Star Trek’s Controversial New Spinoff Is More Popular Than Anyone Can Think
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Starfleet Academy is the latest Star Trek spinoff, and it has proven to be particularly controversial with older fans who are upset about how different this adult show is compared to the original Trek, such as The Original Series again The Next Generation. These fans have predicted doom for the new show, with many believing this could be the nail in the coffin for the best sci-fi IP ever made. But the haters have been proven wrong: according to the latest numbers, Starfleet Academy it has a much larger audience than either of them Strange New Worlds again Picard!
This information comes to us courtesy of Ted Linheart, who tracks live streaming numbers on his popular substack (Ted On TV). According to him, the first two episodes of Starfleet Academy earned 2.1 million views in the first eight days of the show on Paramount+. This is significantly higher than the average viewership for a full season Strange New Worlds Season 3 and Picard Season 3, each averaging 1.3 million viewers.
Surprise Star Trek Hit
Obviously, there are some mitigating factors here; For example, Starfleet Academy you’ve probably gotten a head start since the first episode because everyone (from NuTrek haters to corporate loyalists) tuned in to see what the new Star Trek show was all about. Time will tell if the new show can keep up the momentum or if it fizzles out (for example, the poor visibility of episode 3 could lower this rating). Speaking of comedy, the third season of Strange New Worlds again Picard both had fewer views than before (SNW Season 3 quickly dropped out of Nielsen’s top 10 streaming list, for example, and never returned).
However, on the face of it, Starfleet Academy is a bigger hit out of the gate than more established shows Strange New Worlds again Picard. This is especially noteworthy because those two shows were created in part as a response to the mistakes of the Adoption: Strange New Worlds it is an episodic template The Original Seriesfor example, when Picard is clearly a revival of The Next Generation. NuTrek faced resistance from older fans almost immediately because Adoption was very different from what they expected, so Picard and SNW were both created to echo the Golden Age of Star Trek.
The Last Thing or Person the Audience Expected to Like
Judging by these streaming numbers, however, the general audience craves something new in Star Trek rather than the usual. After all, Strange New Worlds slowly introduced regular characters like Kirk and Scotty in an attempt to make the show more likeable The first one Series, and Picard’The last season was a direct revival of The Next Generation. However, these NuTrek show fewer viewers per season than the first two episodes of Starfleet Academya show that swapped veteran cops for a bunch of weird, foul-mouthed cadets.
This will at least prove that Paramount’s big gamble with this new Star Trek game is paying off. Many (myself included) wondered how it would work to target younger viewers, a demographic that NuTrek has historically struggled to appeal to. Still, the network went ahead with a show focused on young characters interested in things like rebelling against authority, winning epic prank battles, and (what else?) sleeping.
Audience Verdict: The Kids Are Right
The first success of Starfleet Academy seems to indicate that Paramount’s strategy is working and that the new show is generating more viewers than (on average) recent seasons of shows that have tried (more or less) to tell the kinds of Star Trek stories that older fans will relate to. This leads to the delicious confusion I talked about in my review Starfleet AcademyThe newest episode: the new spinoff moved hard and fast away from the franchise’s usual tropes, replacing them with modern dialogue, lighthearted humor, and youth-oriented stories. The result is completely different from anything Trek has done before, but these streaming numbers indicate that reworking the franchise could be a good thing.
Paramount is desperate to get more viewers for its original programming, and that desire seems to have intensified after the Skydance merger and the studio’s many failed attempts to buy Warner Bros. Starfleet Academy it’s different from any Trek that came before it, but that may not matter in the short term if it gains enough views to keep executives happy. However, in the long run, only time will tell if Paramount alienating its old fans in the name of attracting new ones will save Star Trek or set its divisions to kill while targeting the rest of the franchise.
