Paramount+’s newest entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, has struggled to gain traction in the Nielsen Ratings during its first season, despite a reported production cost in the eight-figure range per episode.
The ten-episode series debuted with a two-episode premiere on January 15 on Paramount+.
Since its launch, the show has rarely, if ever, broken into the top ten in the Nielsen rankings.
In several weeks, programs that have been on hiatus for more than two months have continued to rank ahead of new episodes of Starfleet Academy.
The series introduces a number of new characters to the long-running science fiction universe.
Among them is Ja-Den, a Klingon portrayed by actor Karim Diane.
Ja-Den is depicted as a vegan and bird watcher who was raised by two fathers.
Upon arriving at Starfleet Academy, the character begins dating a human male student and later reveals he has feelings for another male classmate.
Additional characters include a photonic student described as neurodivergent, a male cadet portrayed as athletic who is also bisexual, and a female cadet characterized as consistently outperforming her peers.
The academy’s faculty includes two lesbian instructors.
The show is led by a captain who is portrayed as unconventional in demeanor and appearance.
The dialogue in the series incorporates modern slang and contemporary language, and the storylines focus on interpersonal relationships among cadets attending the academy more than 1,000 years in the future within the Star Trek timeline.
Early signs of limited audience engagement emerged during the show’s promotional rollout.
A sneak peek of the first episode posted to YouTube reportedly drew just over 1,500 concurrent live viewers during its initial streaming.
The episode is reported to have cost more than $10 million to produce.
During the same time slot, popular YouTube commentators The Critical Drinker and Nerdrotic hosted a live broadcast featuring a stationary Spock action figure.
That stream drew more than three times the number of live viewers as the Starfleet Academy preview.
Following the low turnout, Paramount made the YouTube premiere video private.
The series has also faced mixed to negative feedback on review aggregation sites.
On Metacritic, the show holds a weighted user score of 1.7 and a Metascore of 66.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience “popcornmeter” score stands at 45 percent.
Seven of the ten episodes in the first season have aired, with three remaining before the season concludes.
Ratings have not shown significant improvement during the season’s run.
Despite the early performance metrics, Paramount greenlit two seasons of Starfleet Academy before the first episode aired.
The second season has already been filmed and is currently in post-production.
It is scheduled to air early next year.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy represents the latest expansion of the franchise, which has been on television for nearly 60 years.
The series focuses on young cadets training at Starfleet Academy and is part of Paramount+’s broader strategy to build out its streaming catalog with original programming tied to established intellectual properties.
As the first season approaches its finale, viewership data and audience response continue to be closely watched by industry analysts and fans of the long-running science fiction series.
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