CBS Chief Tells Investors ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Is “Runaway Success” + More Viacom Merger Buzz

Today the CBS Corporation reported its 4th quarter results, which was followed by the usual call with CEO Leslie Moonves and investment analysts. One of the high notes he pointed to for the company was the continued growth of their direct-to-consumer streaming services. Showtime and CBS All Access were reported to have a combined base of close to 5 million subscribers, which Moonves clarified was split “about 50/50” between the two, or around 2.5 million for All Access.

Speaking specifically about All Access, Moonves talked about how the growth was driven by Star Trek, saying:

2017 was a breakout year for CBS All Access. We doubled our subs year over year and we kicked off our best month ever in January. We are driving this growth first and foremost with our content. This includes our big events like the NFL and the Grammys, more than 10,000 episodes of current and library programming, and our original series programming, lead by Star Trek: Discovery, which was obviously a runaway success.

The CEO said he had “great confidence” CBS will “more than exceed” their previously stated goal of reaching a combined 8 million subscribers for All Access and Showtime  by 2020. The company is so bullish on streaming services, they are launching two more this year: CBS Sports HQ and an Entertainment Tonight branded service.

Speaking about what is next for All Access, Moonves confirmed Discovery is going into production in for its second season in April, and highlighted the March second season debut of The Good Fight which will be followed by two new series: Strange Angel and $1. He also said the new Twilight Zone series being developed by Jordan Peele is currently in pre-production. While not discussed in the call, earlier this week CBS also announced they renewed the comedy No Activity for a second season on All Access. 

While discussing international licensing deals, Moonves again brought up Discovery as an example of how they decide when to license something:

Let’s go back to Star Trek, which was as expensive a production as we have ever done. We were just launching All Access. We got a huge amount of money from Netflix for the international rights and it made it very viable for All Access and we continue to do that.

 CBS Viacom re-merger discussions continue 

Last month we reported a possible re-merger between Viacom and CBS was being considered. Such a deal would bring Paramount Pictures and CBS back under one roof, allowing for possible better synergy with the Star Trek franchise. Since that first report, there has been additional movement with both corporations announcing they have created special committees to assess the potential merger. And CNBC has reported that last Friday CBS CEO Les Moonves met with Viacom CEO Bob Baksih to talk about the potential deal.

There has also been reporting that an acquisition of Lionsgate could also be involved, creating a possible 3-way merger. It seems with all the media consolidation going on, Viacom and CBS may feel compelled to increase scale, even if it is, as Variety puts it a “shotgun wedding.”

 

149 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Congrats!

Looking Good!

Great news! I’m hoping in time this will get us another Trek show (and maybe one farther in the future ;)). Discovery is far from perfect but it has great potential and I’ll keep supporting All Access because of it.

I’d love to know what that 2.5 million number looks like in another few weeks.

Which is why they need another Star Trek show on when Discovery is off. ;)

With all respect–please, no. Trek got overexposed in the ’90s and never recovered. Focus your efforts on making DSC the best Trek show ever (or replace it with a better one). And give us good reasons to tune in to AA when there’s no Trek airing. Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot sounds like it could be a good start.

Yeah but this is CBS we are talking about. Home of four CSI shows, three Criminal Mind shows and five DC shows on the CW. And Alex Kurtzman already said months ago that was on the table if Discovery is strong enough, so clearly its in the back of everyone’s mind.

And I don’t really think having one more show would be a big deal because the medium is just very different today. Look at Marvel, they now have 3 MCU films every year and 5-6 MCU shows on various media outlets. And yes I watch them all lol. In the 90s Trek was just two shows on the air and ONE film every few years. Brands are expanding their franchises in ways today that was just starting in the 90s. I’m not saying we need five shows on and three films every year but two shows would be fine IMO, especially with more limited episodes. Its crazy to think we use to get 50+ episodes a year lol. Man I was spoiled. And they wouldn’t air at the same time which they did back then, some places on the exact same day in fact. One would air after the other season is off.

But that said of course I think they should make other shows as good as Trek, but I don’t think any of them will have the hype or ratings as a Trek show will. At least not anytime soon.

I’m sure CBS is already developing a 2nd Star Trek TV series, to be shown when Disocvery isn’t on. 26 episodes a year, between two series shouldn’t be a problem at all. You need to have two different showrunners and different writers for each of the series to keep it fresh… Not a showrunner who supervises 4 TV series in 15 years and 4 movies. That’s just too much.

@Visitor – if Im CBS, I’d have one executive producer to over-see it, not creatively per se, but to keep the synergy. That would probably be Kurtzman. But I agree in having different show runners. And its the norm, I believe.

Two series of 15 episodes each is 30 weeks of original content. Assuming you’d break over the Holodays, you’re pretty much down to 16 weeks without trek which is pretty easy to market yourself out of losing too many subs, especially with other programming that appeals to the same demo.

They’re in a weird place though, because unlike in the 90s where spin offs obviously just run parallel to each other – the question is whether to make ANOTHER pre-TOS show or make a new show post-Voyager.

If it’s post-Voyager than it can’t really tie into Discovery which makes it harder to piggy back off its success, but if they make a pre-TOS show then they run into the obvious restrictions Discovery is already under.

They wouldn’t recognize Paramount’s mistakes, they think Star Trek itself was the problem & they would consider they have “fixed” the old Star Trek so they can churn it out to the masses now lol

I think the market has changed since the 90’s @Trekboi with premium cable, streaming services and what Marvel/DC have done in movies and TV so I personally look forward to seeing more entries in the universe that can explore different themes and sub genres.

I don’t think overexpose on streaming services can create franchise fatigue. It’s not the 90’s. People nowadays choose what to see.

@Stelios — overexposure in the 90s is a myth

@Curious Cadet. Exactly, otherwise Marvel would be screwed and don’t get me started on the Arrowverse!

Yes thats exactly what I was saying lol. You look at TV now there are TONS of spin off shows all being shown side by side. There is talk HBO wants to have TWO GOT spin offs and yeah let them.

And I COMPLETELY get what Michael Hall is saying. None of us want to see a bunch of half baked spin offs made but I NEVER felt that way with the other Star Trek shows. I know, many think Voyager and Enterprise were ‘bad’ but those shows were made with the same care the others were, the difference was they simply didn’t like the direction in the writing end of the day (OK and Enterprise theme song ;)). But I don’t think it had anything with putting too many shows on, they simply didn’t live up to their premise.

Actually I guess you can argue many of the writers got burned out after coming up with so many ideas for so many shows and seasons, but then look what happened to Enterprise in season 4 and Manny Coto. Fresh blood came in and gave it a jolt which tells you it wasn’t the show that was the issue, simply the direction they took it. I’m convinced Enterprise would’ve been one of my favorite Trek shows if it got its seven seasons based on season four alone. And I’m the guy who hates prequels and literally stopped watching after the first season because it just didn’t excite me enough. But if it was good I would’ve watched with bells on.

@Tiger2 Agreed Enterprise would have given DS9 a run for its money had it got the 7 season run.

@Curious Cadet: Totally agree!

@Tiger2, As much as I wanna see another series in between, I think the almost 11 month break until S2 premieres will be good enough to measure the true audience response as the dust settles from S1’s mediocre finish (or the episode I would rename 1.15 “Easter Egg Basket” – mediocre storywise but still pants-creaming-worthy without a doubt).

I for one am extremely happy with what we got – very well surprised. I was on the side of Midnight’s Edge thinking this was going to be an absolute nightmare. I’m excited that it’s not, politics aside. I, too, want to see how hungry we as a collective whole get for more Trek. I know the desire is there but let’s see how CBS marketing handles it :)

Tokyo, what if it’s a different type of Trek show all together? Like, what if it’s a show that’s not about space exploration but is more of a politicial type show dealing with an ambassador or a series dealing with cadets at the Academy. I’m with you, there’s not a true need for multiple Trek shows in space but it’s past time for a Starfleet Academy show. While I’m not a fan of the writing of Shonda Rhimes’ shows, but I like how she has multiple shows out there, different premise, different settings, but it’s all in the same universe.

If done right, anything is possible ^^

This works pretty well for the Berlanti-verse. And Marvel too, apparently (although I stopped after Jessica Jones, which I liked).

But it gets tricky with repetition. Unless you’re delving more into the character’s personal lives and a longer arc,, there are only so many planet of the week stories out there.

Definitely a possibility I’d suspect. If they see large sub increases for Star Trek and then cancellations, it would make sense to create more Trek content to run more of the year, providing they could license the second series to off-set costs.

Basically, if Netflix was on board for a second series, much like they have multiple Marvel series’, then why wouldn’t CBS do it? Makes too much sense.

I’d not expect a huge drop.

Why? Are you a shareholder or just really really interested in how well The Good Fight does ?

The WSJ ran a piece about subscribers dropping their subs after their favorite shows wrap for the season. Not a shareholder in CBS but I do have a direct interest.

To what end?

I hear the Taco Bell Cheesy Fritos Burrito is also doing well.

I’m quite sure, “Star Trek Pike” is already green lighted and will follow Discovery’s 2nd season…

Maybe that’s what Nick Meyer has been working on

@Matthew: We haven’t hear a thing from his project for more than a year. I don’t think he’s around.

Is his twitter account still active?

@TUP: It is… https://twitter.com/startrekdog but I see nothing juicy other than comments.

Man alive, that would be dynamite.

When this thing started my preferred series’ were Enterprise-B followed by Robert April. But Pike would be great too. It would make sense as far as being able to re-use sets, props, costumes, CGI across both series rather then having to create two versions of everything if the series’ took place in wildly different eras.

I’d like an April show with Pike as first officer.

Well he won’t tell “investors” otherwise and financially, it may be true. But creatively, after the season 1 verdict from critics is in and cautious to flatout negative, he will no doubt demand from Harberts et al. to get their act together. Because if he doesn’t, the international Netflix distributor will. Plopping in a black female lead and gay characters (now reduced to one) may still be enough to sell a show in America, but in most locales of the world people have more pressing problems and standards for science fiction…

I didn’t realize including characters that are black and gay was a ‘pressing problem’? And I think you’re kind of missing the point. They don’t use these characters to ‘sell’ the show so much as they are suggesting that we have come far enough where you can include them and STILL sell the show. Its not like people wouldn’t have watched the show if it was all straight white people and men, its simply acknowledging the world has become open and progressive enough where people will watch the show with these characters and not just in spite of them.

Well, most people anyway.

That’s a good thing…right? Especially since Trek is famous for trying to represent the world and not just one demographic of it.

@Tiger And even if they do use them to sell the show, so what? That’s what shows do. They cast people/create characters that audiences will, hopefully, want to watch.

What exactly is that supposed to mean?

I would say read between the lines.

Totally unfounded.

I’m no SJW and may have my seat on the hated right side of the aisle, but as characters, I had zero problem with them based on their race or sexual preference. Burnham, Stamitz and Culber were all competent and wonderful characters, period-end.

I live in Japan and while LGBTQ rights are limited, it’s not seen as taboo anymore here. DSC is doing very, very well on Netflix Japan, and sorry to be so blunt, no matter where you or anyone else stands, the comment was pretty unfounded and shallow.

I agree 0% with the politics of the cast, but I completely enjoyed S1 of the show as it wasn’t afraid to explore BOTH sides of the arguments and didn’t subscribe to “THIS way of thinking is wrong and shame on you for disagreeing with me.” That’s what surprised me the most about this show, and reaffirmed why I was a Star Trek fan to begin with.

Netflix Japan hides nothing – Queer Eye is doing great here, as well as You Me Her and other LGBTQ-friendly shows. Japan is a HUGE Netflix market and if current trends continue, Discovery isn’t going anywhere!

I’ll tell you what I’ve learned from watching After Trek as a right-leaning type: the writers who are trying to inject politics into DSC are fighting their own hyperbolic fears and imaginations.

They seem to think a lot of the dialogue for the MU characters is biting, critical commentary on “that side of the aisle” – a reflection of the real world.

All of that is totally lost on me! I didn’t empathise one iota with the Terran Empire, Lorca, or the Empress! It was only after it was “pointed out” on After Dark by one of the guests from the show that I learned some of their dialogue was pointed at me and my ilk.

Remember in grade school how you’d be mad at someone for an entire day/week/month, only to have that person not notice? “Oh, I’m supposed to be reflected in that pithy dialogue? Sorry… Didn’t recognize myself in it, and still don’t.”

That ain’t us, gang!

I love DSC and every character. After Dark has made me appreciate the show even more. I can tell the actors and writers have a deep respect for the fans, and Trekdom. I don’t care who they sleep with, or just their minority status. Good grief! Which side is more fixated on that stuff!?

Shed your own biases first, DSC-writer-guy, and maybe we’ll have a chance as a society once again.

You’re hilarious.

Yet another clueless post by “VulcanSoul”.

You do know that if he tells something to investors that isn’t true he can end up in jail right? There are very specific rules established by the Securities and Exchange Commission around misleading investors. DISCOVERY IS A FINANCIAL SUCCESS, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

Also, critics have OVERWHELMINGLY PRAISED DISCOVERY.

It currently has an 82% “certified fresh” rating on rotten tomatoes, the highest rating for a season one of any Star Trek show (and actually higher TNG, DS9, and ENT first seasons, and still higher than the average ratings given to the entire TOS run).

Also, it has a 72% rating with “generally favorable reviews” on Metacritic (consisting of 15 positive reviews, 5 “mixed” and ZERO NEGATIVE). To put that into perspective, TNG’s season one got a 51% score.

If you check the ratings per episode the results are even more interesting, as the negative review were mainly on the pilot episode and have been from a small group of closed minded “trekkies” that are going through the usual routine of hating any new Trek, before finally having to admit that it is awesome.

We went through this TNG (that isn’t TOS, that isn’t Trek!).

We went through that with DS9 (what? A black man in command? Stop ramming your liberal agenda down my throat! Also, what? War? That isn’t Trek!).

We went through that with VOY (what? A woman in command? Stop ramming your liberal agenda down my throat! That isn’t Trek!), etc. etc. etc.

This show is a runaway success. It is a worthy addition to canon, and a true representation of Star Trek values. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations (yes, including black women and gays).

Uh, your not seriously saying that Rotten Tomatoes is worth even paying attention to? They delete negative reviews and band people for dissenting opinions. Sure I get your wanting your show to be a hit, but that’s just being dishonest.
Also its more than just a group of close minded trekies, please stop poisoning the well. Let other people have their opinion, what the hell are you afraid of?
There was never, this kind of backlash from TNG or DS9 your going to have to prove that there ever was.
TNG was backed by Gene Roddenberry No one that I ever saw said that it wasn’t Star Trek and No one every had a problem with Sisko that I ever saw.
That is just you trying to spin a dismissive narrative to shield discovery from open criticism. If its so great? let others talk.
If the show has merit it will stand the test.
if not it will fail as it deserves.

If sites like this existed when DS9 debuted, you can bet there would have been a lot of the same racist losers cropping up.

Plus, Trump has emboldened the bigots to speak freely whereas in the past they kept their shameful opinions to themselves.

I’m thinking you have more pressing standards for science fiction, not other locales in the world. This may surprise you but including gay and black characters doesn’t sell a show or a movie and there are dozens of pilots and scripts rejected over the past few years that will attest to this.

Star Trek as a brand sells itself. That’s pretty much the long and short of it.

Yes ROFL for the standards comment.

I think the problem with you, Vulcan Soul, is that you write like you want “us” to think that all conservatives are racist and proud of it.

success for them is measured by viewers and dollars. Therefore, Disco is a runaway hit

@VS Yes, because Black Panther is sure tanking at the box office.

And the three newest Star Wars movies (with black, female and latino leads) only made $4.5 billion, or so.

I know you’re stuck on this idea that casting a black woman or a gay man is a gimmick, but I don’t agree.

And the premise — international audiences don’t want to see women or people of colour? Or gay people? — doesn’t hold up. Where’s the evidence of that?

And, I don’t see how the “It doesn’t bother me, but they still shouldn’t be there” argument isn’t sexist/racist/homophobic.

Online dudes bashed Supergirl for being feminist/political (it’s still doing well) and Sleepy Hollow for being “PC” for having a black co-lead (it started to suffer after she left).

While you are correct that he wont spin “news” in a “bad” way, there are rules about lying when it comes to public companies. Spin all they want. But they cant out and out lie. Companies have been sued over too much spin.

And he isnt spinning. He’s being pretty specific about year over year increases and record subs. As well as committing himself to a sub number by a specific time frame.

You can hunt all you want for incorrect items to support a hater narrative but you only look foolish.

Your racist and bigoted remarks are telling. Why would the rest of the world consider black or gay characters a “low” standard for science fiction? Gross. Put your MAGA cap on and masturbate to gun porn. Leave the discussion to the adults.

His remarks were not bigoted nor were they racist. Please stop throwing those terms around like magic words in a desperate attempt to shut people up.
Since your such an adult you might also consider leaving the anti-trump bullshit and your oh, so trendy insults at the door and let everyone talk. Its called an opinion what the hell are you afraid of?
There is also a point i would like to interject about the year increases and record subs. Correct me if i’m wrong but I was under the impression that this was a new streaming service?
Granted that there might be hordes of fans but how can they say that there are record numbers when the damn thing just got started? that sounds like spin to me.

Throwing my opinion out here… Some posters just write comments designed to entice some to respond just like you did. It’s best not to feed such posters.

Moving on now….

Like you just did, kid? If you want to put bait in the water, dont get mad when the shark takes a bite out of you, troll.

Hey pal, if you want to have a serious discussion, leave your fake outrage at the door. If you want to push the alt right anti-gay, anti-minority agenda, you’re in the wrong place.

Im a conservative. And people like you (and the OP) give us all a bad name. Put on your big boy pants if you want to discuss this with me further.

As to your other points, its really quite clear. CBSAA is NOT new, though CBS’s support for it to this level is rather new. Regardless, any service that has existed for any length of time can have a “record” month by simply having more subs than the month before it (or whatever was the previous record).

The fact they had more subs in January than even when Star Trek debuted is good news for the service.

You’re welcome.

VS ranting about Trek for featuring people of color and gay characters . . . in other news, water’s still wet. . . Kirk is still dead.

What Happened to Nick Meyer & his Khan Mini-Series?

It seems to me Meyer’s active involvement had always been a concern of Fuller only and went out the window when the Harberts clique took over by means of superioricide ;-)

Which is really all to bad because I’m sure Meyer would have had something more substantial to add than “consulting” (Thanks but no thanks) credentials.

If this was another organization like Marvel, the Meyer thing would be part of a long-term plan, tying in with Michelle Yeoh escaping to the Khan series, so you find out her character will blow up ceti alpha 6 sometime in the next 10 or 11 years …

Im wondering the same. Can Trekmovie do some digging into why Meyer seems to have been pushed aside (or what he’s doing with the show, if anything)?

The Khan thing was mere rumor, no?

I remember they talked about the tie in to ST6. He was probably a consultant regarding Vulcan politics

Typo “Klingon” Politics

Consulting Producer often means they’re just another writer in the Writers Room but based on Meyer’s comments leading up to the premiere it sounds like he became regulated to handing out advice when (or if) asked. He was originally credited to be co-writing an episode with Fuller and that obviously got thrown out

He wrote the second episode, did he not?

You’ll note the credits for the second episode do not include Meyer. That means it was re-written extensively enough they don’t have to give him credit. If you follow the various writing credits, pretty much anyone Fuller brought on has quietly exited at some point (aside from the current showrunners Berg and Harberts, of course).

And, btw, you won’t get anyone to talk about it, everyone involved almost certainly signed NDAs.

That’s very interesting. Because clearly Fullers influence was still strong and yet you are certainly right that the episode must have been extensively re-written.

I was looking forward to Meyer’s influence.

LOL what happened to Nick Meyer on Discovery?? WHen he was hired, it sounded like the guy was going to be a major figure in shaping the show and writing a few episodes. He gave several interviews about the show and even showed up at a convention promoting it. But since its actually been on we have not heard from the guy anywhere, the same show that has touted every writer who has written a scene in an episode somewhere. Its weird.

Is he still even on the show? He’s in the credits but I haven’t seen his name on any of the actual episodes. It seems like when Fuller left either his role got majorly downsized or he hasn’t been able to deliver what they wanted.

As for that Khan idea, it sounds like that went nowhere if it even was a real thing and thankfully died a quick death. Star Trek doesn’t need anymore rehashes to stuff we already know.

I am so happy that Discovery is doing so well. I’m going to binge the first season one more time, but then I have to cancel my CBSAA subscription until the show returns. I would keep the sub if CBS would fix the terrible streaming quality of the other Star Trek series. They appear so dark on my television and look like old copies encoded for web viewing on a small computer screen. No other shows on AA seems to have that problem and all the past Star Trek series on the other streaming services don’t have that issue either.

Hurry back, Disco!

Agreed, they need to improve their back catalog. If they’d upgrade to full HD on those shows, if they had all 8 seasons of Wings, and all the Trek movies, it might be worth keeping.

While I think CB was fully prepared for Trek fans to drop their subscriptions (which is why I laugh when detractors think “they’re in for a surprise when I drop it after the finale!”) a lot of fans would probably keep their memberships if their back catalog was more complete.

Between all the Trek shows, comedies like Wings, Frazier, Big Bang Theory, and dramas like CSI, NCIS, and sci fi like Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks, there’s a lot of great content…

… if only it was complete and the highest quality. If CBS can’t get the rights or have the ability to stream complete series runs, in full HD, I’m not sure how long their service can survive.

Half of the reason for Netflix and Amazon and Hulu is the legacy shows they stream that I rewatch regularly.

Exactly. It’s really wishful thinking on behalf of the irrational haters to think CBS is in for a shock when some Trek fans cancel. As if they’ve never heard of churn.

This right here is the thing that drives me nuts. Was watching some old TOS the other day, and they aren’t even consistent with the remaster or not. First season is mostly remastered episodes, the second and third mostly the unremastered versions. And I agree, the encode quality is so low. On a Voyager episode I watched the other day, you could see the static line* at the very top of the image for nearly the entire run of the episode *(like the old tracking static lines from VHS)

I found Disco … fine. I enjoyed a lot of it, other things seemed too rushed or thrown together solely to have the “surprise” moment. Except all the surprises were guessed months in advance. And one after the other so fast they kinda lost their shock value. Lorca was great, sad to see him be darkside and dead. I certainly enjoyed it enough to come back for season 2 and think they have some terrific actors on their hands if they could just write a tighter more compelling narrative.

But CBS AA is terrible at this point. I know it won’t affect CBS bottom dollar but I do plan to switch to Amazon Prime Video’s transmission of CBSAA because I hear from reddit they actually have the 5.1 surround sound and a better quality stream all around. Too bad they can’t take their “runaway success” money from CBSAA and put it back into the tech underpinning the whole thing.

Funny. I had the opposite experience with CBS. STD was glitchy all season long. And two episodes at major streaming issues. It was the episode of Voyager I watched that had no glitches. They were in standard definition so that might’ve made sense but they still had no glitches STD was glitchy all season long. And two episodes had major streaming issues. It was the episode of Voyager I watched that had no glitches. They were in standard definition so that might’ve made sense but they still had no glitches. The streaming provider I normally use has never had the kind of issues I had with CBS. And their customer support is light years better. Quite frankly I would not recommend anyone subscribe to CBSAA unless you were a really huge Trek fan. If Trek is something you like but aren’t into that much, I’d say skip STD.

wasn’t glitchy for me ever and I don’t think I have a magical ISP

Ignore Kirok. He used to post under a different handle where he went on and on about how evil CBS was for putting this in streaming because streaming didnt work as a technology and even complained that he didnt use Netflix streaming because it didnt work.

He wanted Discovery available to rent on Netflix disc rental and even claimed that Netflix streaming was a money loser being propped up by the disc rental side. Ludicrous. I’ve wondered if he even watches the show based on those remarks.

Many people offered him solutions to how he could watch it and improve his streaming but he refuses to accept the advice, maintaining his position that streaming as a broad technology simply doesnt work very well. Go figure. he’s the only person on planet earth that has serious, consistent issues streaming the show. I assume the only explanation is Les Moonves spends sunday evenings in a special control room throttling Kirok’s Discovery stream for fun.

Hopefully he takes his own advice and skips STD (assuming he doesnt already) so we dont have to read the irrational whining every day.

lol, I doubt it. People like that live for this crap

Who was he before TUP?

@Tiger2 Im not sure Im allowed to say that here, am I? He posted a lot about how evil CBS was for putting Discovery on All Access.

He would say really outlandish things and then deny them later. I eventually just assembled all his statements in one super post. He disappeared for months before this new identity appeared and has the verbiage and sentence structure of that other poster. I asked him straight out and he ignored me and then complained to mods.

Nothing personal, but it means he’s currently lying because what he claims now is directly contrasted to previous things he’s said. Thus, a troll.

PS: We should have Personal Messaging here so I could just PM you ;-)

“There are no shortcuts on the path to righteousness.” – Leslie Moonves

Charlie Sheen’s nickname for Les Moonves is Less-than Goonves. True story.

@KZ13 — why would anyone care what Charlie Sheen thinks or says?

Exactly

What’s Charlie been up to lately? Oh, nothing. Maybe he and Mr. Baio can get together and do a ‘we’re still relevant’ stand up show…

That’s Great! I love Captain Mercer, and Commander Grayson. They really have the look and feel of what ‘Star Trek’ is what is supposed to be!

Yeah. And the fart jokes! Great writing! That’s Star Trek at its best!

With Les Moonves, CBS has an enemy within … a wolf in the fold. For the world is hollow and Les Moonves has touched the sky.

I’m starting to get a vibe you don’t like Les Moonves.

Moonves… There are stories.

So, Krokus, if you don’t like Moonves, what is your Alternative Factor? It doesn’t take Spock’s Brain to point out that Moonves By Any Other Name would be the same.

Wonderful news! Live long and prosper Disco! Here’s to Tilly dropping more F-bombs in season 2 ;)

At least he didn’t talk about “family jewels” this time.

Why is Star Trek discovery only on All Access. I don’t get that station I’m a StarTrek fan. The one time that air I like it. I would have like to seen more.Its not fair. My name is Johnnie Coker Cooper. I would like to know why its not on reg TV?

It’s the anchor show for CBS All Access. They needed to draw viewers and Star Trek was the way to go.

True that, Denny. But for that to work it has to have enough options to KEEP the viewers. CBS isn’t telling us if STD has done that or not. Since they haven’t, I’d say it’s likely there has been a pretty severe drop off. Probably greater than what CBS estimated. But again, only CBS knows for sure.

Kirok, again, what are you talking about? Are you seriously rying to measure the success of Discovery with how many viewers watch All Access for something OTHER then Discovery?

Does Netflix release sub cancellations after OITNB season finises? Or House of Cards?

You’re really reaching to frame a negative narrative of CBSAA and Discovery. We get it, you dont like it. But you thought streaming was a poor technology anyway. No accounting for taste my friend.

Are you serious?

Probably Kirok again lol

That be at least 3 identities then.

well I’m two, but I’m not hiding. I always was Spiked Canon until Disco so became DiscoTrek ;-) since we’re in hiatus I’m back, but thinking this name is better anyway cuz of all the canon talk

congrats, looking forward to s2

LOVE IT ❤️ I CANT WAIT FOR SEASON 2
😎👍

I figured this sort of generic comment from CBS would come sooner or later. I’d really be curious to see how those numbers break down. How many jumped ship at the mid season break and how many bailed after last week. But you know those numbers won’t get revealed.

I wish we could take a poll here to see how many jumped the ship. I’ve jumped until the show returns.

Denny, I did. I also bailed out over the mid season break as well. Not coming back until season 2. Whenever that will be….

lol

You’ve complained repeatedly about paying for content so it’s no surprise

None of that is relevant. I’m sure CBS expected most Trek fans to jump ship. The job they have is creating enough new or exclusive content to keep people around. They know they don’t have that yet. Hence them greenlighting three new shows, including Twiligjt Zone, which has an obvious demographic overlap with Trek.

The Paramount merger could also mean a big movie catalog added, which would be huge.

As it stands most streaming services don’t reveal hard numbers and CBS’ behavior and comments are no different than you’d get from Hulu, Amazon, or Netflix.

I take Moonves at his word, that the show is a big success for them, and they are happy with the results. That it was picked up for a second season and the app continues to announce new shows is enough evidence to support his comments.

SanFran, It is extremely relevant. If people are leaving I droves it tells us their service sucks. If people did that and joined when Trek started it means they only really pulled in Trek fans. If numbers dropped over the break it would be worse news still.

At this point you really can’t trust what Les says about Trek or the service. They aren’t releasing any numbers to back any of it up. And media history is filled with execs making public statements that everything is great when the reality was quite different. Maybe it is as great as he says. Maybe not. Just saying there is enough reason to doubt it.

Its not remotely relevant to you as a fan outside of whether the numbers are strong enough to warrant the continuation of the program.

You’re trolling for negative news in the midst of all the positive news. Its galling. Its trolling. You’re not expressing a rational, relevant opinion.

And no, if fans unsub after Trek it does not mean the service sucks. If the service sucked, they’d unsub during Star Trek. Unsubbing when Trek is off means they subbed for Trek and dont see anything else of interest. Its called Churn. Its a normal thing.

Kirok, you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, so I’d advise you to keep your mouth shut on the subject to avoid making yourself look even more foolish.

Honestly this isn’t only relevant to you because you want to try and prove that Discovery is a failure.

And I’m not sure why any of that is important to you. It’s not important to me. We are getting a second season, and that is all I care about in terms of the first seasons viewership and success. It tells me all I need to know for now.

Instead, it strikes me that you hate DSC and are trying to prove it is a failure so you can have a good hearty laugh at its expense, the the expense of those who are enjoying it to your chagrin.

You are annoyed it’s getting a second season and want to somehow find some dark cloud in the silver lining.

If that’s the case, boy, why a sad existence that must be for you.

OK San Fran. You jumped to a false conclusion. I’m not out to prove STD to be a failure. As a viewer, I just want it to be good so I can enjoy it. But there are other realities that I am curious about. I think it relevant for reasons I already told you. The 2nd season was approved well before the the 2nd half was streamed to the public, btw. Which means that decision was made before they knew how many subscribers would jump ship. Which means how many people bail out of CBSAA beyond their own guestimate did not enter into the equation when the decided on a 2nd season. It’s entirely possible that the 2nd season was a part of the plan to begin with regardless of what happened with the first. With many Netflix and cable shows that is a part of the deal.

Not sure why you are being so defensive here….

Again, why would subs leaving AFTER the first season have a bearing on whether or not they get a second season? If anything, it tells them Star Trek is MORE popular and driving their business to an even greater degree.

You went into this thinking streaming barely existed and you didnt like the concept for Discovery or that it wasn’t free (or that there wasnt a way for you to steal it). So you have a bias. And you’re skewing everything towards that bias.

Look San Fran… I explained exactly why such data would be relevant. Your rebut was to not to point out where I was incorrect or where my figuring was off. Instead you cried and moaned about how I don’t know what I’m talking about Based on nothing but your say so. The go to for people who have no interest in actually discussing things reasonably or rationally. If I’m mistaken then please, by all means, let’s discuss. I’m all for it. If not, then it’s been a pleasure.

@Kirok – you do not understand anything about this. Look, its cool that you have an opinion about Star Trek, but you’re talking out your butt about streaming data and whatnot and you lack knowledge.

People unsubbing after Star Trek does NOT tell them the service sucks. You really know nothing about streaming. It wasnt long ago you claimed streaming as a technology didnt work very well and couldnt produce a stream that did not buffer. Even when multiple people told you that was wrong, you maintained it was true.

So you’re position on this is very much lacking. There are some smart people here. You could take their knowledge to heart and educate yourself and stop filtering everything through your negative anti-CBS agenda.

Its not rocket science. Some people cancel. Netflix experiences churn as well. Thats why you always get news stories about record netflix subs around their big series’. Same with HBO etc.

The idea is to increase your overall subs for a major TV show, lose some after it finishes, gain the losses PLUS back when the next season airs, lose some…gain more etc. In streaming, the key thing is not subs TODAY.

In TV, they measure shows by the ratings for each episode. For streaming, the total subs average for the year are important. Thats how it’s measured.

The numbers are out there. Disco was the most watched streaming show during the months that it aired.

Spiked… That doesn’t really mean much. And it doesn’t break the numbers down like I was curious to see. Streaming services traditionally do not reveal their numbers. I expected CBS to follow suit.

lol it means everything. Well Hulu, Netflix, and CBS do for sure. I’m sure the others do or will

Remind me what other first run streaming programming was available at the time STD was made available. Not a whole heck of a lot. And Discovery had a tiny bit of advertising to push it. Not nearly as much as one would think CBS could have given it, but it’s still more than what Netflix announces. When you are up against next to nothing if Trek WASN’T the most streamed show I would have been stunned. And speaking of that, where did you run across that information? Streaming services are not in the habit of releasing their viewership numbers. The more telling number will be how many people canceled after the finale “aired”. You can count on CBS keeping that figure hidden.

What are you even talking about?

Seriously why are troll accounts like this even allowed.

Good Kirok, you’re right. So why do you need to see CBSAA numbers when you admit streaming numbers are generally kept close to the vest?

The fact the CBS airing received very strong ratings, social media rankings have Discovery as a top show, CBS’s own statements…but no, you need to see real data or you dont believe it.

Why?

Are you a CBS stockholder? Why do you care so much? You need more information to support a hater narrative? He just told you its a success and resulted in large sub increases. Why do you need to know specifics, to whine that its not large enough? lol

I’d love to see another Trek series on CBS AA in addition to Disco, either after Disco has run its course (and may it live long and prosper!), or during the wait between Disco seasons. But I’d like it to be set in the future, at least 100 years after Nemesis. Perhaps even further ahead to the adventures of the Enterprise-J!

As cool as that would be, if I were CBS I wouldn’t want to oversaturate too quickly. I would consider a 3-episode mini series or a 2 hour film unrelated to DSC in between seasons but I wouldn’t want to do much more than that.

I disagree with those who worry about the 90s era overkill though. That was the result of the shows dropping in quality. they were churning out 50+ episodes per season on tight deadlines, ultimately leads to lower quality shows.

But with shorter episode counts and bigger budgets to hire different show runners and writing staffs, and the freedom to take their time to craft the best stories, I don’t see two shows a year being too much, long term. Just not yet. A bit too soon.

I dont think they worry about oversaturation now because the business is different. Streaming changes the game.

It matters when it comes to producing high quality content.

He cannot say anything else can he! Lets be honest here its by far the worse ST series ever made & that says a lot as Berman era dreck was pretty poor but Discovery makes that look like highbrow!

He can’t lie to investors. There are laws and regulations against it. He can spin things, but he can’t lie about actual numbers and facts. He’s not the President.

No but he sure can lie to the public.

troll leave

Just ignore trolls, Spiked. It takes away their will. Some trolls are stronger than others, unfortunately.

Wasnt Spiked talking to you??

ya was kind of talking to the King of the Trolls-Kirok

Spiked, the way the comments are ordered and based on the content of your post it looked very much like you were talking to one of the very very few known trolls here. If you weren’t, then my bad. From what I can tell, trolls make baiting and inciting comments designed to rile up emotions and cause flame wars. Only one person here has a history of that. Therefore, it was still a very logical and reasonable conclusion to make.

@Kirok, if you’re going to call me a troll, how about telling everyone you’re previous handle here so they can all read what you said over and over for so long?

I mean, sure we can debate but really, you dont want to get into a debate with me. You lost so many times before you went away for awhile and then changed your name and pretended to be someone else. Do you want that to happen again kid? :-)

Kirok, who do you think are investors? The government?

Okay Paul. Ill be honest. You’re wrong.

Good job. Lets try and get season two queued up before 2019, please?

The haters are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel on here aren’t they. I love it! Kepp hating and keep watching lol

Yup. Its hilarious. As usual, they lack insight or common sense. Want to have a reasonable discussion about the pros and cons of Discovery and All Access? great! But the haters arent up to snuff.

Merge. And then hire a Star Trek Czar to oversee all things Trek, akin to Kathleen Kennedy at LucasFilm.

IGN has an article about how Discovery has been the most talked about tv show on social media beating out Walking Dead, Altered Carbon and even Stranger Things. Nice work CBS, now throw us a bone and offer a staggered release on Netflix in the US. You can show season 1 while you air season 2 on All Access and so on and so forth. Gives fans a reason to have All Access but also expands viewers of the show to those who have decided to never give All Access a chance.

Thats a potentially good idea. Well, its a great idea. I’d like that in Canada too. But question is licensing. It may not be allowed.

PEB,

I am waiting to see if the show will eventually make its way to Netflix. It doesn’t even show up on a search so it can’t even be “saved”. While that would be great for fans I think it would be a TERRIBLE move for CBS. A LOT of people (myself included) would bail out of ever subscribing to CBS if they could just be patient and see it on a service they already get. I thought there MIGHT be a chance of it given the Netflix relationship. But I’d wager CBS has a clause that keeps it off Netflix USA for as long as CBS has the rights.

In fact, original programming drives content so people waiting a year or more for it to come to the archives is not likely to amount to much.

How ’bout a ST series called: Star trek Red Shirts
It could be about Starfleets elite security forces, and their specialized training. Could be like an NCIS in space, maybe…. or how ’bout- Star Trek: Mercy, about a deep-space medical ship that patrols the frontier, and answers distress calls, etc. It could be like a cosmic ER that deals with disasters, plagues, etc.
A Starfleet Academy series would be great if you can make it interesting. It should take place on the border of an unfriendly neighbor on the edge of deep space. There should be a rival academy that is training cadets of their own. I can imagine all the tension, and rivalries that could make such a series worthwhile. There should be the threat of war looming in the background, and if the cadets on either side create a disturbance, both governments will likely resort to armed conflict.

Merger schmerger, not sure if STAR TREK fits into the new regime’s turn around plans?:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-viacom-plans-to-turn-paramount-pictures-around-by-2019-2018-02-09

Unless… they are planning to sell new Trek films to Netflix too????

Success. That’s a tricky word, isn’t it? Brings another to mind….perspective.

If he had said “we expected more and the numbers are disappointing”, everyone would be taking it as gospel. But the same negative nimrods always say “he must be lying”