News Paramount+ head of programming McNamara leaves...should we worry?

[FreddyE]

Julie McNamara is no longer head of Paramount+ programming, part of the reason is differences over the greenlighting process.

How much should that worry us? What if the new head hates Star Trek...

https://trekmovie.com/2021/06/01/bi...anges-point-to-possible-changes-at-paramount/

 

[F. King Daniel]

Isn't Trek one of P+'s very top shows? They'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

Not that Paramount doesn't have a long history of doing just that...

 

[FreddyE]

Isn't Trek one of P+'s very top shows? They'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

Not that Paramount doesn't have a long history of doing just that...

Wasn´t the then head of Paramount the reason why we didn´t get new shows after Enterprise? Because he hated Trek... What was his name? Mooves?

 

[Tomalak]

More interesting is the talk of mergers - I was thinking the other day that the Amazon-MGM deal makes P+ look like an even smaller fish in the streaming wars compared with Disney etc. They don't even have an international footprint yet.

But there's not really any scenario I can see that would lead to less Star Trek. The whole model is built on churning out content and keeping subscribers active.

 

[UssGlenn]

But there's not really any scenario I can see that would lead to less Star Trek.

Streaming services are very much "fake it till you make it". That is to say never tell anyone how much money you are losing while you build your subscriber base. Then put out positive press releases since no one wants to subscribe to a shrinking service.

With access to the real data on who is actually watching Trek and how much it costs, the New Person might make a different decision.

 

[Saul]

Isn't Trek one of P+'s very top shows? They'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

What is it up against? Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks. Is there something else of P+ that can compete with that?

I'd be very curious in the numbers because they are clearly pumping a lot of money into this new era of Star Trek.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well Trek is usually co financed by Netflix or Amazon, so theres some give there. But as a new person coming in, they might look at the streaming model, and say that the last person/plan had us reaching, say 50 million susbcribers to make it profitable in say, 5 years. They might look at the books and say, this isn't working, or it'll take more than 5 years, or we'll never make that mark, so we have to find out ways to "Trim the Fat" to make it a profit.

More than likely, it going to be same ole same ole, lets keep going, but there is always the possibliity of change.

 

[The Wormhole]

Wasn´t the then head of Paramount the reason why we didn´t get new shows after Enterprise?

The reason there weren't any new shows after Enterprise was because of its low ratings and the box office bomb of Nemesis a few years prior. Now it's true Moonves wasn't the biggest Trek fan around, but that's also irrelevant. Studio execs like him go where the money is at, and in 2005, there wasn't any money in Star Trek. In 2021 there is money in Star Trek, therefore whoever takes over Paramount+ will continue to support the Trek shows in production and development regardless if they're a fan or not.

 

[StarMan]

Julie McNamara is no longer head of Paramount+ programming, part of the reason is differences over the greenlighting process.

How much should that worry us? What if the new head hates Star Trek...

https://trekmovie.com/2021/06/01/bi...anges-point-to-possible-changes-at-paramount/

Well if they aren't a fan of the Kurtzman-era output, I'm okay with that.

 

[1001001]

 

[Lord Garth]

They were ramping up Star Trek shows until they got to point where they said they're not adding any Star Trek shows until one of the pre-existing ones ends. So it looks like 2022 will be the first year where we have Trek All Year. Which was the goal. Would've been 2021 if not for Covid...

... that's a lot of money to put into Star Trek. They wouldn't do it if they weren't able to do it viably. So, nothing's going to happen. This era of Star Trek will continue until it finishes off on its own. And that'll happen one day. But it's not going to happen just because there's a new head at Paramount+.

 

[Dukhat]

Wasn´t the then head of Paramount the reason why we didn´t get new shows after Enterprise? Because he hated Trek... What was his name? Mooves?

Les Moonves. And he didn’t ‘hate Star Trek.’ He hated shows that were very expensive to produce and yet got very low ratings. Which makes sense as a businessman. I’m sure he loved reality-tv shows, which were cheap to produce and get phenomenal ratings.

He’s also a horrible human being, but that’s another story.

 

[Saul]

Les Moonves. And he didn’t ‘hate Star Trek.’

He had the Star Trek sets bulldozed. He made sure we Star Trek wouldn't be coming back.

 

[KennyB]

Julie McNamara is no longer head of Paramount+ programming, part of the reason is differences over the greenlighting process.

How much should that worry us? What if the new head hates Star Trek...

https://trekmovie.com/2021/06/01/bi...anges-point-to-possible-changes-at-paramount/

If you enjoy panicking, by all means indulge yourself. P+ was in large part built on Trek.....the shows in production are all doing well. Time will tell about Prodigy. SNW would shock me if it's not good......I'm glad the brakes were pumped a little on Section 31. So I'm kinda glad they are looking closely at what they greenlight. I don't want a FLOOD of subpar Trek.....

He had the Star Trek sets bulldozed. He made sure we Star Trek wouldn't be coming back.

Can you use a bulldoze inside a soundstage? And yet it WAS back 5 years later.

 

[Lord Garth]

He had the Star Trek sets bulldozed. He made sure we Star Trek wouldn't be coming back.

2005 --> ENT ends.
2006 --> A new Star Trek movie is announced.

If his goal was to make sure Star Trek never came back, he sure fucked that one up.

 

[The Wormhole]

Can you use a bulldoze inside a soundstage?

I guess if your hatred is pure enough.

 

[valkyrie013]

Mini bulldozer?

 

[Lord Garth]

If Star Trek on TV had continued, then eventually it would've been on the CW. Because that's where all UPN shows (that weren't cancelled) went. There was zero chance B&B would've stayed on passed ENT. So the Berman Era would've been over and Star Trek would be on CW. There would've been a different type of Star Trek after the mid-2000s no matter what.

Old Trek didn't end because someone had it in for Star Trek. Old Trek ended because its time was up. It's that simple. Some people might not like to hear this, but that's all there was to it.

 

[Takeru]

He had the Star Trek sets bulldozed. He made sure we Star Trek wouldn't be coming back.

Destroying sets after a series is finished isn't that unusual if they can't be repurposed.

 

[BigDaveX]

Destroying sets after a series is finished isn't that unusual if they can't be repurposed.

Yep - DS9's sets were mostly destroyed after that show ended, but because they weren't practical to use on Voyager, rather than Paramount holding any particular antipathy towards the former show. If memory serves, they did keep the sets for the Defiant around, however, as they were pretty easy to redress into whatever alien ship of the week they needed them for.