Podcasts and Posts

Posted on

Why Reaching the Top 10 Mattered for Starfleet Academy

Header image for article on Nielsen ratings and Starfleet Academy.

Adding some context to one aspect of Academy’s cancellation.

When Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was cancelled, no definitive reason for the decision was given by Paramount+. That has led to endless speculation. Was the action the result of some hidden agenda by the Ellisons? A reaction to the toxic online “discourse” over the show? Was it a move designed to end all Alex Kurtzman-era productions prior to the end of his current contract? 

I certainly can’t pretend to know the answers to any of those questions. So, I will concern myself with the one that interests me the most. Namely, the statement that Starfleet Academy never broke into the Top 10 Streaming in the Nielsen ratings.

This article will be a deep dive into lots of numbers. If you would rather just study the infographic for a much higher-level picture, CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE IT.

Visual representation of much of the data discussed in the article.

A  far-too-brief explanation of Nielsen ratings

Nielsen is the industry standard when it comes to understanding how well TV shows are performing at drawing in audiences. They have tracked traditional and cable TV for decades. Later adding computer, internet and video game usage. And, in 2020, they expanded into covering the growing field of streaming. 

However, not every single streaming service was part of that launch. Even though CBS All Access (rebranded as Paramount+ in 2021) launched in October of 2014, it was not tracked by Nielsen until February of 2023. 

Some of the data is missing, including information on Data

Why is the date of Nielsen’s inclusion of CBS All Access/Paramount+ important? It lets us know something important about things we don’t know. 

The delayed start of tracking means that several seasons of streaming Star Trek were never ranked. In fact, numbers for one entire series are non-existent. We have no Nielsen ranking for seasons 1 through 4 of Star Trek: Discovery (2017-2022), seasons 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Picard (2020-2022), season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022), as well as the entire Star Trek: Short Treks (2018-2020) series. 

Your questions are answered. Well, at least some of them

Before we begin, here are answers to two questions you may find yourself asking.

Nielsen rankings are based on minutes viewed. Do the numbers in the charts indicate the total number of minutes that particular episode was viewed?

Yes. And no. While the majority of the number is, indeed, almost always related to the episode listed, you need to remember that the primary purpose of the Nielsens is to help networks charge appropriately for the audience size. Therefore, the number indicates the total number of minutes spent viewing the episode plus any other episodes of that series streamed during that particular week. 

What about Lower Decks and Prodigy? If the rankings are based on minutes viewed, how does that affect shorter-length shows?

Simply put, it makes those shows have to work that much harder to reach the Top 10. For every minute spent watching episodes of, say, Strange New Worlds, during a given week, more than twice as many episodes of Lower Decks would need to be streamed for it to rank in the same position. Yes, that’s unfair to fans of those shows, but, again, Nielsen ratings are designed to inform ad sales. More minutes mean more money.

Okay, let’s begin.

Once tracking began, Picard was first up to bat

The first streaming Star Trek to ever be officially tracked by Nielsen was Star Trek: Picard, season 3 (February 16 to  April 20, 2023). That means a bold statement like “The third season of Picard was the first streaming Trek to break into the Top 10″ needs to be tempered with the understanding that no streaming Trek before that even had the ability to chart in the Nielsens. 

In that third and final season of Picard, the show reached the Top 10 a total of three times. Here are the episodes, along with their rankings and the number of viewing minutes each week’s episode generated for the Picard series. As mentioned above, Nielsen reports on minutes viewed over a 1 week period. The numbers include the episode that premiered plus any views of other episodes of the Picard series that happened during that week.

Star Trek: Picard, season 3 (February 16 – April 20, 2023)

Episode PremieringTop 10 RankingSeries Minutes Viewed
“No Win Scenario” (ep. 4)9310 Million
“Vox” (ep. 9)10276 Million
“The Last Generation” (ep. 10)9400 Million

Given that there were 10 episodes in the season, that means Picard broke into the Top 10 rankings 30% of the time, with an average number of total minutes viewed equaling 326.7 million minutes.

How did Discovery fare?

In the timeline of series to have a season premier after Nielsen tracking began, next comes Strange New Worlds, season 2. However, since Discovery was already 4 seasons in prior to the Nielsens and the series would end during the run of Strange New Worlds, the show would, potentially, have the most momentum (or viewer fall off). So we will tackle that first. 

In the final season of Discovery, the show reached the Top 10 a total of four times. Here are the episodes, along with their rankings and the number of viewing minutes each week’s episode generated for the Discovery series. 

Star Trek: Discovery, season 5 (April 3 – May 30, 2024)

Episode PremieringTop 10 RankingSeries Minutes Viewed
“Jinaal” (ep. 3)10257 Million
“Face the Strange” (ep. 4)9241 Million
“”Mirrors” (ep. 5)8285 Million
“Life, Itself” (ep. 10)10269 Million

There were 10 episodes in the 5th season, that means Discovery broke into the Top 10 rankings 40% of the time, with an average number of minutes viewed equaling 263 million minutes. Going by those figures, while Discovery did better than Picard in terms of entering the Top 10, its average number of minutes viewed was lower, which may not be surprising given the fact this was 2024 and Discovery premiered back in 2017.

Is Strange New Worlds the GOAT of Trek streaming?

Next up is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. As a reminder, we have no data on season 1, as it premiered prior to being tracked by Nielsen. 

During the 10-episode season 2 of Strange New Worlds, the show reached the Top 10 a staggering 8 times, including hitting the highest spot streaming Trek has ever achieved in the Nielsens (#7) on three separate occasions. Here’s the breakdown. But pay attention to the total minutes viewed, as that information will be important in a moment.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2 (June 15 – August 20, 2023)

Episode PremieringTop 10 RankingSeries Minutes Viewed
“The Broken Circle” (ep. 1)7338 Million
“Ad Astra Per Aspera” (ep. 2)8393 Million
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and
Tomorrow” (ep. 3)		8332 Million
“Among the Lotus Eaters (ep. 4)10306 Million
“Charades” (ep 5)10280 Million
“Lost in Translation” (ep. 6)9321 Million
“Those Old Scientists” (ep. 7)7358 Million
“Subspace Rhapsody” (ep. 9)7362 Million

There were 10 episodes in season 2, that means Strange New Worlds broke into the Top 10 rankings 80% of the time, with an average number of minutes viewed equaling 336.3 million minutes. Both its charting on the Nielsens and its average minutes watched were above anything achieved by tracked Trek up to that point. 

The tide and time wait for no Trek

Clearly streaming Star Trek was on an upward swing in 2023. But a lot changed between Strange New World’s 2nd season in 2023 and its return for the 3rd season in 2025. 

The Writers Guild of America went on strike on May 1, 2023 and remained on the picket lines for 148 days. During the strike, Guild members were prohibited from virtually every aspect of writing, from rewrites to simple notes. This would have a serious impact on the Strange New Worlds writers room. 

As noted above, Star Trek: Discovery ended its 6-year, 5-season run in May 2023. The loss of the flagship streaming Trek series may have had a significant effect on how the franchise, and Paramount+, were perceived by Disco fans.

In June of 2023, in the middle of Strange New World’s second season, Paramount+ announced that not only would it not be premiering the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy, even though CBS Studios would complete work on the in-progress 20-episode season, season 1 would be completely removed from the platform. The production would be used as a tax write off. While not the first streaming Trek show to be cancelled, coming so shortly after the end of Discovery was concerning. Combine that with the fact that Paramount+ believed that virtually eliminating an entire series from its collection was just part of doing business, that is a message that sent a shockwave through the franchise.

On July 14, 2023, the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (SAG-AFTRA) found themselves on the picket lines for 118 days. Guild members could not act, sing, do dialogue looping, promotional work or even perform puppetry during the strike. It was one more bump in the road that would wreak havoc on the rhythm of the  Strange New Worlds production schedule.

On April 12, 2024, Paramount+ announced that Star Trek: Lower Decks would end at the conclusion of its then-in-production season 5. Although Starfleet Academy and the (then) Section 31 series had been announced, at this point there was no indication as to when either show would premier. 

But perhaps the biggest change was to Paramount itself. In 2021, industry observers were noticing that Paramount was making moves that implied it was dressing itself up for a possible sale or merger. By late 2023, Sharri Redstone was already in discussions with Skydance Media’s David Ellison about obtaining her family’s controlling shares in Paramount stock, even while then Paramount CEO Bob Bakish was speaking with Warner Bros. Discovery about a possible merger. The battle for control of Paramount would drag on until the Summer of 2025. 

Strange New Worlds tries to bounce back, and stumbles

After a 2-year hiatus, and premiering just six months after the Star Trek: Section 31 streaming movie event failed to impress critics and fans, Strange New Worlds returned for its 3rd season. However, with underbaked scripts and no cohesive thread to the season, the run fell far short of season 2’s success. During the 10-episode run, the show reached the Top 10 a total of 3 times, compared to 8 times during season 2. 

Please note that since “Hegemony, Part II” and “Wedding Bell Blues” premiered at the same time, they both represent that week’s ranking in the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 3 (July 14 – Sept 11, 2025)

Episode PremieringTop 10 RankingSeries Minutes Viewed
“Hegemony, Part II” (ep. 1) /
“Wedding Bell Blues” (ep. 2)		7471 Million
“Shuttle to Kenfori” (ep. 3)9472 Million
“A Space Adventure Hour” (ep. 4)7397 Million

There were 10 episodes in season 3, that means Strange New Worlds broke into the Top 10 rankings 30% of the time (again, “Hegemony, Part II” and “Wedding Bell Blues” were part of the same premier week). What is interesting to note here is that viewership of Strange New Worlds actually increased. Compared to an average of 336.3 million minutes of viewing time during season 2 Top 10 weeks, season 3 averaged 446.7 million. Subscriptions to Paramount+ were up, viewing minutes of Trek were up, but, so was streaming viewing in total. Making a record number of minutes viewed in a week was now almost a required baseline for success.

Academy fails to rank, signaling its fate

All of the above information is meant to help put into context that one statement: Starfleet Academy never broke into the Top 10 Streaming in the Nielsen ratings.

While one can argue all the other reasons why Academy failed, or why it should have been saved, the simple fact was, when it came to the Nielsens, Starfleet Academy season 1 was the first Nielsen-tracked season of Trek to never once achieve a goal that every other trackable live-action Trek season had achieved – multiple times. 

Interest in Star Trek still seemed high, given Strange New Worlds’ numbers. And while the show’s concept and execution may not have been right for some, Academy was primarily designed to bring in a new, younger audience. For whatever reason, or reasons, that audience appears to have not shown up.

You may wonder, given what we know, will Academy do better in season 2? The only direct comparison we have is the two tracked seasons of Strange New Worlds, where the viewership hours were actually up, but in the rising tide of streaming shows, the series was still sinking.

And when the expectations are high. That much of a fall is hard to reverse. If season 4 of Strange New Worlds manages to pull off a turnaround. It might better answer the “What if…” aspects of this story. But it won’t change the reality. Starfleet Academy underperformed when it comes to this metric, hastening its demise.

For better or worse, this article was written by the author, not AI. 

Links to some of the information used in the creation of this article
Nielsen launches weekly list of most popular streaming shows – Los Angeles Times
Paramount Press Express | CBS BRINGS PROGRAMMING DIRECT TO CONSUMERS WITH NEW MULTI-PLATFORM DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Paramount Plus launches March 4, taking over from CBS All Access (Update) – Android Authority
Paramount+ Makes Its Nielsen Streaming Chart Debut With ‘1923’
List of Hollywood strikes – Wikipedia
Shocker — STAR TREK: PRODIGY Cancelled, to be Removed from Paramount+ in Days as Animated Series Seeks New Home – TrekCore.com
‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Canceled After Season 5
A Starfleet Academy Star Trek Series Is in the Works at Paramount+

Posted on

The Not-So-Merry Go Round About Warner Bros., Netflix and Paramount

Posted by Clinton
Paramount, Netflix and Warner Bros. logos set on top of a recycling logo made of money.

Some deals never seem to end.

If you follow “The Topic is Trek,” you know I have tried to keep up with the various mergers and acquisitions (M&A) dramas Paramount has been involved in over the past few years. But, to quote Illa Dax from a recent episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, “It’s a lot. A lot”. 

Rather than cover this all on the podcast,, I thought I would use this post to provide an update on where things stand in the possible acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by either Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, or Netflix, a former DVD rental corporation. (warning: things are changing rapidly and this information may be outdated quickly.)

The short version of how we got here. 

On December 5th of last year, Warner Bros. Discovery concluded its assessment of purchase offers and accepted an $82.7 billion bid from Netflix. This offer was for the studio, HBO/HBO Max (or whatever it’s called this week), Warner Games, and some other assets. It did not include cable and sports assets, such as CNN, TNT Sports, and the Discovery channels.

While it seemed the deal was done, three days after the announcement, Paramount Global announced a competing $108.4 billion all-cash tender offer to acquire Warner Bros. Unlike Netflix’s bid, Paramount’s offer encompasses Warner Bros.’ complete list of operations, spanning film and TV studios, the Max streaming platform, and even traditional cable networks like TNT and CNN. This comprehensive approach is similar to the one Skydance used during its 2024 negotiations to purchase Paramount Global.

Fast forward to now.

Often in M&A agreements, there is a “go shop” period, during which the acquired entity can see if there are better offers—kind of like getting engaged but still going out clubbing for a month “just in case”. Paramount has been taking advantage of this period by working on a new offer. Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has remained confident, telling the press his thoughts on Paramount’s efforts: “If you wanna try and outbid our deal … just make a better deal… Don’t make up stories, don’t spread misinformation”.

As of this writing, Paramount may have actually come up with that better deal. The Warner Bros. board has agreed to consider Paramount’s revised $110.9 billion all-cash acquisition bid, calling it potentially “superior” to the Netflix offer for its studio and streaming assets. In addition to adding $2.48 billion in cash to its previous $108.4 billion bid, Paramount agreed to increase its termination fee—what it would pay if the acquisition falls through—to $7 billion. 

If Warner Bros. accepts this new offer, the game still isn’t over, as Netflix will have four days to submit a counter bid.

Okay. Now we just wait. Right?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, we will be waiting to see what the Warner Bros. board recommends. But no, because there are plenty of other parts in motion that need to be examined. 

For instance, Paramount has been pursuing other options on how to go about acquiring Warner Bros. One of these methods involves Paramount initiating steps to nominate a new slate of Warner Bros. directors, attempting to install board members who would favor their bid over Netflix’s.

Also, Ancora Holding Group, which holds an approximately $200 million stake in Warner Bros., released a presentation slamming the Netflix deal as “flawed, inferior and high risk,” arguing it forces shareholders to gamble on a linear TV spin-off at a later date. The firm threatened that unless the Warner Bros. board re-engages with Paramount to secure a superior proposal, Ancora intends to mount a “VOTE NO” campaign against the Netflix transaction. Despite this, the broader Warner Bros. shareholder base appears to favor the Netflix agreement. Warner Bros. recently disclosed that more than 93% of its shareholders had rejected Paramount’s previous “inferior scheme”. Shareholders are officially scheduled to vote on the Netflix acquisition at a special meeting on March 20, 2026.

“All Mergers & Acquisitions is local“

It’s here that we get to the part of the story where government and politics begin to insert themselves. I’ll try to be as brief as possible. But, again, “It’s a lot.”

  • ITEM: Not waiting to see who wins, Lawmakers Adam Schiff and Laura Friedman are pressuring both Netflix and Paramount to make concrete commitments to preserve Los Angeles-based Hollywood jobs.ITEM: The DOJ Antitrust Division is currently assessing Netflix’s market power and dealmaking. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Variety recently that he has been working hard to combat the perception that Netflix has an outsized share of the market.
  • ITEM: After Paramount CEO David Ellison declined an invitation to testify at a recent antitrust hearing, eight Democratic senators sent Ellison a letter, accusing the CEO of a “pattern of evasion”. They legally directed him to preserve all communications related to the deal, specifically demanding records of any interactions with President Trump, his family, and DOJ officials, as well as answers regarding Paramount’s $16 million settlement over a 60 Minutes interview.
  • ITEM: On February 19th, Paramount claimed that since the DOJ had not contacted them with regards to their Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Act submissions, this meant there was “no statutory impediment” to closing their takeover of Warner Bros. Netflix quickly fired back, accusing Paramount of misleading stockholders, noting that routine HSR milestones do not automatically indicate DOJ approval. In a move that some view as related to the Warner Bros. sale, Gail Slater, the Assistant Attorney General to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division was fired on February 12th.
  • ITEM: President Donald Trump told NBC News on February 4th that he “shouldn’t be involved” in the dispute over the ongoing sale of Warner Bros., saying that the “Justice Department will handle it”. Then, on February 21st, Trump took to Truth Social to demand that Netflix immediately oust former UN ambassador and Netflix board member Susan Rice or “pay the consequences”. Netflix co-CEO Sarandos responded in an interview by saying “This is a business deal. It’s not a political deal”. But now, Sarandos plans to visit the White House for meetings on February 26th, though it is not clear whether he will actually be meeting with the President.
  • ITEM: Paramount CEO David Ellison attended this year’s State of the Union address as a guest of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
  • ITEM: On February 25th, 11 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, insisting that the federal government heavily scrutinize Netflix‘s bid for Warner Bros. In part, they argued that they believe the merger would likely result in undue market concentration that stifles competition, thereby creating higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation for consumers. They strongly encouraged the DOJ to put the proposed merger through a “thorough and exacting review under the Clayton Act”.

And what do the folks who work at Warner Bros. think?

While rank-and-file Warner Bros. employees once rooted for Paramount to be the winner of this battle, the tide has been turning. Shortly after announcing their deal with Warner Bros., Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters visited the Warner Bros. studio lot and addressed employees in a town hall-style appearance to work to address concerns about the sale. Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance’s relentless cost cutting and layoffs have become a warning sign for Warner Bros. staffers. In addition, people were taking note of how David Ellison has been dealing with the Trump administration and implementing fundamental corporate culture shifts, such as moving CBS News to the right. The growing concern is the pandemonium David and Larry Ellison are causing at Paramount will probably spill over into Warner Bros. should they be the victors in the battle.

In the end, as I continue to cover this story, I sympathize with one Warner Bros. staff member who told Variety, “People just want this to be over.”