Much has been made about SFA’s less than stellar ranking on Paramount+ in the United States and the early US Nielsen rankings (from the first two weeks in January).
This Flix Patrol global roll up of the show’s rankings across streamers provides some helpful insights. Keep in mind that Flix Patrol looks at overall rankings, not just recent releases or originals.
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Starfleet Academy is doing very well outside of North America
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SFA is doing well on SkyShowtime across many countries -
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globally, SFA is doing very well on Amazon channels - # 1 in Germany, # 2 in the US and UK
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the streamer where SFA is performing worst is Paramount+ in the United States, which has arguably targeted a red state US market since the ViacomCBS merger, to the detriment of other demographics.
All this seems to say that Starfleet Academy is a global hit for Paramount, reaching new demographics and new markets, but not a fit for the Sheridanverse Pro sports streamer Paramount+ was narrowed towards.
No idea if the executives at Paramount are paying attention to anything beyond Paramount+ or the US market, but my assessment is that SFA provides genuine diversification and is successfully reaching a global audience in a way that Star Trek shows historically have not.
As someone who liked Discovery and the Abramsverse, I’m wary because I supported Section 31 until I saw it. The Internet was right this time, Section 31 was hot garbage, by far the worst Trek I’ve ever seen. I don’t agree with most of the Internet about a lot of things about Star Trek, but I’m with y’all on that one.
I will still give SFA a 2-3 episode chance, but I’m waiting for it to finish airing, and we’re watching The Expanse first (in the middle of the first season now). Got a show or two on the docket after that, then we might work it in, but I don’t have high hopes. But I’ve been asking for this series to exist for over 20 years, so I want it to succeed. (Not enough to subscribe to Paramount though.)
Hey, nothing wrong with optimism.
Hell, I still think that story could have been decent, had it been a 10-episode series as originally intended.
But yeah, I think SFA has turned out a very strong first season, so far.
It has its ups and downs but many of us view it as the strongest live action first season in this era.
For older fans, episodes 5, 6 and 8 seem to be the favourites so far.
In fact episode 8 is so important for 90s fans, that I would argue that it’s worth hanging in until then at minimum.