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News Starfleet Academy Nielsen Ratings

It could not do so because broadcasting isn't the same. It's the wrong question to ask because it fails to account for shifts in media consumption.

You are failing to acknowledge that the present day media consumption you're implying had an impact on NuTrek was influenced within the same broadcasting environment of a series such as Stranger Things, yet the latter became a modern-day phenomenon, while all of NuTrek has not by any stretch of the imagination. Appeal will ever remain the key element of why a series resonates with viewers, and its beyond questioning that NuTrek series failed to touch and grow with viewers by the suggested standards of today, or by internal franchise standards of a Star Trek series resonating with the broader culture.
 
I think the fact that every streaming service head expected their service would be able to produce the next Stranger Things or Game of Thrones is a big part of the problem of where we landed with Trek. That sort of mass appeal was never really Trek’s forte and it’s just unrealistic to expect every show to become a tent pole mainstream hit everyone at the office will talk about at the watercooler. Star Trek as a franchise is definitely a cult phenomenon, but it never quite broke through to the normies like shows like Stranger Things did.
 
You are failing to acknowledge that the present day media consumption you're implying had an impact on NuTrek was influenced within the same broadcasting environment of a series such as Stranger Things, yet the latter became a modern-day phenomenon, while all of NuTrek has not by any stretch of the imagination.
Neither has Star Trek ever. Its most popular era was from 1989 - 1992, it was arguably huge then, yet it still never broke the Nielsen Top 30.
 
You are failing to acknowledge that the present day media consumption you're implying had an impact on NuTrek was influenced within the same broadcasting environment of a series such as Stranger Things, yet the latter became a modern-day phenomenon, while all of NuTrek has not by any stretch of the imagination. Appeal will ever remain the key element of why a series resonates with viewers, and its beyond questioning that NuTrek series failed to touch and grow with viewers by the suggested standards of today, or by internal franchise standards of a Star Trek series resonating with the broader culture.
STRANGER THINGS is a cultural phenomenon on the level of LOST and THE X-FILES.

Trek was never that big.
 
You may get at most 10 million viewers to watch Star Trek. but usually alot less. And Trek is a large budget production usually because of the setting/cgi costs.

Unless you get a good concept and some great writing/cast and a bit of luck, you'll never get a "marvel, Star wars, GoT" type of audience.

What really is a bit of irritation.. As Spaceballs says.. MERCHANDISING! Where the hell is the merch? You see star wars etc. all over the toy aisles, but barely a whiff on Star Trek. Wheres the action figures? Ship toys? You make your bank from merchandising.. There is some, but it could be MUCH bigger.
 
You are failing to acknowledge that the present day media consumption you're implying had an impact on NuTrek was influenced within the same broadcasting environment of a series such as Stranger Things, yet the latter became a modern-day phenomenon, while all of NuTrek has not by any stretch of the imagination. Appeal will ever remain the key element of why a series resonates with viewers, and its beyond questioning that NuTrek series failed to touch and grow with viewers by the suggested standards of today, or by internal franchise standards of a Star Trek series resonating with the broader culture.
When did Trek do that ever?

Even if we say TOS, it still didn't do numbers. It was cancelled, even as Shatner did an interview talking about hoping for a move from the Friday night slot to an evening slot to appeal to a younger audience.

This broad appeal occurred maybe with TNG but no other series has done this so they're all failures I guess. Good old black and white thinking.
 
I think the fact that every streaming service head expected their service would be able to produce the next Stranger Things or Game of Thrones is a big part of the problem of where we landed with Trek. That sort of mass appeal was never really Trek’s forte and it’s just unrealistic to expect every show to become a tent pole mainstream hit everyone at the office will talk about at the watercooler. Star Trek as a franchise is definitely a cult phenomenon, but it never quite broke through to the normies like shows like Stranger Things did.
It did, it just did it through the method of widely distributed network reruns that you can't get with most Kurtzman shows.


What really is a bit of irritation.. As Spaceballs says.. MERCHANDISING! Where the hell is the merch? You see star wars etc. all over the toy aisles, but barely a whiff on Star Trek. Wheres the action figures? Ship toys? You make your bank from merchandising.. There is some, but it could be MUCH bigger.
They just released the Lego Enterprise D...

Star Trek Merchandising is actually a really huge money maker, they're just picky with their kids toys.
 
STRANGER THINGS is a cultural phenomenon on the level of LOST and THE X-FILES.

Trek was never that big.

TOS--before TAS, before TOS-movies and other spinoffs--transformed into a global phenomenon, with reruns breaking records, best-selling merchandise aimed at adults and children and thousands piling into conventions based on the series alone (including a 60 Minutes profile, along with endless other news features on TOS' popularity). Power. That is the reason TAS was greenlit, why Phase II was ever going to be a thing (which eventually jumped to the movies), etc. That was the power of Star Trek's one and only true global cultural phenomenon, yet it happened in the basic analog TV era...that's the pre-streaming, pre-cable, pre-physical media era. Why?

Genuine creative appeal to more than a handful of diehards--something no 21st century ST production has come close to matching, and arguably never will with any future productions. The "why" is clear: notably inferior productions which drive more people away that draw them in, resonating with the average viewer, the way syndicated TOS did over five decades ago.

Star Trek has been targeting too narrow of an audience that is too small to support the shows.

Where NuTrek is concerned...exactly.
 
That was the power of Star Trek's one and only true global cultural phenomenon, yet it happened in the basic analog TV era...that's the pre-streaming, pre-cable, pre-physical media era. Why?

As big a fan I am of the original Star Trek, it simply had little competition in the space. It would largely remain that way until TNG and the sci-fi boom of the 1990's, created by TNG.
 
I looked up the viewing numbers for Lost, X-Files and TNG on Wikipedia, but they tried to trick me by listing TNG's Nielsen rating instead.

rating-graph.png

Nielsen ratings still confuse me, but I tried to convert them into 'millions of viewers', put the numbers into a graph, and this is what came out.
 
As Spaceballs says.. MERCHANDISING! Where the hell is the merch? You see star wars etc. all over the toy aisles, but barely a whiff on Star Trek. Wheres the action figures? Ship toys? You make your bank from merchandising.. There is some, but it could be MUCH bigger.

Excellent point; for some filmed media, the ancillary market has been a critical, healthy source of revenue and evidence of its appeal for generations, and Star Trek--TOS was no stranger to this fact right out of the gates; during its NBC run, the AMT model kit of the 1701 quickly became one of the best selling kits in plastic model history (and had a near-unending run of three decades), along with best-selling books, while 1970s merchandising of a cancelled TV series proliferated to great success, often beyond that of then-in production TV series and movies. Again, this was from a cancelled TV series that quickly became a global cultural phenomenon, yet ST's current holders have revealed little interest in licensing NuTrek, with few products produced since the debut of DISCO. One has to ask the question, "why?", then wonder why TOS-based merchandise continues to be produced (kid-friendly and higher end model kits, expensive die-cast ship and prop replicas, books, action figures, etc.), all throughout the life of NuTrek up to this year--some six decades after its debut.

I'm sure someone will post. "Modern shows aren't merchandised like that anymore", while conveniently forgetting products based on everything from The Walking Dead TV franchise to Game of Thrones and of course, Stranger Things, (to name a few) have been marketed for retailers during the respective lives of the named series.

When did Trek do that ever?

Even if we say TOS, it still didn't do numbers. It was cancelled,

Good old selective history at work.
 
With the...relaxed fitness standards...and folk wearing glasses, I keep expecting someone to pull out a latte while a housecat jumps onto a console; if that is the vibe the showrunners were aiming for, they are doing a bang-up job.
Have you ever watched star trek? Meeting Fitness standards have never seemed to a priority.
 
Good old selective history at work
I asked for numbers. Apparently need to just look myself.

TNG had 11.5 in syndication.

Still ignores current media consumption realities but I'll grant I underestimated the viewership. TNG was not something majority of my peers were discussing.
 
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