tl;dr ST Discovery is doing well in the ratings, despite cancellation being announced already.
Especially considering it’s only on Paramount+.
One gets the feeling that Paramount senior management have been paying more attention to review-bombed scores on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb etc. and YouTubers than to actual viewing minutes and audience size.
While Nielsen stats are only for the United States, it’s clear that Paramount has been doing vastly better by Discovery than any of the naysayers have claimed.
Remember when every new episode came out the ragebait youtube channels would proclaim it has already been super secret tripled cancelled? And yet they kept producing more episodes post-cancellation for reasons I never quite could follow?
It’s really quite simple. No one was watching it, which is why it was cancelled.
But they had to keep making it because CBS All Access needed those viewers, which I remind you did not exist, to prop up the streaming service.
See? See?
Attracting new subscribers with an expensive unpopular show! Brililant!
They’re also paying attention to when they need to renegotiate contracts. After the strikes, studio leadership has really doubled down on not giving an inch on writers’ and actors’ salaries even if it means cancelling a successful show. It’s more valuable to them to keep workers in a state of perpetual gig work than anything they’d make from the show.
Contract length is a fair point. But so is the over reliance on US SGA talent in a show that’s trying to reach a global audience and represent a future that’s diverse.
Discovery had only five seasons but in calendar years, in which contracts are written, it was seven years from production of the pilot. So, regardless of the impact of the strikes, further seasons would have required higher salaries for Martin-Green, Rapp, Cruz and Wiseman.
One has to wonder if that was a consideration in the decision on Lower Decks as well.
Also, while federal and provincial governments give significant tax credits for the ACTRA-contract labour costs of Canadian and Ontario resident actors (50%), up until Rennie joined this season the Discovery main cast were all full SGA scale, although the seasonal ‘big bass’ have all been Canadian or resident since season 2. That can make a huge difference to the overall cost.
All to say, if talent salaries were the key driver of decisions, CBS Studios should put more casting in the hands of their Canadian casting director.
One has to then of Canadian/resident main cast will also put a cap on the potential number of seasons for SNW.
It will be interesting to see whether CBS Studios will go for the tax credit when they cast the cadet roles for Starfleet Academy.
I had to stop Picard’s first episode because I burst out laughing when the superhero jump up the stairs happened.
I finished 2 seasons of Discover before I stopped watching.I don’t think I’ll go back and try to finish either series, but I could stand DISC way longer.
Lorca got me through discovery for a season or two and then he was gone, I don’t think I watched anything beyond it. I hear it’s only gotten worse, somehow
For me the first season was arguably one of the worst. I didn’t start enjoying it until around S3 with the time jump, but it’s been hit or miss since then. I just can’t stand how, for lack of a better word, sappy the show can be with the constant “cut to crewperson’s face giving an approving nod while Burnham gives a motivational, whispered speech backed by heartwarming music.” It all seems so over the top, lazy, and gimmicky. Rather than write better stories, they want to pull on your heartstrings with cheap tropes to keep people watching.
Discovery got even worse after season 2.
I made it to about episode 5 with Discovery (the one with the security officer getting mauled because she walked into that cage with the wild animal unarmed) by actively giving it more chances than it deserved, not sure how you managed to watch a whole two seasons of it.
if you combine the ratings for Discovery and Knuckles, you get to the third position on the chart. Paramount, you know what must be done…
Can’t wait for
Burnham 3 and Knuckles
Photonic and Knuckles.
When the EMH Mark I teams up with a pink echidna, hi-jinx ensue.
Maybe they can quickly rewrite the finale to make room for another few seasons
I don’t think any rewrite would be needed. Almost the whole season was filmed not knowing it was the last. The few scenes they filmed with that knowledge were just to put a nice cap on the series. Probably something like the last scene in All Good Things, which wouldn’t have prevented a TNG season 8 if the winds suddenly changed.
That said, I think the most we can hope for is for this to encourage them to incorporate more Disco elements into Academy. I don’t see them backing down on this being the final season.
The greatest discovery of all
was within us all alongis still out there somewhere!
