Star Trek: Prodigy is coming to Nickelodeon finally but should it?

Star Trek: Prodigy is finally coming to Nickelodeon but should it?

When the fully animated project featuring Kate Mulgrew coming back as Kathryn Janeway, the idea was to put it on Nickelodeon right out of the gate. The project would end up becoming Star Trek: Prodigy and would end up being a really well-done series that brought back some of our favorite characters like Janeway, Chakotay, and Beverly Crusher while paying respect to some icons of Trek who have since passed.

It’s been a wonderful series, but along the way in its development, it was moved from Nickelodeon to Paramount+, with a later release date for the series to debut on cable. While television viewing habits for kids are different, the release of Discovery on television wasn’t exactly met with great applause.

The series was debuting on television several years after the first season premiered but still, CBS needed content and fans still decided not to tune in.

Will this be the same issue with Prodigy?

Claudia Spinelli, the senior Nickelodeon VP of Big Kids Animation released a statement highlighting a possible upside to airing the series on cable now.

"Generations of fans around the globe love Star Trek, and we’re so excited to introduce our young audience to the franchise when Star Trek: Prodigy airs on Nickelodeon this Summer. The Nick DNA is woven into the heartwarming friendships, high-stakes action, and beautiful animation, making this series a perfect fit in our content library."

Star Trek: Prodigy is not being marketed to kids currently

This may seem like an oxymoron but consider that Paramount+ as a streaming service caters specifically to adults first. Kids don’t make money, they can’t sign up for streaming services, so clearly adults are the key target audience.

Then keep in mind that, what hit shows Paramount+ does have, are targeted to older audiences yet still. Shows like the Trek universe, iCarly, and Sponge Bob aren’t being directed towards kids, they’re being directed to young adults who used to watch a lot of that stuff on Nickelodeon.

Kids haven’t been given the full-court press yet, and with Prodigy action figures on the way, Paramount is clearly using every avenue possible to try and get the product in front of a younger audience. Many, if not all, of the young audience, watching Prodigy currently is probably doing so because their parents turned them on to it.

So this will be another way to get in in-road into a different demographic.