nevertheless Fox's highest-rated show that year. The seventh season, originally intended as the show's last, ranked as the 29th most-watched show for the 19992000 year, with 14.20 million viewers. This made it, at the time, the lowest-rated year of the show since the third season. The first episode of season eight, "Within", was viewed by 15.87 million viewers. The episode marked an 11% decrease from the seventh season opener, "The Sixth Extinction". The first part of the ninth season opener, "Nothing Important Happened Today", only attracted 10.6 million viewers, the series' lowest-rated season premiere. The original series finale, "The Truth", attracted 13.25 million viewers, the series' lowest rated season finale. The ninth season was the 63rd most-watched show for the 200102 season, tying its season two rank. On May 19, 2002, the finale aired and the Fox network confirmed that The X-Files was over. When talking about the beginning of the ninth season, Carter said, "We lost our audience on the first episode. It's like the audience had gone away and I didn't know how to find them. I didn't want to work to get them back because I believed what we are doing deserved to have them back."