As reported last Friday, Star Trek: Prodigy was included with a number of other shows set to be removed from Paramount+, and those removals have now happened. Fans are also rallying to save the show as we await news on a new home for the second season.
Prodigy gone from Paramount+
Today Paramount+ launched its planned full integration with Showtime in the USA. All of the Showtime content is now available within the ad-free tier of Parmount+. The removal of Prodigy and a number of other shows ahead of this integration is what Paramount describes as “refining our content offering to deliver the best streaming experience for subscribers.” These removals are also part of an industry-wide trend as streaming providers take write-offs to cut costs with a new focus on creating profitability, with Paramount following other streamers doing the same, including Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max (now Max). While Paramount+ has removed a variety of different shows, Prodigy is one of 18 Nickelodeon-produced shows that are now no longer available, showing how kids’ programming and animation have taken the biggest hit.
Internationally Prodigy is still available on Paramount+, however it appears that it will be removed this week.
In a statement to TrekMovie, Paramount thanked the “fantastic cast and crew” of Star Trek: Prodigy for their “hard work and dedication” to the show. Paramount also confirmed work on the 20-episode second season will continue as the studio looks for a new home for both seasons of the show.
From the season 1 finale of Star Trek: Prodigy (Paramount+/Nickelodeon)
Paramount also made clear they are “invested in growing the Star Trek franchise,” which includes the newly announced Star Trek: Academy live-action series geared towards young adults along with the special Section 31 streaming movie event starring Michelle Yeoh. Paramount also reconfirmed plans for a third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and a fifth season of the animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks. The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery is also set to arrive in early 2024.
Star Trek shows feature prominently in the new promo video released today to announce the Showtime integration.
Fans rally to save the show
Soon after Friday’s news fans quickly latched on to the #SaveStarTrekProdigy hashtag, which has been quite active. There is a Change.org petition which has already surpassed 17,000 votes in just a few days.
The creative team behind Prodigy has been active in supporting fan efforts online, and also sharing a positive and hopeful attitude for the future of the show, at least in terms of finding a new home for both the first season and the upcoming second season.
Co-executive producer Aaron Waltke laid out a thread on Twitter suggesting ways fans can support the show, this included a message to stay positive but to also to watch and purchase the show when possible.
Keep it positive and keep it up. Now is the time to do it. Let them see an eager and active fanbase who will follow the show wherever it goes.
Watch the entire show to completion while it’s still up! A view is a view — and numbers do matter. https://t.co/S1bfqhzkr0
— Aaron J. Waltke (@GoodAaron) June 25, 2023
He also recommends showing your support by buying the Playmates Toys Prodigy figures and the Prodigy: Supernova video game and Prodigy tie-in books.
I also highly recommend picking up the #StarTrekProdigy toys!
If they are successful, more could follow. And they are also going fast as possible collectors items! https://t.co/GK5p1tfUBB
— Aaron J. Waltke (@GoodAaron) June 25, 2023
Co-creators Dan and Kevin Hageman have also been active, sharing many fan tweets supporting the show. They also had a bit of fun, teasing their upcoming appearance at Creation’s 57-Year Mission contention in Las Vegas in August, something that got support from show star Kate Mulgrew.
I will be joining this panel, as there is much to discuss with the @brothershageman.
Many thanks to our cast and crew, and to our fans for your ongoing support.
We still have only just begun. ❤️#SaveStarTrekProdigy https://t.co/EUakVmQfMq
— Kate Mulgrew (@TheKateMulgrew) June 26, 2023
Buying Prodigy digitally and on Blu-ray/DVD
The first “volume” of season 1 with the first 10 episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy was released in January on Blu-ray and DVD (see TrekMovie.com review). After news broke of the Paramount+ removal, this set sold out quickly at Amazon and other retailers. Currently, Target still has stock for both the Blu-ray and DVD. There is no word yet on when the second volume from season 1 will be released, but Aaron Waltke did confirm fans should expect it.
Yes.
— Aaron J. Waltke (@GoodAaron) June 26, 2023
The first 10 episodes of Prodigy are also available for digital purchase on Apple iTunes, Google Play Store, and Amazon Prime Video. In the case of Prime Video, you can purchase the full 20-episode season, however, only the first 10 episodes are available for now, with the promise of providing the second 10 episodes when they become available. In the UK, all of season 1 (20 episodes) is available to purchase digitally on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video. It isn’t known when the rest of season 1 will be made available in the USA.
Digital purchase of Prodigy on Amazon
Waiting for news
Star Trek: Prodigy may be gone from Paramount+, but the story of the show is not over. Well it isn’t likely for Paramount to reverse their decision and put the show back on Paramount+. All of the support the show is getting from the fans should help their effort in finding a new home for the series including the second season, but for now there are no indications when or where that could be. There will also likely be multiple partners internationally. We are also still awaiting news on when the rest of season 1 will be available digitally in the USA and available on DVD and Blu-ray everywhere.
This is a dynamic situation, so stay tuned to TrekMovie for more updates. Until there is news, Trek fans are of course resorting to memes, such as this one (original creator unknown)…
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
I’ll miss the young crew exploring space. Won’t miss the nonsensical time travel plot or the bridge that looks better suited to a fighter jet. I still feel Nickelodeon would have come to their rescue had it been kids exploring space dealing with dangers vs. trying to appease adults crying over Voyager cameos.
Started off strong, got TNGized and went down in flames.
The show was excellent in all twenty episodes and had very little cameos or fan service compared to the other shows. Some of the best stand-alone episodes came in the back 10. Admiral Janeway appears in maybe one or two scenes per episode. Chakotay is in about 30 seconds.
Also, if this is meant to introduce new audiences to the Trek universe, seems weird you would keep the Trek universe completely separate.
Your theory doesn’t make sense.
Ignore him. He has a pathological hatred for TNG and mentions it in EVERY one of his posts. It’s become quite sad now. And I agree the show was awesome and told serialised stories better than any of the current live action shows( and I love PIC 3 but Prodigy was better)
How can you hate the TNG era and say you love Star Trek.
No gatekeeping, please. A person who loves TOS but hates TNG is just as much a Star Trek fan as anyone else.
+1
What tripe. I love Star Trek (up to the iconoclast Kurtzman’s involvement) and hold an encyclopaedic knowledge of TOS + TNG era + ENT, but I accept that there are much bigger Trek fans out there than me. They’re the people who go to the conventions, who buy the products and watch it all (even the Kurtzman CW-esque Trek).
None of which is relevant to the point she was making. I thought I knew a lot about Star Trek until my fellow contestants in a Trek trivia contest demonstrated otherwise. That doesn’t make their fandom any more sincere, or valid, than mine, yours, or those who prefer the Kurtzman-era shows.
I did not hate all TNG. I liked Picard S3 where it was revealed Picard was compromised by the Borg, they hinted at the consequences of V’ger being wrong, Decker being unnecessary and AI being on par with life (why not build organic starships, why not build thousands of do it all Data’s?) and use TOS movie era ships… I even got David Marcus Picard out of nowhere. So that was good, you free those characters from the baggage that was the snoozefest of a know it all these perfect humans teaching all the aliens to be like them because they are so perfect to the point we only need a hotel to fly around space in and it is pretty good!!
Same with Prodigy. Janeway AI hologram teaching them was great! Admiral Janeway there because of a time loop unnecessarily which makes no sense (why not go back in time and just rescue everyone from World War II onward?) that requires you to know some boring show from the 90s, no, bad move. Any of course what happens in season 2, they ditch the learning and go all Voyager reboot. The show went down with the Protostar unfortunately.
Agreed. Prodigy is awesome and seems to be very popular for the people who watched it anyway. And I don’t the average Nickelodeon TV executive cared much what happens on the actual show or even if they watched Star Trek. If every episode was just watching Murf do crazy things on the ship and it got big enough ratings, it would’ve stayed on.
And yes I too loved Picard season 3 but I still thought Prodigy was better.
There was a grand total of one Voyager cameo. Janeway was announced as a main character from the beginning, and Chakotay has only really had one scene. Apart from those two, the only Voyager cameo I can think of is that random telepathic girl who Janeway saved from the Devore.
There was very little in the way of Voyager cameos and very little about it that was TNG-like, so not sure what you’re referring to.
Lol So here there is little to no Voyager cameos? What??? There are even 2 Janeways, nothing says we’re going to focus on the adventure for kids like coming up with a real and a holo Janeway complete with taking the action away from the kids to follow that.
Then they blew up the Protostar for what; to go be on a Voyager.
Like who is this show for?!? They sold out kids who were bonding with the protostar for adults crying over seeing Janeway and then wondering why they don’t have a new audience.
Do you not know what a cameo is?
So are we agreed there is a lot of Voyager or now you are saying there is very little Voyager in it? And what ship replaced the Protostar? Who is their new commander, holo Janeway or actual Janeway?
You said, to the cookie, “Lol So here there is little to no Voyager cameos? “
Which suggests that you don’t know what “cameo” means, because…yeah, there aren’t many Voyager cameos. I’m not disputing that there’s a lot of Voyager content, I’m suggesting that you don’t know what the word cameo means. A main character is, by definition, not a cameo.
Like 75 other people have already told you this.
Aaah-ha-ha… the cookie! Took me a few seconds… but have more respect!
“but have more respect!”
For whom?
For the one you’re referring to as “The cookie”, aka Lorna Dune. Just seemed rude to me.
Have you even watched the show? The Janeway character is part of the main cast from the start. The only Voyager cameo was from Chakotay for less than a minute. What other cameos are you talking about? And it looks nothing like TNG in the slightest, except that it may take place in the same time period.
While not my favourite of the Trek shows, it definitely has its merits by introducing new characters and new aliens wanting to join Starfleet. And the animation was fantastic.
Yeah, it’s so bizarre to say it was a revolving door of Voyager cameos when only two people appeared and one of them was the star of the show. Again the irony is that Prodigy did the least amount of fan service in all the new shows not counting Discovery being in the 32nd century. If you want to complain about heavy legacy cameos, then SNW and PIC season 3 are your biggest culprits by far.
What was great about Prodigy is the show didn’t actually rely on any backstory with the legacy characters because it was a completely original story and Janeway was just apart of it. It wasn’t about her the way every season was about Picard in some way on his show. There is also no heavy tie ins to any VOY episodes. The ONLY callback to a specific episode was the one line to the episode Countepoint when the Brenari officer helped Janeway escape and thanked her for helping her people. That was it.
Meanwhile on SNW, we have an entire episode remade Balance of Terror.
I completely agree.
With SNW, I do like what they were doing with the Balance of Terror episode. It fits into the story they were telling. I liked the difference in the original and the SNW episode. It shows the different command styles and tactics. The only thing I did not like about that episode was the actor that played the Romulan Commander. He did not have the gravitas or presence that I would have liked. But that is my nitpick.
FWIW, I know that actor (Matthew Macfazdean) and he’s very, very talented – we did Fringe festivals back in the 90s and I thought he was great then, he’s only gotten better.
I think he did a tremendous job with the role, knowing he’d be compared to Mark Lenard. I mean, look at how much criticism was laid on Chris Pine and now Paul Wesley for their sole sins of not being William Shatner.
Oh, I do agree he is talented and has acting chops. And I completely agree that we need to give actors that are placed into existing roles to be able to make that role their own. For me, there were just some things that didn’t work. But I am okay with it. And I 100% agree with you that people are judging Paul Wesley to Shatner after just one episode – an episode where he is not the Kirk we know.
Agreed. That actor took the benediction that Mark Lenard made heartbreaking, “In a different reality, I could have called you friend,” and turned it into an offhand, ironic remark. It might have been interesting, and fitting, to see what James Frain could have done with the role.
Agreed, would love to see James Frain in that role. I think he did a fine job as Sarek and would probably bring the same performance to the role.
“With SNW, I do like what they were doing with the Balance of Terror episode.”
No, don’t get me wrong, I loved it! It’s my second favorite episode of the season and I watched it four times. I was just commenting on how ridiculous it is to complain that PRO supposedly had too much fan service stuff when as shown it has very little of it but then ignore how the crazy amount of fan service SNW has which is a revolving door of TOS characters and easter eggs.
And I do get the difference, SNW is made purely for old fans in mind where as PRO isn’t. But obviously the makers of PRO is aware of that too and exactly why they have kept all the backstory and easter eggs to a minimum. They provide just enough for old fans to catch a few inside things here and there, but none of it would impede you as a first time viewer.
Holo Janeway made a lot of sense for the kids to learn.
Admiral Janeway made no sense for kids. Now there are two, she is on some time travel mission that makes no sense, oh and she is here to take command eventually. Yikes!
My feeling was that Season 2 was abandoning the whole kids on the frontier (the Protostar and Holo Janeway were taken out) and going all in on that VOY plot, bascially throwing out everything new, cool and kid friendly for everything nonsensical and done before.
I assume someone watched Season 2, realized the transformation and hit the self destruct.
How old and clueless do you think the kids are watching this? I think you can give them a little credit for figuring it out. Even if you don’t know anything about Voyager – Admiral Janeway is a Starfleet Admiral. In the first few episodes, it was explained what Voyager was and who Janeway is.
The time travel makes no sense. Why doesn’t the bad guy just go back and fix his mistake? And then why doesn’t anyone go back and save everyone from world war 2 to wolf 359 onward?
I guess you never saw the Voyager 2 parter, “Year Of Hell” – explains how one change can affect everything in time travel. I suggest you watch it.
Or instead of bad TV you can read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking to discover just how anti science that BS is.
Also.., see above where everyone else (laughably) says there is only a cameo of VOY and no VOY applicability lol
*Facepalm* we are talking Trek here. Is there anything about Trek that you DO like? Why are you even on here? All you do is slam everything. Go troll somewhere else.
Okay here is how you make Trek work.
You have it where the kids EXPLORE space. Maybe have some Strange New Worlds. Introduce some science. Have it where they face strange aliens and natural anomalies, learn from the aliens and natural anomalies, fight some bad aliens and natural anomalies, etc. I recommend lots and lots of action that the kids don’t even know they are learning what a gas giant is or a black hole because they love the cool communicators and phasers.
Have a starship with a bridge, put the commander in a spinning chair where he has to interact with a helmsman, a communications officer trained to interact with aliens, a science officer and an engineer. Show the starship is so big it has to be built in space with a space dock and they use shuttles to land.
Now to mix it up (because in a way this has been done before), maybe have it where the kids are aliens and find a Starship and a hologram tells them how it works, but keep it simple.
I think that part of Prodigy worked GREAT.
No nonsensical time travel, this isn’t Back To the Future and what’s fun has been done in Star Trek IV. No over complicated plots involving other adults.
DO have it where they run out of resources and have to improvise. DO have it where they face a conflict that they need to think outside the box. DON’T have third party adults come in to take command, show them what to do, etc. Let the kids figure it out.
There was kind of a show like this once upon a time called Star Trek TAS where the visually stunning bridge with all the info displays facing off with Klingon D-7s got a kid into Trek. At the very least, that worked for six year old me!
I get what you are saying but 6-year-old you in the 70s and a 6-year-old in 2023 are completely different. You cannot use that mentality. To be honest, most kids do not watch TV the way we used to. Saturday morning was special. Waking up and eating a bowl of cereal in front of the TV watching Scooby do and Shaggy run past the same background over and over. TAS was something I loved watching too… but if you look back now at the animation, it was mostly static images with the eyes or mouth moving. Kids these days do not care about learning. Kids these days are not interested in anything but games on their tablets. In my opinion, the entire look and feel of the show is more adult oriented. It’s a very serious toned show right from the start. To me, Lower Decks is more in the style of a kids show. That is the one a 9-year-old me would be watching.
It’s why I don’t even bother talking to this guy anymore. It’s one brick wall after another.
And yeah, sometimes people seem to forget you can’t make stuff the same way from 50 years ago lol. You have to realize not everything can be done like before to attract new and YOUNGER audiences.
I do love this board obviously, but it’s a constant reminder that it’s a lot of older people here and some far too stuck in their ways.
That’s….quite the assertion, and judging from the high school students with whom I do alumni interviews for my undergrad alma mater, absolutely wrong.
Admittedly, those applicants already among the cream of the crop in their schools. Still, this assertion strikes me as but the latest iteration of Socrates complaining about “kids these days.” People complained about the silent generation and boomers reading comic books, then Gen X watching TV or playing arcade games; today, it’s Gen X and phones. Life goes on.
Incidentally, I don’t disagree that the rustic bug-eyed animation style of Lower Decks is more kid-oriented than the more contemporary style of Prodigy. I’ve read that child psychologists claim kids react to big eyes, which is why they’re so common on kid-oriented animated shows.
So, basically the part you liked was the part that looked exactly like all the old Trek of your youth. Anything that even remotely resembled any Trek made after 2009 is garbage. Gotcha.
Should have been holo Quark
If it was TNG it would last seven seasons. And spawned two spinoffs in the same time period. Yeah TNG was a real failure.🙄
Agree that it did start out strong but the back end left a lot to be desired. I wouldn’t say it went down in flames. But it certainly didn’t stand up as well as the front end.
I agree. I wanted the kids to remain independent and have wacky adventures. Becoming Starfleet underlings was boring.
Yeah, they took the whole original premise and tossed it out the window.
You realize its Bridge is part of the set design that won the Show an Emmy on its First Season and was a contender for best animated show as well!
The bridge looked like something out of Star Wars but even LESS functional than a Star Destroyer. And of course a giant door that everytime you view someone sitting in the Captain’s chair you get a DOOR (why?!? WHY DOES NEW TREK LOVE PEOPLE SITTING IN FRONT OF DOORS?!?!?!). Lots of blank space and hard drive blinking lights with little emphasis on stations and the ability of the Captain to interact with his crew.
In no way does this introduce Trek to kids.
Full disclosure, I got hooked on Star Trek with TAS. And there you saw the Captain with all these control panels, interacting with his crew. It just made soo much sense and was visually stunning.
That being said I get that now you can have a window showing outside with todays SFX (in reality at half the time you’d see nothing because everything on your sensors is so far away).
I think the answer is a compromise in that you can have these giant windows, but make sure you’ve got the circle with the spinning Captain’s Chair (nothing says Trek like the spinning chair), have the crew stations, and lots and lots of holodisplays. And of course your main monitor needs to have holodisplays come up for tactical reports, ship to ship comms, etc.
I rarely, if ever, post here. Every time I do, months and months apart, you’re complaining about the doors on the bridge being in the shot.
The doors are horrid!!!!! Lol Its like watching a board meeting but at least I a boardroom even then you’ve got a projector and some windows because no one wants to stare at a person sitting in front of a door.
No one wants to talk about it for months.
I have never remotely cared about where a door is placed on any of these shows, but everyone has their hang ups I guess.
I actually really liked the sleek design of the Protostar bridge.
However, FWIW, I can see some reasons to avoid placing turbolifts directly behind the captain’s chair (if that’s what Protostar does; I can’t remember). The CO is less likely to be surprised by intruders, for example, if the turbolift is within her peripheral vision.
“ The bridge looked like something out of Star Wars but even LESS functional than a Star Destroyer. And of course a giant door that everytime you view someone sitting in the Captain’s chair you get a DOOR (why?!? WHY DOES NEW TREK LOVE PEOPLE SITTING IN FRONT OF DOORS?!?!?!).”
I don’t understand these complaints at all. First of all, the bridge looks less like something out of Star Wars than most other Trek shows’ hero ships’ bridges do. Everything’s shiny and gleaming in a way Star Wars production design is famous for not being. Have you even seen Star Wars?
Secondly, are you seriously upset there’s a door visible when someone is sitting down?? I just… I can’t even figure out what you think is so wrong. Did it bother you every time the turbolift door is visible behind Kirk on TOS? Does it bother you with all the other doors on other shows? If so, why? The fact it’s visible behind someone when the camera is in front of them in the captain’s chair on the bridge is domehow a problem? Why? What do you suggest, moving the door to the floor and having characters rise into the bridge from below on a little pedestal? Or should the door be moved out of frame by putting it overhead, in the ceiling, and have people enter the bridge by dropping and falling into it? Would they leave the bridge by jumping up into the hole in the ceiling? Or do you mean the bridge is supposed to be completely sealed, and people are supposed to enter and leave it only via the transporter??
I really, really do not get this apparent door phobia of yours, or why it should be an issue for just this one show in the canon when it’s (apparently) not for any of the others (or is it?!)…
so weird that they went so far as to remove it from the platform. There’s more to this than meets the eye…..
The Tuvix meme is brilliant
Disappointing that they removed it from Paramount+ – yes. Weird – no. This has been happening for weeks (if not months) with other streamers. P+ seems to be one of the last to take this measure. Disney+ got the most publicity back about a month ago.
My understanding is that part of what allows for the tax-break is the removal of content from streaming. The concept being that they can’t profit off of something that isn’t available through the platform. My guess is that they can then claim the show as a “loss” in that they spent the money to create the content but they aren’t making any additional or ongoing profits from it’s availability.
I’m no lawyer but I also think of it as bait and switch. They advertize it to their customers as something that is coming, they make money from us through streaming fees, then they rip it off the service and recoup their money through tax breaks.
The whole concept here is that – even though no one wants to admit it – Prodigy was low on viewership. It wasn’t pulling in the demographic they wanted, and my guess is that its numbers were well below a lot of other content available on P+. Also consider the fact the Nickelodeon took the hardest hit. Overall, it would appear that part of the problem is that P+ isn’t hitting that demographic.
You can claim “bait and switch” if you want, but then I think you’d have to make the same argument about a lot of different industries – including one of Paramount’s other interests – broadcast TV. How many times does a show air on TV and end up cancelled for whatever reason. The show was most likely advertised (possibly for months) before it aired, it was put into the TV guide, and it gave people a reason to tune into the network. But once it’s cancelled, you don’t hear people yelling “bait and switch” in that situation. And before you use the argument of, “but I subscribed to P+ just for Prodigy!,” keep in mind that MANY MORE people subscribe to cable just to watch a specific show or specific content. But unlike P+, most cable subscribers can’t cancel their subscription at the end of the month with no consquences.
P+ aired the content, the content didn’t go over as expected, now it’s gone. There’s plenty of TV shows (and certainly other examples) that went through the same situation. And many of those (especially pre-2000’s) can’t be found anywhere else either.
My argument is this, If I buy something from iTunes, and then Apple pulls it, that was supposed to be something I owned that I no longer have access too. But If I had bought a physical copy then Apple couldn’t just walk in my house and take it from me.
I know it’s not an Apples to Apple’s comparison (no pun intended) but it feels that way. Now if season 2 never comes out so be it. But retroactively pulling season 1 when we already paid for the streaming rights for it AND collecting the taxes for it feels wrong any ways you slice it. Whether viewership was high or not, they already collected streaming profits for that.
Dude you got nothing. Your argument is absurd.
Hey if you want to throw your money away, be my guest… Dude…
I don’t think the consumer has a right to expect a property to be on a particular streamer for perpetuity. That is why I outright own on physical media all the stuff I wish to watch more than once. No worries about “it is gone from that service” or worse, “gone from even being available”. And why owning the physical media will ALWAYS be superior than relying on providers.
Normally I would agree except that companies like Apple and Amazon further push us to the cloud and I promise the day will come soon where physical media like Blu Ray will die out.
Perhaps. But that won’t be for a while and in the meantime I still have good stuff without worry of not finding it or it getting changed on me.
Agreed, 100%, ML.
It’s Blockbuster not Walmart. You are just paying for temporary access to the content. If that weren’t the case, you wouldn’t pay a MONTHLY fee. You’re essentially renting the content. And believe me, if you were paying to keep it permanently, it would be A LOT MORE than $5 a month (soon to be $6).
As for being pushed to the streamers for content, I get it and agree, but they aren’t doing this for the generation of people 30+ years old. This is for the 20-somethings and under who are being programmed to believe that almost anything media is temporary. Hard drives and memory cards fail, content can disappear the moment you trade in a cell phone, and even that awesome video posted on Vine that had a million views is long gone. For the younger generation, this is just reality, and it won’t be long until media companies could care less if anyone can permanently own media.
FWIW, I am skeptical of this argument. So long as there’s money to be made from selling DVDs, or whatever medium replaces them, media companies will continue selling them. If people think that their favorite shows will disappear from streaming, as they’re wont to do, that’s all the more reason to buy permanent media.
This is exactly what happened in the 1980s through the early 2000s, after all. If your favorite show from a few years earlier disappeared from syndicated reruns, the only way to access it was by VCR or, later, DVD.
I don’t think people would be complaining as much if they had just cancelled it. We wouldn’t be happy, but we’re used to shows getting cancelled. What’s absurd is that they are taking the show off the platform. I can still watch TOS or Enterprise whenever I want even though those shows were cancelled.
For all intents and purposes – at least in the world of Paramount+ – it WAS cancelled. P+ isn’t paying for it. Heck, they aren’t even going to pay to finish the product that they helped finance for at least the last year! Same as the TV world. The analogy here would be a situation like “Scrubs”, “JAG”, or even more recently the show “911”. They were each cancelled by their respective original networks on TV, but the production company shopped it out to the remaining networks and successfully moved the show for additional seasons. Each show was still technically “cancelled” because the original network removed it from their lineup, but the show survived by having the broadcast rights purchased and essentially resurrecting it for more episodes. Same thing here.
Unless there’s numbers you can point to, the alternative is Prodigy was very popular, far less expensive than live action, sold DVDs very well, and was worth enough to make Paramount some coin on top of the tax break, versus a lowly rated show that no one would buy.
And yet it was cancelled due to low viewership.
Low viewership has never been mentioned. If Apple was hard out for cash and knew the end was near, the first show they’d sell is Ted Lasso. The rumblings have been the streaming numbers for Prodigy were very respectable and it’s being put on the market because they feel it’s attractive.
We don’t actually know that to be true.
The numbers I find online are hard to quantify, but my point was really just an extrapolation based on the available information – Prodigy was removed from Paramount+ along with nine other original titles. The most name recognizable of those is “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” and “Inside Amy Schumer”. From there, unless you are familiar with Paramount+, the rest of the titles probably don’t resonate with the vast majority of the general public (e.g. “From Cradle to Stage”, “Queen of the University”, “Tell Me a Story”, etc.). The point here is that if Prodigy was truly “very popular”, I would think it would be in a lot better company than what appears to be mostly no-name content. If that was the case, it would be more likely that they would be taking an ax to their streaming offerings instead of a scalpel.
I can’t prove that Prodigy had low viewership, but I don’t think I’m off-base to say that it had a very NICHE fan base. If you weren’t a Star Trek fan before Prodigy premiered or a kid who just thought the previews looked cool, I doubt many others were actively seeking the show. Not to mention that even a lot of hardcore Star Trek fans aren’t big on animation of any kind – especially something billed as a kids show.
To add insult to injury, an article that came out yesterday via Gamespot says that Nickelodeon DIDN’T take much of a hit on P+. So that part of my previous statement is not even true. In other words, Prodigy was the ONLY Nickelodeon show to be recently removed from P+. To me, that says a lot. If Prodigy was really hitting an audience, does it make sense to remove it?
If you had to sell an asset to raise cash, would you put something low rated up for sale, or something with a solid fan base that does well, with 20 never-before-seen episodes ready to air?
Hate to break it to you, but companies sell distressed assets all the time.
The information that’s come out of Paramount indicates Prodigy did very well on the metrics, DVDs sold out immediately upon cancelation, buzz is solid, awards are solid. If the numbers were lousy, the second season would have been canceled before Paramount paid for the entire production of the second season. The clues point to a successful show.
They have to remove it for the tax write off.
So have I. My Paramount Global shares have been sold as a tax write-off…
LOL. Buy Netflix stock.
There’s copies of the first 10 of the season available on EBay for $12 as we speak. Free shipping, too. I found it to be a very enjoyable show. Purchasing physical media of our favorites is, and remains….logical, imo.
Wow, here we are again. I’m having ‘Save Enterprise’ flashbacks. Regardless, sadly, between streaming’s extreme cost cutting and of course the writer’s strike we aren’t getting any new Trek any time soon past DIS S5 save for possibly Lower Decks.
I bought the blu-ray on Amazon as soon as the news broke. I guess I contributed to it selling out so quickly.
I’m going to try and be mature and not comment on the quality of prodigy when compared to other shows currently airing in the star trek franchise. But I love Prodigy.
i suspect however that it muddied it’s target audience too much. I started off prepared to not like it due to it being immature and kiddie, and ended up loving it. But my kids wouldn’t. It would go way above their heads.
That’s what happens when you have fan girls and boys running the show. They forget about their target audience and just make the show for themselves.
You just described 90% of Discovery’s problem.
LOL true.
It’s the opposite. When they made their own show for DSC in S1 and S2, it was an awesome series. Then, they made the mistake of listening to all the hater fans, and the show got watered down so that the fans that loved the show from Day 1 were disappointed, but the detractors still hated it anyway.
Hopefully we get a final season that returns DSC to form.
Season 1 of Discovery stands out from the rest because it contains the remnants of Bryan Fuller’s vision completed by writers he brought onboard, Harberts and Berg. And no, Season 3’s awkward repackaging of U. K. Le Guin themes had little to do with complaints of “hater fans” — but it’s fun to come up little pet theories, so keep ’em coming.
I’m one of those fans that liked the show from day 1 but got disappointed. If I want to be preached to I’ll go to church.
Yes, well put, Silvereyes.
No I didn’t. So funny the mental gymnastics the small minority of you guys do to point out your hate for Disco. The show that brought Star Trek back to television. It’s actually pretty sad. As for me I’ll be quite happy to watch the grand final season of a fantastic show that has changed Trek forever. All the other shows could be cancelled tomorrow and I wouldn’t give it a second thought.
No gymnastics required. And I’ll watch S5 too by the way, hoping they’ll forego the morality and how to think lessons.
Until we heard it was cancelled, I was actually considering not watching season 5 at all until after it was over to binge it. That’s how frustrated this show has made me. Now since it’s the last, I’m going to just watch it weekly.
And I would’ve considered that for PIC as well after the dumpster fire of season 2 if they didn’t bring back the TNG cast in season 3. I couldn’t even think to do that when they were announced. But I honestly really struggled with both of these shows last seasons I have never struggled with a show before.
That’s what I did for PIC S2. I didn’t watch it as it came out. I read the reviews and posts, and since it was universally despised, I just never watched it. I did like S1, although I thought Picard was a mere shadow of himself… but I’m glad I didn’t waste my time with S2.
Yeah I wish I had your willpower and I was generally excited about season 2. I didn’t love season 1 and frankly it was the worse season in the modern era for me but it wasn’t THAT awful either. And I remember Akiva Goldsman was saying season one had its issues because they didn’t know how the show would end before they started shooting it. But for season 2 he was practically bragging because of the pandemic they had tons more time to work on it and had finished everything before they started shooting. That actually convinced me even if it wasn’t a great season, it would be better.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
How has Discovery ‘changed Trek forever’ when basically every show outside of it has ignored those changes? SNW is supposedly a spin off of it but has actually gone the complete opposite way in how it’s structured and even avoided all the changes to canon like the Klingons. With the exception of mentioning Burnham as Spock’s sister, there hasn’t been a single reference to any of the characters. I was hoping for a L’Rell reference in the Klingon episode and nothing.
The odd thing about DIS is that all the other shows haven’t even referenced it in any real way except SNW, the show you think sucks. But PIC, LDS or PRO has been nothing. It’s very odd to me in fact. Imagine DS9 and VOY never once referencing TNG? And all those shows were baked in to how TNG was originally done. Not the same with DIS outside of PIC and both being highly serialized but that’s just modern TV more than anything.
One does get the impression that much of Discovery is being airbrushed out of existence, much like a photo of Nikita Khrushchev in 1965.
Once they threw the ship 900 years into the future and had Spock suggest to Section 31 that having anyone in Starfleet just mentioning its existence was paramount to treason, they gave fans the odd idea they were trying to ignore the show both literally and figuratively. But apparently it’s presence is still felt everywhere in the franchise today. ;)
That’s not how I’m seeing it. Just watch SNW. It has the essence and feel of Star Trek Discovery all over it.
This comment is so funny. People complained when JJ Abrams started making the Trek movies, claiming they shouldn’t put it into the hands of someone that wasn’t a fan of the show. Now it is the opposite.
For me personally I think Trek works better when non fans make the show. Into Darkness is still my favorite Trek movie.
You and I have vastly different views. That was by far my least favourite Trek movie. Even below Star Trek 5. I found it to be complete garbage with Abrams clearing not understanding Trek at all. I was not emotionally invested in the characters after a second movie, and some things did not make sense. Why would you even need a starship if you can beam from one planet to another instead? For me, I remember watching TOS when I was 5 years old on the old B&W TV we had in our kitchen. I have seen each iteration since. Some I liked more than others. Others I have rewatched and found a new appreciation for – such as Enterprise.
We are all entitled to our own opinions, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. And that is the beauty of Trek today – there is something for everyone! You cannot make everyone happy, but with so many different Trek shows out there now – you can choose your favourite and others can choose theirs.
“Why would you even need a starship if you can beam from one planet to another instead?”
I agree with a lot of your issues over STID but this argument always been the biggest pet peeve of mine and it’s been said over and over again. Starfleet’s main mission is to explore. You can’t use transporters to beam to planets you haven’t discovered yet. That’s why still need the starships.
And starships do much more than just transport or evacuate people. They are also huge science and research labs, diplomacy settings and defense when needed as well. You can’t use transporters to study a nebula or defend a planet against the Romulans or Borg.
New and inventive ways to call kids unintelligent. Prodigy appealed to kids (I have one – loved it!) and also held the attention of adults by making it engaging and strong Trek. But by all means, let’s argue the show should be dumbed down as much as possible, or have no reference to anything that came before it. When you’re struggling for reasons to rage against something, sure, let’s argue that nostalgia and continuation is a bad thing.
Sorry but the plot of the show became far too involved with nostalgia and cannon. The show should’ve been about a bunch of kids having adventures on ship. That’s it. Even the hologram was a mistake. Kids never got interested and tuned out because it was a “grownup” show.
You’re so fired up to rage on it that any reference to a prior character is “nostalgia.” It attracted children but also adult fans with good story and strong Trek vibes. You didn’t like it. Many others did. Paramount rolled the dice that they could make money off it without offending other fans. They lost my subscription and pissed off many others. More Trek will be canceled in the days and weeks ahead. Take it to the bank.
Rage? Dude with Bitcoin going up, I’m very Zen right now. And Paramount Plus just gave me access to showtime for free. Zen is the way and I don’t have to renew my subscription until December.
They jacked up the prices to when they included Showtime. Enjoy. I canceled my annual subscription. Whoever picks up Prodigy can have my money.
The show *is* about a bunch of kids having adventures on ship (and, in the process, learning of the tenets and ideas and ideals behind both the Federation and the Star Trek franchise itself). That it also contains other story elements doesn’t alter or detract from that.
The first half was better.
I don’t think that’s the case here at all. The showrunners may be fans, but they’re also people with an extensive history in quality animation aimed at kids and families; they had years under their belts of knowing how to address their audience in a way that would neither talk down to them nor go over their heads, long before they were ever associated with Star Trek. The actual show itself ought to be proof enough of that, if a glance at their filmographies on IMDB didn’t already suffice.
And yet they failed.
If you mean in the sense that the show is canceled, I guess. In any other sense (i.e., the quality of the show), I passionately disagree.
That meme. Hilarious!
The notion that Prodigy got Tuvix’d by Paramount+ is hilarious.
“Refining our content offering to deliver the best streaming experience for subscribers.” Ah well since this is to deliver the best streaming experience, then thank you Paramount! Everybody knows they’re doing this for their own bottom line and has nothing to do with the “best streaming experience”, so Paramount, just spare us the corporate PR bull please. Your viewers aren’t idiots. If they were, wouldn’t they be working for you?
they sure seem to have a hard time getting out of their own way when it comes to one of their most (potentially) important properties.
Right. I mean, how can they deliver the best streaming experience by cancelling and removing from the platform one of their best shows?
You just answered your own question.
Your viewers aren’t idiots. If they were, wouldn’t they be working for you?
Ha! Excellent.
I understand the criticism, but that’s the whole point of PR. It is a ridiculous line, but what would you prefer them to say?
“Due to our inability to profit off of a streaming outlet because our subscriber base isn’t growing fast enough and we’ve chosen not to raise prices through the roof like similar services, we will be taking a tax break and removing low-viewership content so that we can continue to provide more successful content and try not to lose as much money.”
Yes of course I know that this is what marketing/PR is for. But there’s a better way of transmitting their message than lying and being outright obvious about it.
I’d prefer honesty to meaningless nonsense.
Read the damn Paramount Global annual report on form 10-K, not the press releases. The first risk factor contains disclosure that’s pretty damn close to what Jtrekker wrote above.
I hear that you can get that in Amsterdam.
Your viewers aren’t idiots….
Considering the number of viewer comments that don’t seem to grasp the dire financial situation of the company, your statement is illogical.
So while I’m saying viewers aren’t idiots, you’re saying I’m being illogical because they are… Good job Phil, you just insulted a bunch of people right there.
I am always up for Phil vs. Silvereyes…pass the popcorn
Phil vs. Silvereyes? Is that a thing?
I did indeed insult a bunch of people. All the ones who are going yippee, now Legacy is going to get made……ignoring that these decisions are being made to keep Paramount Global afloat. PG didn’t lay off twenty five percent of their staff so they could make more Star Trek.
Gonna mangle Jeff Foxworthy here…..if you think Prodigy was canceled so P+ could make Legacy, then you might be an….___________(hint – not a redneck)!
In Italy is still available…
Thank god!
Don’t be that guy.
Pulled from Paramount + already… harsh. That’s quicker than when you remove all aspects of your ex from social media just because you want to P them off
It’s dead Jim
LOL Good one.
Despite what has been stated by the creators, my bet is that we won’t ever see season two of Prodigy given the tax write-off….this is going “full Supergirl” I’m afraid. However, perhaps someday maybe we might be able to get low quality bootleg DVD’s of it on Ebay, aka Song of the South?
Maybe, but DC has no interest in shopping out Batgirl because they saw it as a liability – and more than just a short-term financial liability. DC literally threw the baby-out-with-the-bathwater when they brought in James Gunn and Co. to start the DCU (no longer DCEU) from scratch. Batgirl wasn’t even going to be part of the new canon, and the only thing the movie apparently had going for it was Michael Keaton’s return as Batman. DC and WB decided to wipe Batgirl from existence, with the hope that they could save the big Keaton cameo for the new “The Flash” movie currently in theaters. If you haven’t been reading box office headlines this week, just to let you know, The Flash is currently looking to be one of the lowest grossing films to be released in the DCEU. Batgirl may not have cost anywhere close to what it did to make The Flash, but I’m pretty sure they saved a lot more money off the write-off and saving face with the fans than what would have happened with the release.
Prodigy doesn’t strike me the same way. Star Trek is still a strong IP, and if Prodigy heads to the right platform, it could still find success. Personally, I think maybe someone like Netflix or Amazon picking it up is somewhat likely, or maybe find a way to shop out broadcast rights. Even in HBO’s case, they apparently have already sold off a lot of their now missing series content to lower-tier streamers like the ROKU Channel and Tubi. I can see the same happening here. A low-budget single film is a lot different than 40 episodes of a TV show.
Well said. If anything, P+ needs to recoup what they spent on Season 2 (even if it’s at a loss), so it will definitely find a home at another streamer, and eventually make its way to home video. Hopefully they don’t completely kill off the licensed merchandise – it’d be a shame not to get a second wave of action figures (no Rok-Tahk??? grr) and at least ONE ship model kit.
Season two will definitely be released.
This action with Prodigy is odd.
It could be as simple as the show not meeting audience, subscriber and revenue performance. But whatever issues it had, I think they could have been fixed quickly and easily if execs actually wanted to fix them.
It’s a well-crafted, kid-targeted show. So increase the number of kid and family streaming outlets ASAP beyond P+ and Nick. Remove exclusivities. Put the show on Saturday AM & Weekday after school broadcast TV (free, over the air) like the old days. Plan elementary and High school science lessons tied to shows. Put the show in rotation on Airline flights and in Airports with kid zones. Hype the toy sales to encourage more kid viewership.
Or it could be more about internal planning and revenue ops issues — meaning corrective actions are being taken for bad decisions or mismanagement and this show is a victim. In which case, this has more to do with why Paramount is not doing well as a whole right now.
This makes me think of the news reports I saw earlier today saying that WB would have lost less cash if they had canceled “The Flash” movie and never shown it, rather than spend all the marketing and PR and distro dollars only for the movie to flop in theaters (like Black Adam). So, if Paramount wants to save cash, will they cancel the last season of DISCO (and cancel the S31 movie, and cancel Academy), in addition to what they have done with Prodigy? In which case they can write off the production expense, stop all additional marketing spend, stop all royalty payments on un-aired content… etc.
I don’t really expect anything to change, but I wish the revival grassroots efforts luck.
Star Trek Prodigy is cancelled while Star Trek Lower Decks is renewed.
This is highly illogical.
Maybe Lower Decks is less expensive to produce and has more viewers, in which case it’s quite logical.
But it’s the worse of the two, though.
Whereas Prodigy innovated on what came before, Lower Decks uses it as a punchline.
To each his own. They’re two completely different shows and concepts. I like both for different reasons.
Irrelevant. The bottom line is clear – enough people watched Lower Decks to make it viable and profitable. Too few people watched Prodigy, especially the target audience, apparently. That’s all that matters. Not one person’s perception of ‘quality’.
Even if you believe that, no one cares about which show is considered ‘better’ when it comes to keeping shows, simply how it performs. It’s about $$$ at the end of the day and apparently LDS does very well considering it’s now entering it’s fourth season and season five is on the way. And I also liked Podigy more. But this is where fans have to put away their personal preferences and biases and look at the situation more objectively.
And in terms of fan reviews, the two are basically on par with each other.
Rotten Tomatoes: LDS: 72% PRO: 76%
IMDB: LDS: 7.6 PRO: 7.4
So yeah.
Yes. I would totally believe Lower Decks would be cheaper to make.
Given the history of programming cancellations, the logic would seem to be based in viewership. In other words, this cancellation would seem to suggest that one series (Lower Decks) has more viewers than the other (Prodigy).
Not necessarily. LDS could have less viewers but be cheaper to make.
Plausible and probable. More and more, my ignorance is reflected back at me.
Heh.
I highly doubt LDS has less viewers. This show seems to have a strong following even if its not at the level of the live action shows. In fact, LDS and SNW were the two shows I wasn’t worried about at all when the belt tightening arguments started. And funny enough, those are currently the only two shows now standing although that can change on a dime as I been saying. So I’m not suggesting they are safe in the long term, just safe for now.
The growing consensus is that Prodigy has value and with Season 2 nearly completed, Paramount hopes to cash in. If it had low viewership, they’d have stomped on Season 2 before they’d shelled out millions for it.
Agreed, it’s nonsensical. It’s like cancelling steak and keeping Spam.
Amazing show but if it helps fund Star Trek Legacy then….so be it
I hate to say but I think Star Trek: Legacy has become even less likely now.
Agreed. All ST is at risk now.
I expect that is the truth. If the writers strike isn’t settled soon, or the actors join it, SNW is likely done after two.
It helps keep Paramount Global as a viable business for a little longer. That’s it.
Even if it’s greenlit tomorrow, Legacy can’t move forward right now because of the writers’ strike, whereas Prodigy‘s writers are under TAG (which isn’t striking) rather than WGA, and it could continue production while all live-action stuff is halted. And frankly, I for one would rather have more Prodigy than Legacy anyway.
This was just shortsighted cost-cutting, nothing more, and no one will benefit from it – not us viewers and fans, not the artists who make Prodigy, and ultimately not even the penny-wise, pound-foolish executives slashing and burning the things that give consumers a reason to subscribe in the first place.
Good luck with that.
I just Showtime with my subscription. All is forgiven.
Guys, Lower Decks may have more viewers than Prodigy, but that was to be expected.
LDS was made for EXISTING fans that get the inside jokes and obscure references, while PRO was made to entice people into becoming NEW fans.
That is a mission that was going to take years (FIVE, even…), not just 20 episodes released over the course of a year. Imagine if any of the Star Trek series had only had a single season to gain an audience.
Neither Discovery, Section 31, Starfleet Academy, nor a Legacy series can truly accomplish what PRO set out to do since those series are all for people that are already fans of Star Trek.
Prodigy needed time to grow its audience, and that has been cut short.
If that was Paramounts actual plan, it was an unrealistic one. No one is going to pour money down a sinkhole for five years to maybe grow some fans., without some evidence of a return at some point. It had a shot, and sometimes, you have to know when to stop throwing good money after bad. This show couldn’t decide who it was for, and anecdotal evidence says it was not, and likely would never reach its target of growing the franchise. The people that were watching were existing fans. It was largely met with indifference from non Trek fan potential viewers. It’s okay that you liked it. That’s not enough, and clearly with the actual numbers available, Paramount did not see the effort as worth continuing to fund.
I personally loved the show and I think it sucks with how Paramount has treated it. But at the end of the day shows have to perform. I will say for Star Trek fans, we know we are going to get content in one form or another. It’s no longer the black hole it was when Enterprise was cancelled, but none of it is guaranteed to last either. ENT was really the first show to make that point, but it’s been a steady reminder seeing how fast the Kelvin films died out and now two shows cancelled and one of them after just a season. I never thought that would happen.
But I been saying this forever, this franchise still has a ceiling and we have to accept that. Putting five shows on the air sounded amazing but it was probably a little too ambitious at the time too. So they have to cut the fat and keep the shows that is actually performing and why both DIS and PRO is now gone. And I say this as someone who didn’t love DIS but truly loved PRO but it’s not any kind of bias since I was ALSO saying I was worried about Prodigy more than any of them. It really seemed like it just wasn’t getting a lot of views, not just from new fans but old fans as well. And now seeing so many people coming out of the woodwork on Reddit and Youtube saying they never watched it nor wanted to seems to be proving that. But yeah, you can’t ignore reality if a show is just not doing enough or its glory days are behind it.
Let’s hope Paramount, if it is going to die, has a quick death at least instead of a long drawn out one. If it’s going to happen, best get the Trek IP to a new home that can appreciate it and get cracking on whatever’s next for the franchise. If Paramount dies an extended death, it may be a while again before we see much.
That said, my advice to whomever may get the keys to the Trek universe is this – write good characters and stories, and the rest will take care of itself. Too often in the current era, it has been one dimensional boring characters one can’t develop any relationship to, and mediocre at best storytelling. Want to make Trek successful again? Start with strong characters, and something above pre-teen fanfic level writing.
“Want to make Trek successful again?” DSC filmed five seasons before getting cancelled. SNW has been greenlit for a third, and will likely also get more. LDS is getting ready to stream its fourth season. PIC ran the full three seasons it was always intended to run. An Academy show and a S31 film were also announced pre-strike. Obviously the strike can change things, but I’d hardly call Trek unsuccessful.
Disco wasn’t canceled. It’s ending its run, expensive TV shows don’t last forever. 5 seasons is a good run. Also you don’t spend millions of dollars shooting new scenes for a show that was cancelled.
Don’t kid yourself, Discovery was definitely cancelled. You don’t decide to film extra scenes to create an ending after you already wrapped filming if that wasn’t the case. You’re using that as a reason why it wasn’t cancelled but that proves it was lol. And we don’t know how much it cost to actually shoot. But it was cancelled. If that wasn’t the case they would’ve just announced fifth season as its final season and advertised it as such just like Picard season 3 did. And even then, that’s still being cancelled because unlike PIC, Discovery never had an end date.
But yes I agree, five years is a decent run for a streaming show. I made that point many times but few people seemed to believe that for some reason. Why I was convinced it was the first show to get cancelled.
I for one don’t think there was any issue with who this show was for; it works well as a show in and of it myself, as well as an extension of over half a century of franchise lore. If it didn’t connect with you, that’s unfortunate, but it absolutely connected with others.
“LDS was made for EXISTING fans that get the inside jokes and obscure references, while PRO was made to entice people into becoming NEW fans.”
And THAT’s the problem, it probably didn’t do it enough o entice new people and hence was cancelled. Which is kind of funny because TAS was cancelled for the same reason. It was meant to appeal to kids, but it was mostly the old TOS adults watching it, so it got cancelled. We’ve already been down this transwarp conduit before unfortunately. I think this time the hope was more optimistic considering how much Trek there is today and that is reaching different demographics (in theory at least).
Now if Paramount+ was just doing BETTER as a whole, then maybe it would’ve at least showed season 2 and see how well that did first before cancelling it. Again they DID announce they were going to air season 2 a few months ago. That was obviously the plan, but something obviously changed and changed for the worse.
All of us was hoping this show was catching on with kids for no other reason we all know that Trek mainly has a mostly aging fanbase and that the show is going to have to grow beyond people who watched it from the 60s-90s. Even if you started watching Voyager as a 10 year old when it premiered in 1995, you would be nearly 40 years old today.
And they been trying to get younger people since 2009, but nothing has really taken hold from what I can tell. There are certainly more new fans today but they probably still make up the minority easily. And even more so if they are under 20.
For the last 6 months, the phrase ‘market growers’ has been bandied around here as if this is the main attraction for keeping a show on and ironically it’s Discovery and now Prodigy that got the boot that people claimed were the shows in fact doing that. So that either means they weren’t doing it enough to justify their continued existence or that they are more focused on the shows that can simply hold an audience, ANY audience if it drives enough subscriptions which apparently Lower Decks does. And my bet is they are more interested in the shows that have people committed to paying for these shows month after month versus new fans who is not as devoted to any of them or only focused on a certain one.
Now all that said we don’t know what’s in LDS and SNW future. Yeah they are committed for NOW but both of these shows could be on the chopping block when their current seasons are over as well. I hope if nothing else LDS gets its fifth season and SNW its third, but we just can’t trust anything this company is telling us when they have already cancelled two shows before the seasons they already shot hasn’t aired yet. And we won’t even see PRO’s now.
This company sounds like it’s in a dire mess and trying to attract more 9 year olds to a 50 year old franchise is probably not a huge priority for them right now.
ST09 was a good start towards bringing in younger than average audience, but Paramount has been a terribly managed company forever, and usually their luck wins out when it comes to Trek, but licensing the property out to a group not good at or interested in telling great stories (I know people love Bad Robot, but they stand on the shoulders of giants in everything they’ve done) didn’t help them get lucky and capitalize on the new demo success with 09. I’m not saying it was a massive demo success, but people did come to the franchise because of the Pine movie and the second movie getting a bigger budget alone is evidence of corporate confidence in an emerging or reemergent IP.
It’s probably no more complicated than Prodigy being a costly show for P+ relative to its performance. The weird co-branding with Nickelodeon either wasn’t a cost helper or a completely non-existent driver for audience, as Paw Patrol alone would seem to be a rising tide that raises all ships (directing people to Nick & P+ to watch other kids programming), but not if a TV-Y7 show cost more than the usual TV-Y7 show. I think that’s been the problem with all new Trek: it costs **way more** than its value, and that ultimately has nothing much to do with interest rates or “the streamers are dying” – it’s just poor management. A hallmark of ViacomCBS/Paramount/whatever the heck it’s called.
Tiger2, I’m sorry I’m just ultimately restating exactly what you said. The company *is* in a dire mess, and we just have to watch it implode. To paraphrase Data, though: “I hope it dies quickly!”
Oh yeah I agree with nearly all of this. I was only saying it’s really hard to get a lot of new people invested in the long term as the Kelvin movies proved. But yeah those movies brought in tons of new people who never watched Star Trek before. I even had friends who never seen it actually go and watch that movie. Unfortunately it never went beyond that for them though, which is fine obviously. But someone else said it best that while the Kelvin movies did bring a lot of attention to new fans at the time but most of them just probably looked at it as another big CGI summer blockbuster movie and stopped thinking about it the minute after they saw it.
And because Paramount didn’t really strike as the iron was hot as you said, many just lost interest completely by the time the next movie rolled around. And practically nonexistent by the time Beyond showed up. It’s why these movies probably can’t get off the ground now as much as they been trying because they know it has lost any real new fans at this point and would mainly live or die by how many of us oldies went to see it. But that’s the Star Trek way!
And yeah, Prodigy just probably didn’t make the numbers they were hoping for given its cost. We don’t know obviously but that wouldn’t surprise me at all. I been very open I was worried this show could get cancelled. But the fact they are basically selling the show to someone else shows its obviously more than just a show not performing and that Paramount itself is just in dire straights.
We obviously don’t know what the future of Trek looks like right now but we know it will survive in SOME form regardless. And to be honest, it’s obviously not the only big franchise having growing pains these days as they ALL seem to be lol. D.C. is just a total mess on every level right now. It’s astonishing how much of a mess they have made that franchise and unlike Star Trek was making near billion dollar hits not that long ago. Now their latest movies have all made around what Beyond did and that’s NOT good. Marvel is in a better place but it still not the powerhouse it was a few years ago. Ant Man 3 essentially bombed and the new Secret Invasion show is currently the lowest viewed show so far out of all the MCU shows. And of course Disney+ and Max are also in financial tail spins cancelling and removing shows themselves, consolidating their content with other streaming sites like P+ and Showtime and even has commercial options now. They may not be doing as bad as P+ but they are obviously not doing amazing either.
If misery loves company there is a lot to love right now lol. All of these brands and services are having immense problems today. It’s going to be interesting how all this shakes out in a few years; but I wouldn’t be shocked if P+ wasn’t part of that future at all if they can’t make it a bigger site. We may have another UPN on our hands lol.
Paramount+ is just garbage filler without Trek. Basic Becky content with little that stands out besides the Yellowstone franchise. P+ will not survive the steaming wars. It’s the weakest one out there. It will get bought and subsumed into a larger streamer and all the execs will lose their positions. Prodigy was a beautiful show. One of the best Treks. Of course you can cancel it if the numbers are not there, but when it’s Trek, and you are a loser streamer that would be truly dead without Star Trek, you bite the bullet and finish the show. You respect the fan base that makes your 4th tier joke of a platform even stay afloat. I actually would keep my sub going even when they were not airing new Trek out of greatfulness. That good will is lost. Stay tuned to see what other streamer buys P+.
I doubt many on this site will agree with me, but I think ‘Evil’ is the best show on this network.
Star Trek has been overall dismal except SNW and this last season of Picard, which hopefully is their new direction for Trek. I never watched Prodigy as I don’t have kids, and I’m not enough of a fan to sit through a kids/maybe not a kids animation show (but I did watch and enjoy Star Wars Rebels).
I’ll be amazed if they go through with the YA Star Trek show too.
Alex Kurtzman needs to go away, his instinct are terrible, and the ratings show it.
Did Alex write the show? I think your hate is showing. Not a good look.
Man, all these comments I see from people who never bothered with Prodigy because “I don’t have kids” and all that are enormously frustrating. Kids’ show or not, it’s honestly one of the better shows in the franchise, whether new or old (and in particular, with all due respect to the many talented and committed artists who lovingly toiled to make Picard, Prodigy is so much better than Picard). People who didn’t watch it missed out, IMO.
You will get no argument from me regarding Kurtzman and his production company. They shouldn’t be let within 50 miles of anything Star Trek related.
BTW… I recall Evil being on CBS back in 2019. Never watched it. Did it migrate to P+? I have a hard time finding anything on P+ I have an interest in watching. I think I’ve seen 3 other non-Trek things on it. 1 was absolute garbage. The other two were just “meh”.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Disney+ bought the Star Trek franchise? I mean, imagine Matalas and Filoni working together…
Mickey Mouse in a Starfleet uniform.
For the record, a lot of CBS content is on Paramount+. CBS has been the most watched network in the US for 15 years. Assuming that all the P+ content beyond Star Trek is “garbage” would essentially be stating that people who like CBS content just enjoy terrible TV. Even if you don’t like a lot of their content, since TV is a subjective medium, apparently you would be in the minority.
Their plans don’t matter as Paramount will be bought by another company within a year or two. Quibi had plans too…
Hopefully Disney or Netflix
Disney is in serious financial strife themselves and are at risk of being acquired. Beside the US Government will not allow them to acquire any more companies after Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm and 20th Century. Netflix or Apple are contenders for Paramount.
In other fun news, I just read that P+ ad supported tier is getting a price hike today.
I’ve been a consistent subscriber from the CBSAA days to the ad-free tier, my price is going from $9.99 to $11.99. Not a huge deal, I suppose, at least I’m now getting the Showtime content as well.
Been buying ad free for a bit now. I do watch other stuff on the service, but if Paramount peddles Trek to another service, then I’ll be canceling it.
I’ll keep it for Bevis and Butthead
They just gave me free Showtime since I was on the premium price plan. I did the year subscription so I don’t have to pay again until December.
I tried to get my kids into it and they just didn’t like it unfortunately. Good luck to those who did.
The show never felt like a show kids would like. The writers goofed up, and yet they want more money.
Who wants more money? What are you talking about?
The anti-strike rhetoric is a weirdly common refrain in the comments of TrekMovie.com.
“The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe.” That, and the heartlessness of screwing over your customers if accountants tell you you’ll make a buck more if you write something off as a loss.
It’s all profit and loss to them.
This is an industry-wide phenomenon. All streaming services are dropping shows like this. And it was bound to happen eventually. It is an over saturation of streaming services on the market… Apple, Hulu, Paramount+, Disney, Prime, Netflix… people have to choose what service they want or it will get pricey.
Over saturation of a market has happened before. In the mid to late 80s when cable was starting to make it big, all these specialty channels popped up – kids, sports, music, etc. Everyone wanted to have their own content. And the over saturation began. How many Sports channels did we need? How many music video channels did we need? A lot of these channels started dropping their specialty owned content and changed formats. Look at MTV, A&E, Discovery, History, etc. How many resemble what they started as?
You can even see networks having to cut costs as well – the recent decision on whether to cancel Superman and Lois or Gotham Knights. Superman was raking in great viewing numbers but cost more to make. Gotham Knights had lower rating but was cheaper. They even cut more than 3/4 of the cast of Superman moving forward. Same thing with The Winchesters. Trying to shop around shows sometimes does not work.
Being in the Entertainment industry in Canada since 1987 – I have seen a lot of changes. For me, this is nothing new.
To be Honest I was Expertin them to can the Show After Season 2 and I was also Expecting them to Split The Season into 2 sub arcs like Season 1, Effectively giving us four volumes or seasons . I Loved the show, baut I understand it is very niche, even among Trekkers, with Star Trek Never having had quite the audience of Star Wars.
Even Star Wars cartoons fail.
Argh. I wish that person who asked about a Vol. 2 DVD release had added “and Blu-ray” to the question…
I think it is time to let it go. It is over.
Yes. This is the answer.
Not if they’re trying to get another streamer to buy the rights, as they say they are.
I see the show has just been nominated for Outstanding Achievement i Family Programing at the television critics awards & one other show in the category was deleted by Disney+ in May
I thought Prodigy was well made and unique. Hope it gets saved so it can have a few more seasons.