VARIETY: Paramount-Skydance merger collapsed in the final moments, and will lead to layoffs and austerity measures

[Dukhat]

1. Starfleet Academy is released. Ongoing if I like the series, just for one month if I don't.

That would be 2026.

2. Legacy is greenlit.

That would be never.

Whichever happens first. Otherwise, it's been real.

Channeling Nostradamus's power to see into the future (which he didn't actually have, but that's another story), I think that if Skydance buys Paramount, they will be scrapping whatever plans CBS/P+ had for future Trek shows/TV movies, and will instead do their own thing.

 

[Lord Garth]

Channeling Nostradamus's power to see into the future (which he didn't actually have, but that's another story), I think that if Skydance buys Paramount, they will be scrapping whatever plans CBS/P+ had for future Trek shows/TV movies, and will instead do their own thing.

Probably. Thus my saying it's been real.

But what I listed are the only two reasons I'd ever consider re-subscribing to Paramount+ as it currently exists.

 

[Nerys Myk]

My crystal ball says Skydance likes what Kurtzman is doing and lets him stay the course. They focus on other areas of Paramount that need shoring up.

 

[BillJ]

My crystal ball says Skydance will do whatever it wants, and has no idea what that is.

 

[Dukhat]

My crystal ball says Skydance likes what Kurtzman is doing and lets him stay the course. They focus on other areas of Paramount that need shoring up.

My crystal ball says Skydance will do whatever it wants, and has no idea what that is.

Usually in an acquisition, the new owner fires all the old people and brings in their own people. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen here, but that's generally what happens.

 

[Christopher]

My crystal ball says Skydance likes what Kurtzman is doing and lets him stay the course. They focus on other areas of Paramount that need shoring up.

I think that's consistent with what I read somewhere, that a Skydance acquisition is seen as the best-case scenario (or at least the least-bad-case scenario) because they'll be inclined to continue business as usual rather than make major changes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Usually in an acquisition, the new owner fires all the old people and brings in their own people. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen here, but that's generally what happens.

I can see them replacing top management. I don't think the Kurtzman and company are at that level. They just do Trek.

 

[Christopher]

I can see them replacing top management. I don't think the Kurtzman and company are at that level. They just do Trek.

They aren't even part of Paramount. Kurtzman's Secret Hideout is an outside contractor that co-produces the Trek shows with CBS Studios and Roddenberry Entertainment. Secret Hideout also produces non-Trek shows like CBS's Salvation, Instinct, and Clarice and Showtime's The Man Who Fell to Earth.

 

[Paul Weaver]

They could have kept Prodigy and released 1 per week and got 5-6 months subscription from me.

But instead it went to netflix and they dumped it all in one go.

 

[Christopher]

They could have kept Prodigy and released 1 per week and got 5-6 months subscription from me.

But instead it went to netflix and they dumped it all in one go.

But Paramount+ is not Paramount, it's just a streamer owned by Paramount and using its name. Paramount+ as a whole does not attract nearly as many subscribers as Netflix does, so it is more profitable for Paramount, the studio, to sell its show to a streamer with a much larger subscriber base. This is why in-house streamers have been running at a loss for years, have never become profitable, and are on the verge of failing. It's likely that a lot of shows currently exclusive to studio-owned streamers will end up going back to more popular services like Netflix or Hulu.

Now, you could validly argue that Netflix should be releasing Prodigy once a week to get longer subscriptions. Except that when a streamer releases a show once a week, I tend to wait until the end of the season before subscribing to watch it.

 

[UssGlenn]

Netflix seems to be stuck with the binge model after accidentally inventing it. Weekly releases happen but are rare.

 

[Christopher]

I sympathize with the arguments in favor of weekly releases, but personally I find I prefer having a whole season or series available to take in as quickly or slowly as suits me. Also, a lot of shows that do air once a week are still written and paced in a way that would work better for a binge watch, Star Wars: The Acolyte being the most recent example.

On the other hand, sometimes it seems arbitrary for a series designed to be binged to be split up into separate installments at all. Like Netflix's Skull Island animated series in the Legendary MonsterVerse -- it's a single serialized story (or half of one, since it ends on a cliffhanger) consisting of two 25-minute episodes bracketing six 20-minute episodes, so the whole thing could be a single two-and-a-half-hour movie if the editing were tightened up some.

 

[Firebird]

Netflix seems to be stuck with the binge model after accidentally inventing it. Weekly releases happen but are rare.

Netflix screws themselves not only with their binge model, but also with their habitual refusal to properly promote and market anything they make that isn't Stranger Things. Notice how they waited until 11 days before Prodigy premiered to deliver a single poster and a few pieces of key art?

 

[publiusr]

Somehow I think Star Trek will wind up being run by A24 and Ari Aster…

Lots of crying and head trauma in store for us…one way or the other.

 

[Citiprime]

The Netflix binge model is good for getting people interested in a show that’s flowing under the radar. It’s terrible for established shows where you’d like for the series to have any lasting staying power in the cultural zeitgeist beyond the week of release.

A show like “Breaking Bad” is a great example. It didn’t have big ratings in initial seasons and built a bigger fan base when people were able to binge seasons on Netflix.

However, for its final seasons, the week-to-week format was great for building anticipation among the audience. It allowed people to have fun with it, digest each episode, think about what it means for the characters and the overall story, and argue about it. Most of that goes out the window when you release everything in one day.

I think the binge model is great for hidden gems or turning someone on to something that you would not usually look at. I think stuff like “The Bear” or a Kdrama like “Queen of Tears,” which was in the top 10 of Netflix for a bit, benefitted from that.

 

[Danja]

My crystal ball says Skydance likes what Kurtzman is doing and lets him stay the course.

They've worked together in the past (Skydance and Kurtzman worked together on the first two Kelvin films).

 

[James Cole]

Some cough inglorious cough anti-NuTrek people have argued that Skydance buying Paramount would be a good thing, so some here may wish to update their priors in this polarized environment.

That said, fresh management is a roll of the dice, but I'm hoping for the best.

 

[fireproof78]

What's the worst thing that happens?

 

[Lord Garth]

Lots of crying and head trauma in store for us…one way or the other.

Well, Discovery is part of my background as a fan.

But, seriously though, has this thing finally been totally finalized yet?

 

[Lord Garth]

Some cough inglorious cough anti-NuTrek people have argued that Skydance buying Paramount would be a good thing, so some here may wish to update their priors in this polarized environment.

They'll just act as if they never said the things they said before or pull the "but that's different!" routine. When it comes to something someone likes, it's always "different".