Actually, TrekMovie makes the case that the references in the reply to the need to ‘time things out’ for the franchise was the answer. I would parse that as their having other Star Trek franchise products ahead in the queue.
The person asking really let Cheeks off the hook though with their final question being, “Is Trek still a priority for the company?”.
No matter how specific the preceding preamble was to Legacy, the question they got to was super general and let Cheeks take it wherever he wanted.
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.
It’s got to be tough to be the VP at Paramount responsible for brand management of one of its two largest streaming franchises, and be told to manage the fallout of a business decision that flies directly in the face of both the Star Trek brand strategy and firm’s streaming strategy.
Half of Paramount+ demand is derived from the Trek and Yellowstone franchises. Their streaming strategy, as pitched to investors, is ‘franchises, faces and fandoms.’
Yet, they cancel and write-off one of only two successful digital animated originals from one of the key franchises, helmed by a legacy captain who remains one of the most beloved in a key demographic?
I just wish the newly announced animated vignettes with 90s legacy characters were actually going to be done in the Filmation style. I wasn’t at all impressed with the main character designs that were released at SDCC.
Like most Star Trek shows, it took a bit find its own strengths and to settle into its own groove. At 22 minutes an episode, getting through the ground establishing first half season isn’t a big time investment, and by the end of the first season, you’ll know if it’s for you - although it keeps getting stronger and more grounded in its own lore as it goes.
It reinforces that Parrot’s broader methodology is fairly predictive of what Nielsen will get from its sampling of streaming through television boxes.
Which begs the question: if Parrot isn’t so far off from actual viewship data, and knowing Parrot had Prodigy’s 2022 demand in second place of all Paramount+ digital animated originals (just behind Lower Decks), why did Paramount pull Prodigy?
