Star Trek: Picard may be bleeding viewers, as a recent report suggests audiences continually abandoned ship as the series’ first season came to a close.
The report comes from Giant Freakin Robot and their source who claims that, by the time ‘Et in Arcadia Ego: Part 2,’ aired, Star Trek: Picard had lost about half it’s viewership in the United States.
According to their source, though the show broke records for the fledgling streaming service when it first aired, Americans began tuning out in March, as the show lost about 45 percent of its viewership by the time the finale aired.
Giant Freakin Robot’s Liana Keane wrote, “Our source says that by the time [the] show’s final episode aired on March 26th, the number of people watching Star Trek: Picard in the United States had fallen by 45%.”
If true, this pattern matches what was seen in Canada. According to Canadian data analysis firm Numeris, by the time episode 5 for Star Trek: Picard rolled around the show had lost 30% of its audience. That was over half a million people who tuned out.
These viewership numbers seemingly provide further proof that the Star Trek franchise is currently in chaos.
Related: Star Trek: Picard Producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin Address “Toxic Fandom”
As reported by Bounding Into Comics in February and confirmed by the studio last week, Paramount New Film head Emma Watts pulled the Noah Hawley Star Trek movie because the studio wanted to figure out what to do with the franchise.
An August 2nd rumor posted to 4chan claims that the issues within the franchise are more serious then people can imagine as multiple projects have been proposed and subsequently cancelled before development could even properly begin.
The rumor also stated that the much-hyped Section 31 spin-off, which involved the ‘Mirror Universe’ Captain Philippa Georgio (Michelle Yeoh) coming back “in time to the present-day to stop Khan from rising to power” was dead in the water.
The one-piece of chaos that can be confirmed is that CBS is having trouble on the international distributor front, as an earlier report noted that Star Trek: Lower Decks was released without an international distributor ready, much to the confusion of long time fans who believed the show would automatically be picked up based on the Star Trek brand alone.
Though Showrunner Mike McMahan is towing the company line, many have openly questioned the reasons behind the lack of dstibutor, as discussed by Andre at Midnight’s Edge in a recent video.
Right now, it seems that CBS is playing the character of Sergeant Frank Drebin of the Naked Gun series. Desperately trying to convince fans that the franchise is doing well if not in a great spot. But somehow, it doesn’t sound right.
What do you think of this latest report? Do you think that Picard lost almost half of its viewers by the time episode 10 came along? Let me know your own experiences watching season one of Star Trek: Picard!