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I didn't even know about this show until news came down about it being cancelled... Figures. I started watching it and already like it more than Lower Decks. Really hoping they find a new home!
It was originally targeted for Nickelodeon, but children’s linear television viewing has dropped severely since 2017.
Worse, Paramount’s US cable carriage deal with Comcast would have required Paramount to wait at least 6 months to stream after a Nickelodeon premiere. So, they flipped it to run first on Paramount+. The show got decent views, but didn’t necessarily get to the target family and kids. Paramount seems to be reducing its focus on reaching kids as a streamer.
With Nickelodeon tanking further in the pandemic, it’s too expensive for them so the cable-led option is still a nonstarter.
I’ve been trying to think of which non-Disney streamer has enough of a kids and family audience globally to make Prodigy both profitable and reach the target demographic.
Distributor Wildbrain Spark (formerly DHX) has had a deal with Paramount+ and PlutoTV to carry some of its extensive kids library, so they could reverse and have Paramount license to them.
Wildbrain Spark (run principally through YouTube) has 168 million subscribers globally and 21 million unique views monthly in the US alone. They tend to skew younger, but may be extending into the older school age and middle school market.
Yeah once I figured out the characters it seemed pretty obvious it was geared towards a younger audience, but I still like the show. I think my interest is mainly in it being the grittier side of the Star Trek universe where not everything is all hunky-dory. DS9 certainly had that feel to it.
Family oriented seems the target.
It’s pretty gritty for kids, but many school aged kids are up for that. It’s especially so given that Prodigy uses the classic situation of exploited orphans who are given hope and opportunities for something better.
It’s also taking advantage of the fact that Janeway in particular and Voyager generally has been the gateway for preteens into the franchise since its been available on streaming.
We only found it because I searched “Star Trek” in Stremio. Literally no whisper before or after that until I heard about the cancellation.
So happy that we are getting these updates and bits of positive news.
I really want to be able to series 2 at least… but I wish it could continue properly, my little boys are too young for the show at the moment but I’d love to be able to watch it together and introduce them to Star Trek when they’re that little bit older.
“Such deals are very slow moving…”
Understandable but still very unfortunate.
Meanwhile, Paramount will be facing a major gap in its Star Trek releases in either winter 2023-24 or following Discovery season 5’s run - like both.
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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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