Trek Central reporting that Star Trek Prodigy has been cancelled and will be removed from Paramount+ in coming days.
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https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral/status/1672306067445874688?t=oFSLXlK4ZvYwteCHScWorw&s=19
https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral/status/1672306067445874688?t=oFSLXlK4ZvYwteCHScWorw&s=19
The removal from the service thing is the most absurd part of these announcements, that was the benefit of VOD, that we could access what we wanted.
Shows have gotten cancelled when they are popular and on a cliff-hanger throughout the last 60 years, but the removal thing is new and a massive decline from the accessibility improvements that were made over the last 15 years.
Fortunately for me, my personal server doesn't have this issue.
It also makes it impossible for a show to get later word of mouth bumps. Nobody sees it, new users don't even know it exists, and so it has no metrics and no future whatsoever.
That's how Star Trek succeeded after The Original Series, but now there is no physical media comparable to streaming.
You would think that the content would still be licensed by another streamer like Tubi etc, but then they have to factor their property only being available on a competitor.
It's never been a better time to selfhost.
Don't streaming platforms remove canceled shows so they don't have to pay residuals to actors (or whoever is contractually getting them)? I've understood that streaming residuals are pretty shit to begin with
Yep. I used to think that I didn't need to download and back up stuff because "I just need to pop on over to Youtube or something and it'll be there!" only to find out the hard way that people delist and take down stuff from places all the time, including major corporations.
I wish I'd downloaded and backed up some of my favorite stuff back in the day. Whether it's videos, music, games... it's surprising how much crap gets taken down. I never thought that people who insisted on having physical copies were weird (unlike some others) but now I realize even more nowadays that they were right. Especially if they use those physical copies to make their own digital backups.
The back half of Prodigy season one hasn’t even been released to DVD, just the first 10 episodes.
Canceling it is one thing. Pulling the show down from the service is absolutely abhorrent behavior.
Confirmed by Deadline, with some added details:
The new season will complete post-production, and the studio will be looking for a new home for Star Trek: Prodigy as season one comes off the service shortly.
The company said that “continues to be invested in growing the Star Trek franchise” with series including Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, movie event Star Trek: Section 31, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which returned for its second season June 15 and has been renewed for a third season, animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, which will return for its fourth season later this year and has also been renewed for a fifth season, the upcoming final season of Star Trek: Discovery as well as Star Trek: Picard.
Update from series writer Aaron J. Waltke:
Obviously, there is not much I can say. Everyone on the cast and crew loves #StarTrekProdigy deeply.
I have noticed some misleading headlines, so all I can do is point to this particular part of the press release.
We are completing season two on schedule and seeking a new home!
Variety's report contains this:
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, although the show had aired on Nickelodeon in addition to Paramount+, it will not be returning to Nickelodeon either. Those on the show will complete post-production on Season 2 and then CBS Studios will be free to shop it to other outlets.
For goodness sake. Paramount+ just gained "The spot for all Star Trek films and series" earlier this month. Now, they have to put an asterisk on that statement, "*except Prodigy."
@Nmyownworld @ValueSubtracted What I struggle to understand is how they don't immediately see how this will only undermine subscriber confidence
They've pulled a lot of other stuff, including Marvel's Runaways, which you may or may not count as a "Marvel show".
Point taken, but I don't feel like a long dead show that was dropped from canon almost as soon as it aired is the equivalent of a currently in production canon Trek show.
Disney did pull a few things Marvel, but they weren't prime MCU. They were all documentaries, time-sensitive hype pieces, or shows of dubious canonicity to the MCU.
So depressing.
Especially when Paramount+ has very little in the animated originals category.
More, Paramount has been trying to cover all of the demographics with their consolidated streamer. Compared to most of the others, excepting Disney, they have a decent amount of kids’ content and viewership. So, how shortsighted do they have to be to cut off their one major franchise offering for that demographic?
Ouch, that must hurt for Kate Mulgrew and the team.
Why would Paramount remove the existing episodes from streaming service though? They have everything else Trek.
@triktrek Same reason HBO removed Westworld... Saving on residuals. All about that bottom line, amirite? 🙄
Ah so it is just about residuals, I was just speculating on another comment that that might be the reason.
This fucking sociopathic cutthroat capitalism where literally nothing matters except squeezing more money out of everyone is getting real damn old
If there's really low viewership, it can cost more to keep it on the platform, as they still have to pay some royalties and stuff for it being there.
Same reason that Disney is pulling lots of shows from Disney+ and Hulu right now.
It sucks a lot for those of us who really like it.
This. It's the new trend in streaming: Get better ROI for funding new content instead of paying residuals on your back catalog. The market is heading in a direction where subscribers won't just stick around forever if you're not constantly feeding them something new. So it makes more sense to put the money there instead.
"Max" has already dropped a lot of original content for this exact reason. And you can expect to continue seeing this trend across the streaming industry.
Remember the ongoing writers' strike? The pittance that they get paid in residuals from streaming is one of their main complaints. So you can expect the practice to accelerate after the strike is over.
The content will be shopped around to other platforms. You can probably expect some of it to end up on freemium/advertisement-based streaming services. The rest will just go into the proverbial vault.
The content will be shopped around to other platforms. You can probably expect some of it to end up on freemium/advertisement-based streaming services. The rest will just go into the proverbial vault.
What's weird is that Paramount HAS perhaps the best Freemium service: Pluto TV. One has to wonder if perhaps that is where Prodigy will end up (it may seem strange for a company to totally remove it from one streaming platform and move it to another that they also own, but the legalities of streaming rights are WEIRD. For example, some of the Looney Tunes shorts were removed from Max but can still be found on other WB/Discovery platforms, like their YouTube channel and the Boomerang streaming service- ultimately it was just an accounting trick)
Yeah this seems likely; they've supposedly cancelled the show as part of a content write-down (a bit like Discovery-Warner did, dumping shows, writing them off in their financial statments and not broadcasting them). It sounds like the shows makers have the rights to shop it around, and given season 2 is nearly complete it'll probably end up somewhere. Seems doubtful there would be a season 3 though.
Can someone please ELI5 this? If it's streamed on another service (which apparently it will), then wouldn't the creators have to be paid too? How does this all relate?
They are trying to find a new distributor for the second season, presumably the first would be packaged with that deal.
You'd think removing it would come after finding a new distributor, but I guess they don't want to give any possible advantage to a competitor.
This anti-competitive crap is rotting the whole industry.
Paramount dumping $500 million a year into Yellowstone and 1923 but they cut the two Emmy winning Trek shows that cost a literal fraction of the price.
I try to support the content I love. Not commenting on others actions but I do not sail the high seas. But I do think that modern content ownership is grey and we are going to be getting into issues where content is not available anywhere legally.
modern content ownership is grey
It's worse than grey. It doesn't exist unless you hold physical media in your hand.
Supporting content is noble and I do commend you for your intentions.
Yet, I can't shake the feeling that supporting streaming services is more of an encouragement for the companies to wave cool creations in front of you then immediately snatch it away again.
You can support it by buying physical or digital copies as well.
By the same token you can not support business practices. When my term is up I will cancel p+ and just buy the shows i want to watch instead.
The blu-rays of Prodigy seem to be out of stock in a lot of the usual places. Are they taking those out of print as well?
It almost seems like Paramount's execs want you to pirate their content. The other thing that frustrates me that they've been doing is sending PC users extremely low-quality streams just to spite anybody who payed to view their content instead of torrenting it. I guess the line of thought is that this will make it harder for pirates to capture HD-quality streams, but that's not stopping them so all it does is make it so that the pirates are the only ones who can watch it in HD on a PC.
Not sure if they fixed this but there was also a problem with episodes randomly missing back in the CBS All-Access days. I especially remember Menagerie and Cage were mysteriously gone when they released that episode of Discovery where they revisit Talos IV.
I'm rambling but my point is that CBS/Paramount's stupid myopic decisions only drive people to torrent sites because the version that you download is a far superior product to what they're streaming.
I've been re-stocking up on physical media for this exact reason. DVDs are like $1 per movie if you know where to look.
I'm very surprised. I thought Prodigy had a strong following. What a strange situation, quickly pulling season one. But I don't understand the ins and outs of streaming contracts.
Possibly that Paramount+ simply doesn't have the kids' content to support viewership for a single show. Sure, it pulls in Trek fans, but probably isn't grabbing the 4-12 demographic it's aimed at or whatever.
ugh, this destroys a lot of the appeal of Paramount+ for me. the only reason i have a subscription is that it's the one-stop-shop for all things star trek, but i guess not anymore.
They're also really boosting the appeal of piracy (not that i would ever recommend somebody reading this post commit piracy) because that's the only way to reliably enjoy the things you would otherwise be paying to rent.
I'm bummed. I found the first few episodes of Prodigy rocky but it wound up being a solid first season in a franchise where a rocky first season is the norm.
I don't have kids but if I ever did I could see myself wanting to watch Prodigy with them. I hope another studio picks it back up.
They don't have to pay residuals if they pull the content. This is one of the main issues that caused the current writer's strike.
Oh man that really sucks. I really enjoyed prodigy, it was doing something different (but good different!).
Had been looking forward to watching it with my son when he was sold enough… I really hope they find a new home so we get more than just one season.
You should watch it before it’s pulled. Only the first 10 episodes are available on physical media.
At 20 x 22 minutes, it’s not a lot of time, but we’ll worth it.
It absolutely is a kid's show but once you get past the first few episodes and ESPECIALLY the second half of the season, it's utterly Star Trek and pulls off a better season arc than any of the other modern Treks. ^Plus Janeway jokes about turning into a salamander.^
It is a kids' show, but surprisingly deep and thoughtful for one. Characters are well realized and the plotting is tight. Plus it's absolutely gorgeous to look at.
I'm exposed to a lot of kids' media by virtue of, you know, having kids, and this show is top shelf. And my young kids actually liked it and would sit down to watch it, which is something they wouldn't do with other Trek.
It's actually a decent Trek show, and had Kate Mulgrew as Janeway for bonus points. Way better Trek than Discovery and Picard, at least.
Including Picard season 3? 1+2 and 3 are so different that I think it's almost unfair to even lump them together.
(On IMDb, the worst-rated episodes of S3 are about tied with the best of S1+2.)
meh, I don't trust IMDb ratings on trek, a certain section of angry star trek "fans" seem like they review bomb star trek shows pretty hard
Sort of - the mystery of what happened to Chakotay is unresolved, but the crew got a more-or-less happy ending. From how it's being reported, season 2 is all but complete and they just need to find a new network or service to show it - I'd wager Prime Video might be a possible home for it as they've historically had distibution rights for the various other modern Trek shows internationally.
This gives some hope at least. This show is better than it had any right to be and deserves a proper ending.
That's what's bizarre about this. Paramount made the show, the next season actually exists in produced form, and they are just going to... not put it on their own service which they control? Like, "according to ourselves this show produced by ourselves which has been bought and paid for and is basically free for us to put on our own service and which we know people want to see isn't something we're interested to show."
I don't even like Prodigy and I'm dumbfounded by this move.
Wow, this sucks. I didn't get around to finishing season one yet but really enjoyed what I have seen so far. It's refreshing to see Star Trek deviate and try something new, and I felt like Prodigy was really hitting the mark there.
I hope season two finds a home quickly and we're not stuck waiting forever.
This is why piracy is still going strong... when companies pull this type of shit. I hope it comes back to bite them like it did the BBC with Doctor Who