Star Trek: Lower Decks will likely be the last show of its kind. An animated, comedy, science fiction series, that caters almost exclusively to a niche audience? Yeah, we're not seeing that again anytime soon. The circumstances for its existence will never be replicated.
Paramount+ needed dynamic content that catered to multiple types of people and only had a fininte amount of franchises to pull from. Seeing this was at a time when the money was flowing freely from banks and investors, Paramount took the money in order to build up Paramount+.
So they greenlit shows, regardless of how much interest or money they drew. They needed original content to compete with other services, and with the influx of money coming in to do just that, Paramount got bold and took risks.
Now, those same investors want their money back. This isn't exclusively a Paramount issue, as most streaming services are struggling to some degree and all of them are now being asked to pay back the money they were given to fund their "streaming wars". Paramount is among the hardest hit by this.
Now that the cash flow is over, all new shows that are being produced will need to be almost a certified hit before they hit the screens. It's why so many films have been shelved for good, to get a tax break that would make the studios more money than the film would. So the next Star Trek show is going to be catered specifically to as many fans as possible.
It's why such big names were attached to it from the start and why so many of the cast members will cater to Gen Z and Gen Alpha. They're trying to land as many people as possible for this young-adult directed series. The hope is that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will rank among the most watched shows, more aking to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds than not.
Series like Lower Decks are done. A show with a limited audience and a super-niche fandom isn't going to happen again. We know that they don't work for growing the franchise, nor are they super profitable. Lower Decks was never really a ratings juggernaut and to our knowledge, never cracked the Top 10 streaming shows the way Strange New Worlds has done consistently.
It did not work and because of that, and the costs that it incurred, avoiding that again is a good idea. It's also why I would think the Tawny Newsome-led comedy may not see the light of day. Her idea is to do a Star Trek show that doesn't embrace any of the tenets of a Star Trek show. It may be entertaining but it won't cater to the core fandom, nor are you going to get a lot of non-fans interested in the concept.
We know what works with this franchise and what doesn't. If Lower Decks is any indication, we know that comedy-based shows just don't work in the world of Star Trek.