Star Trek tops Yellowstone as Paramounts top franchise for one reason

Has Yellowstone surpassed Star Trek as Paramount’s top franchise?

Paramount+ should be in much better shape considering the properties they carry on their service. You have things like Spongebob, Star Trek, and Yellowstone on your platform but you’re struggling to make money. How? Why?

Especially with how popular Yellowstone currently is, it seems shocking that they’d be struggling to get viewers for Paramount+. In fact, Yellowstone has become so big that there are many who think it’s eclipsed Star Trek.

The folks at Next TV made such a bold claim recently when they decreed that Yellowstone is a bigger property than Star Trek, simply due to the start that Yellowstone has had as a franchise. David Bloom would go on to be quoted as saying;

"Sheridan’s ability to manufacture compelling IP across eras and genres is, I think, much more impressive than what Roddenberry and all of his excellent successors have created, and that’s no knock on “Star Trek.” It’s just, well, at this rate, if Sheridan keeps up his pace of production, he’ll have eclipsed “Star Trek’s” worthy catalog within 10 years, not nearly 60."

The thing is, they’re far from wrong.

Star Trek tops Yellowstone for one key reason

While the Yellowstone franchise has found its audience, it’s important to note that only one of their series, the titular Yellowstone, has passed 10 episodes. In fact, across all four shows, Yellowstone, 1883, 1923 and Lawman: Bass Reeves, the total amount of episodes produced and aired is just 68.

Enterprise alone has 98 episodes. Heck, Discovery has 55. The show would need about three times their current figure to just surpass Star Trek: The Next Generation. Let alone the Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space combined.

As good as the Stone-verse may be, it lacks the one defining trait that Trek has; Longevity. Sure, Yellowstone may be better than any Trek show right now, a fair argument if you want to make it. But can and will Yellowstone still have the same fanbase in 60 years?

We certainly don’t know, but then, and only the, will we have an idea if Yellowstone can actually surpass Star Trek in the zeitgeist.