Lower Decks has successfully brought in new viewers to the franchise and led them into other shows. It’s also held viewers who just signed up for Picard.
As the most successful digital animated comedy on Paramount Plus in 2022, and with animated comedies being a key attractor for younger viewers, it seems like the show shouldn’t be at risk.
It’s not like they can get another animated Trek comedy off the ground in less than two full calendar years. More Lower Decks is successfully threading the needle between attracting new young viewers and pleasing older core fans. The Very Short Trek experiment was largely a failure with all but narrow slice of American fans in a narrow demographic. It showed that comforting those fans will alienate those they already have.