“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” will end with its upcoming second season, Variety has learned exclusively.
Im so sad
Don’t give me hope like that.
Does that mean we’re not even going to get a nice ending for season 2?
Hopefully they had enough of a sense it was coming to wrap things up.
Unfortunately, they did a cliffhanger.
Now you have to wonder if they can untangle it into one coherent finale episode, and if Paramount will even give them the approval to untangle it in the first place.
My kids and me love this show 😩
”…the show failed to find its significant audience.”
Put a show on a streamer that is targeting a completely different audience, and let the entitled vocal fans run wild with unchecked brigading, and then be surprised by low “crowdsourced” ratings.
Sigh.
This is depressing, if accurate, in that it may also be a signal that the new owner is looking for a new production company to manage the franchise just when things had finally and consistently stabilized with Secret Hideout.
I’m not hopeful for an SNW continuation in a Year One show, or Tawny’s project either.
It does seem like Paramount+ has a problem with drawing younger people - stuff aimed at younger demographics doesn’t seem to last long (with the exception of Spongebob). I always thought SFA’s success was a bit of a long shot for that reason.
And ironically, merging with HBO Max might actually help with that, but it won’t come soon enough.
Prodigy was amazing though.
Did a single person hear about it before the cancellation notice? Well, no. But it’s still somehow our fault that it was cancelled, and not their fault for utterly failing to promote it in any way.Paramount+ is the new ‘Friday night time slot.’ If they actually gave a shit about having the show being successful, they would’ve syndicated it to a streaming service people actually use.
This is depressing, if accurate, in that it may also be a signal that the new owner is looking for a new production company to manage the franchise just when things had finally and consistently stabilized with Secret Hideout.
I’m sure they are, and suspect that this would be the trajectory regardless of Academy’s viewership. The new ownership will be looking to develop a new, more fascism-friendly flavour of Star Trek in the next few years. Tremendous shame, but not a surprise.
It seems that my initial reaction was overly hasty and upset.
As I just replied to another post, towards the end of the article, Variety says, citing an unnamed source:
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kurtzman and CBS Studios are currently in talks for a new deal that will keep him in the CBS fold. In addition to his work on “Star Trek,” he has produced shows like the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot, “Scorpion,” and “Salvation.”
Didn’t catch that either. I guess we’ll see if those talks actually go anywhere.
seems I was right. oh well…
Oh man this is really sad. I liked SFA way more than I thought I would. The cast was top notch, and they had some good stories. Genuinely sad to see this one go.
Maybe a minority take here, but I think this is good. I liked the first season and would honestly be satisfied with it ending where and how it did. Getting another season out of it is awesome so we can flesh out the backstories and experiences of the characters that didn’t get as much development, but I think this show is better served by just a couple really good relatively self contained seasons. I would hate to see the show dragged out beyond that, personally. I got into Star Trek from Lower Decks and I like having different shows tackling different aspects of the Star Trek universe, rather than one or two long-running shows that never truly end. I think I just like an open and closed show that has an interesting story with an end in sight so the story that gets told is more fleshed out and feels more important. I’m excited for another season and want to see what they do with it!
I agree about shows not overstaying their welcome, but for me the natural length of an Academy show would be 4 years (or however long we agree a cadet stays at the academy). After that, we could have a new Trek show with a new mission statement, but allow it to carry over a select few characters from Academy in the same way that Academy adopted a few of Discovery’s characters. That would strike me as a nice natural rhythm.
Well, I’ll be damned. The hate campaigners seem to have won, despite solid signs that the show was actually doing quite well with the target group — internationally, if less so in the US?
This is very sad news, the show seemed to go from strength to strength in its first season.
Random reactions:
- Disappointed but not surprised.
- Even though the article leaves this an open question, I will be surprised if Kurtzman returns after this.
- At least they didn’t memory hole S2 as a tax write off.
- I wonder if they will attempt (and be allowed to attempt) to rework the S2 ‘cliffhanger-ish/lite’ ending into something else, or if it’s just impractical to rework a “part 1 of 2” episode into a 1 episode contained story.
The odd thing is that Variety seems to be saying that, according to the same unnamed inside source, negotiations are still underway for Kurtzman and Secret Hideout to continue production for CBS Studios (which I failed to notice on my initial read of the piece).
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kurtzman and CBS Studios are currently in talks for a new deal that will keep him in the CBS fold. In addition to his work on “Star Trek,” he has produced shows like the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot, “Scorpion,” and “Salvation.”
If so, I’m wondering if someone leaked the specific detail of the termination of Starfleet Academy with the hope of a fan campaign to save it…
If so, I’m wondering if someone leaked the specific detail of the termination of Starfleet Academy with the hope of a fan campaign to save it…
Having a “goodbye letter” from Kurtzman etc released with the announcement doesn’t really scream “stealth leak” to me. IMHO.
There wasn’t a goodbye letter at the time of the Variety exclusive — but Deadline and everyone has it now.
And, as expected, someone in the UK has posted a Change.org Renew Starfleet Academy for a third season petition in the last hour.
There wasn’t a goodbye letter at the time of the Variety exclusive — but Deadline and everyone has it now.
So you’re saying Variety added it after the fact? It was there when I saw it, which was like 15 minutes after the time of publication.
Variety claimed an exclusive and that they had an inside source.
This has the feel of drafted internal and external communications messages going out earlier than agreed.
Same. But it’s tucked away at the end.
I saw the news from Brian Tatosky’s mastodon account, and my immediate reaction was “time for another letter writing campaign?”.
Ellison death-to-woke is underway.
Next up: Rambo reboot
Well, damn.
There’s inevitably (and understandably) going to be a lot of speculation about what, exactly, led to this decision, but…in the absence of any further information, I’m just going to be bummed about it.
A more measured take VS than I can manage at present.
My partner commented “It wouldn’t take much with the Ellisons” when I said it was reportedly canceled but, I have been hoping that there just might be more sophistication in the analysis of the show’s potential in a bigger, broader streamer.
My own thoughts go to women like my mother-in-law now in her 90s, or the superfan Bjo Trimble, who watched and supported Star Trek and other science fiction media, decade after decade, without seeing many women like themselves in principle roles.
They weren’t watching because of their husbands or kids, they were enjoying science fiction for themselves and their views, and all the related licensed media and merchandise they bought produced exactly the same advertising and other revenue.
Yet, entitled middle aged guys — who aren’t even in the key youth demographic anymore — want to define the franchise and seem to be being listened to.
Older person that I am, I recall the boys in the neighborhood would take their toys and wouldn’t join imaginative play unless they got to be the hero. I guess they never changed.
Bjo Trimble
One of the organizers of the letter-writing campaign that saved TOS for a third season, for folks who don’t know.
There’s a new change.org petition for a 3rd season of Starfleet Academy that broke 500 signatures in the first hour.
No idea if the executives would pay attention but it’s a way to counter the narrative of the negative brigading the show has been dogged by.
Here’s the first (big FWIW/grain of salt/etc) thing on the decision that’s I’ve seen (besides the TrekMovie article note that ‘it’s no secret that the show didn’t Nielsen chart’). From author Mike Chen on Bluesky.
From the few insiders I know, viewership was actually above expectations and this was more of a “future of the franchise” corporate decision. I’m expecting Trek to be in flux as there are SO MANY variables. Everything from tech stocks to Iran to midterms is impacting Paramount.
Leaving the link to his post here for reference but he has his posts hidden unless you’re logged into Bluesky.
Hmm, that is a very interesting data point.
Here’s another one to ponder.
I commented on social media that even though the press reports say the question is open, his “farewell” letter in the reports read to me like someone on the way out talking to his successor. And Brian Tatosky (one of the VFX team) replied:
Yes, SFA being cancelled is part of ending his tenure of Trek once we finish the work we have.
So it sure seems like the end of the road.
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WHAT??? NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
And 4 and 5 for that matter
