Star Treks: Lower Decks continues to struggle to find a fanbase, as a new rumor suggests that Canadian viewership numbers are devastatingly low for the new animated spin-off.
An alleged source has provided YouTube channel Midnight’s Edge with some interesting viewership information sourced from CTV parent company Bell Media, the current Canadian broadcaster of Star Trek: Lower Decks.
According to their source, the first episode premiered with a total of 404,000 viewers in Canada, a number staggeringly low compared to the 1.851 million viewers who tuned in to the premiere of Star Trek: Picard only seven months prior.
If these numbers hold true, it would appear that Star Trek: Lower Decks has failed to pull in even half of Star Trek: Picard’s viewership numbers.
However, like Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks appears to be actively bleeding viewers.
Midnight’s Edge indicates that the series’ second episode saw a viewership drop of almost 50% from the week before, with only a total of 219,000 total Canadian viewers tuning in.
This loss in viewership is not limited to a single demographic either, as the numbers provided illustrate that Star Trek: Lower Decks lost 37% and 56% of their male and female audience, respectfully.
Related: Star Trek: Lower Decks VA Jerry O’Connell Responds To Fan Claims That Show Is Failing
The series also lost almost half of it’s key 18- to 49- year old demographic, with 43% of viewers in this group opting to not return for a second episode Star Trek: Lower Decks.
These numbers are worrisome, especially given the poor performance of Star Trek: Lower Decks thus far and it’s lack of an international distributor.
Though Star Trek: Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan attempted to use the current pandemic and the early release of the series to explain the lack of an international distributor, these numbers support the rumors that the franchise is currently experiencing some sort of chaos, which was first hinted at when it was confirmed that Paramount had scrapped Noah Hawley’s Star Trek movie.
These rumored viewership numbers also appear to reflect audience reactions to the show.
Related: CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Lower Decks Rotten Tomatoes’ Critic and Audience Scores Revealed
The show currently has a rotten 34% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes from 306 user ratings.
On IMDB it has a 5.5 from 1831 users.
What do you think of this rumor? If true, what does it mean for the fledgling show?