Here’s why CBS claiming Star Trek wouldn’t work on TV is crap

CBS Interactive CEO Jim Lanzone says Star Trek wouldn’t work on TV, and shows that CBS has no idea what they are doing with the Star Trek franchise.

i09 is reporting that a CBS executive has said that he doesn’t think Star Trek would work on TV… seriously. Despite CBS’ claims that Star Trek is their family jewel they continue to make choices that hurt the franchise and show that they don’t understand the Star Trek fan base at all.

i09 and Katharine Trendacosta did a great job breaking down this foolish statement, but I wanted to add my two cents. First here’s what CBS Interactive CEO Jim Lanzone said to the Recode Media with Peter Kafka podcast.

"Sci-fi is not something that has traditionally done really well on broadcast. It’s not impossible, for the future, if somebody figures it out. And things like Lost and Heroes have had parts of, you know, scifi, but historically, a show like Star Trek wouldn’t necessarily be a broadcast show, at this point. And so, you kind of look at the other networks we have, CW and Showtime, it just fit the with the digital audience and having that digital Star Trek audience."

Science fiction hasn’t done well on TV? No one tell that to Doctor Who! This is just more old network thinking from the brains at CBS that believe that broadcast television is going to stay the same forever. Nevermind that shows like The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, and Westworld have tremendous ratings and stand outside of CBS’ box for what should be on network TV.

Basically Lanzone is trying to say that because Star Trek: Enterprise didn’t succeed on a bad timeslot on a dying UPN Network with bad writing science fiction can’t work. Lanzone is either an idiot or he thinks we all are.

CBS’ sitcoms cater to the lowest common denominator. They are cheap laughs that any idiot can get. CBS has no interest in putting anything intelligent on television because they’ve made good money assuming everyone is an idiot.

Here’s my interpretation of what Jim Lanzone really meant to say:

"We don’t give a damn about Star Trek. We are just trying to get some nerds to subscribe to our terrible streaming service."

The thing is other media companies wanted Star Trek, but CBS didn’t want to sell the franchise. CBS doesn’t have a clue how to make Star Trek successful, but they also refuse to sell the franchise. This is just another item to add to the list of reasons why CBS is failing with Star Trek.

These kinds of comments or why I find it less and less likely that Bryan Fuller left Star Trek: Discovery because of his schedule. There’s no way CBS’ ideas for Discovery matched the ideas of a long time Trekkie like Fuller.

Perhaps we will get lucky and CBS will eventually sell Star Trek, until then it looks like we are stuck with these fools at the helm. Maybe CBS will wake up and see that others have succeeded with Trekkies where they are failing, but I doubt it.