Lower Decks is very successful in fulfilling its role in attracting and retaining a new audience for the franchise.

Animated comedies are huge with the teen and younger adult demographics. Netflix is picking up and retaining a large youth audience with its array of original animated comedies. Lower Decks was Paramount+‘s only original offering that broke into this market in 2022z

Paramount appears to know exactly what it’s doing strategically with this crossover. There’s a significant demographic for whom Lower Decks is their ‘first contact’ with Star Trek. Many are branching out to the live action series but not all, and SNW is the live-action show they’re likely to try first.

Now, why Paramount went with such a strategically daft decision to write off Prodigy rather than work on a pathway between offerings is an open question.

My best bet is that it was the need to write the show off on the Nickelodeon side that’s driving the decision to write Prodigy off. Nickelodeon was supposed to be the original home of Prodigy, not Paramount+, but Nickelodeon’s free fall in linear children’s audience made that untenable. What I don’t get is why Paramount, isn’t fighting to hold onto its market share through its streamer.