Star Trek’s Prodigy and Strange New Worlds will more than likely debut in 2021 unless there are production issues. Discovery will more than likely see their fourth season debut at the end of the year as well, with the second season of Picard in limbo with regards to its release date. This sounds like a lot of shows and a lot of content but it’s actually not.
Both Strange New Worlds and Discovery will probably have 13 episodes apiece. That makes 26, and a number that’s not too far off from the regular season run for a series like Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. In fact, for all but the first season, Deep Space Nine always had 26 episodes on its own.
The Next Generation only had one season, the second, which didn’t have 26 episodes. Same with Voyager, which had only 16 episodes for its first season but then 26 episodes every season after.
So while yes, it may seem like a lot to have two series with 13 episodes apiece, but that’s the length of one series in the ’90s. So even when you factor in the 10 episodes of Prodigy, you’re still only looking at 36 episodes for the year. Even if it’s back-to-back like Lower Decks and Discovery did to close out 2020, that’s still not bad.
After all, you were looking at 52 episodes in 1996-1997, and that was with appointment television. You usually had to be in the seat ready at the given time to watch the show. Nowadays you can just make a weekend out of it. It’s much easier to digest content in 2021 than it was 24 years ago.
So while three series and 36 episodes sound like a lot, it really isn’t. After all, The Arroweverse at its height were running four shows, at the same time, of 20+ episodes apiece. So Star Trek really isn’t doing anything to worry about with regards to the amount of content.