I’ll take more workplace comedy with Tawny Newsome.
Lower Decks was the best of the newer Trek series and her podcast had been a real hoot. It was fun seeing her in the Lower Decks x Strange New Worlds crossover, so I bet she’ll do well in a series.
It would be cool to see more SNW, too.
Edit: reminder that paramount is owned by a right wing oligarch who is actively trying to control our media and destroy our democracy so don’t pay them a fucking cent!
She’s writing for Academy, and was cast in one (excellent) episode of Academy as a character who seems quite likely to occasionally recur, btw.
They are in the middle of — it’s not just drinking from one firehose, there’s probably ten thousand hoses. And so everything is just happening slower as a result of this massive time of transition. And that is not exclusive to Star Trek.
As a corporate drone I see this as an absolute win.
The odds are near their highest that Academy will be rubberstamped simply because it passes a triage check and they’re too busy to bikeshed the details.
I am absolutely okay with Star Trek being just one of many franchises they’re managing, and not the largest or most prominent.
In the case of SFA, I do think they’ll be looking closely at the demographics - are they actually reaching the younger audience they were hoping to reach? I think that’s far more important than “was it a top 10 show” or whatever other limited metrics are available to us.
Even many of the perpetual doomsayers on other platforms are bending to acknowledge that SFA is tenaciously sticking at a rank of #1 or 2 on Amazon Channels.
It’s sinking in that SFA is pulling viewers but not Paramount+’s existing demographic — which means that it’s achieving what it was designed to do.
This is hugely important, and good to hear it’s going that way. As established Trek viewership enters our “extinction period” (ie., middle age and beyond), it’s super important that the show reaches new demographics.
SFA definitely bobs up in rank on Thursday/Friday/Saturday and falls off the rest of the week, but the interest shown on Amazon Channels is consistent across many countries, and not just in the United States.
Paramount will have the hard and detailed viewership data to make decisions — not just US-based brigading on social media aggregators.
I’m trying to find a way to reconcile some of Rod Roddenberry’s recent social media statements with the positives in interviews with from Kurtzman and Osunsamni.
Rod Roddenberry has not critiqued Secret Hideout but has talked about how there is potential for more positive Star Trek that fulfills his father’s concept of modeling a utopian society.
So, clearly Roddenberry Entertainment is pressing for some strategic influence in future shows.
That said, it makes one wonder how much strategic direction for darker peak television may have come from the highest levels at CBS and Paramount…
