and "Genesis" won for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Drama Series. "All Good Things..." also won the second of the series' two Hugo Awards. "All Good Things..." also achieved the highest Nielsen rating for all of Season 7, with a rating of 17.4. Legacy Although the cast members were contracted for eight seasons, Paramount ended The Next Generation after seven, which disappointed and puzzled some of the actors, and was an unusual decision for a successful television show. Paramount then made films using the cast, which it believed would be less successful if the show were still on television. An eighth season also would likely have reduced the show's profitability due to higher cast salaries and a lower price per episode when sold as strip programming. The show's strong ratings continued to the end; the 1994 series finale was ranked number two among all shows that week, between hits Home Improvement and Seinfeld, and was watched by over 30 million viewers. TNG was the most-watched Star Trek show, with a peak audience of 11.5 million during its fifth season prior to the launch of DS9. Between 1988 and 1992 it picked up half a million to a million additional viewers per year. Adjusted Nielsen ratings for Star Trek TV shows: Fall 1987 – Spring 1988: 8.55 Million TNG S1 Fall 1988 – Spring 1989: 9.14 Million TNG S2 Fall 1989 – Spring 1990: 9.77 Million TNG S3 Fall 1990 – Spring 1991: 10.58 Million TNG S4 Fall 1991 – Spring 1992: 11.50 Million TNG S5 Fall 1992 – Spring 1993: 10.83 Million TNG S6 (DS9 S1 Debuted in Spring 1993) Fall 1993 – Spring 1994: 9.78 Million TNG S7 + DS9 S2 Fall 1994 – Spring 1995: 7.05 Million DS9 S3 + VOY S1 Fall 1995 – Spring 1996: 6.42 Million DS9 S4 + VOY S2 Fall 1996 – Spring 1997: 5.03 Million DS9 S5 + VOY S3 Fall 1997 – Spring 1998: 4.53 Million DS9 S6 + VOY S4 Fall 1998 – Spring 1999: 4.00 Million DS9 S7 + VOY S5 (Voyager ended after two more seasons) Science fiction authors noted how Star Trek: The Next Generation influenced their careers. Episodes Star Trek: The Next Generation aired for seven seasons beginning on September 28, 1987 and ending on May 23, 1994. The series begins with the crew of the Enterprise-D put on trial by an omnipotent