Star Trek: Starfleet Academy viewership briefly clawed its way back into the Paramount+ Top 10 following the release of Episode 3—but the moment was fleeting, and the drop-off was immediate.
According to daily platform tracking, Starfleet Academy reached #9 on Paramount+ shortly after the episode debuted, slipped to #10, and then vanished entirely within three days. As of now, the series is nowhere to be found on the chart.
That short-lived spike would be unremarkable on its own. What makes the situation particularly damning is what beat it—and how decisively.
Reruns Are Beating New Episodes
During Starfleet Academy’s brief stay on the chart, it was consistently outperformed by shows that haven’t released new episodes in years, and in some cases, decades.
The Top 10 TV Shows for Paramount Plus as of January 27, 2026 – FlixPatrol
READ: Celebrities Won’t Stop Talking about ICE at Sundance Film Festival
Among the titles beating Starfleet Academy during its Episode 3 window:
- South Park
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch
- The King of Queens
These aren’t buzzy new releases. They’re comfort-watch staples—reruns audiences have been able to access endlessly for years. Yet when forced to choose, viewers overwhelmingly favored familiar catalog content over Paramount+’s newest Star Trek offering.
That’s a brutal comparison for a franchise that once defined appointment television.
Taylor Sheridan’s Orbit Still Dominates
The contrast becomes even sharper when Starfleet Academy is placed next to Paramount+’s most reliable draw: the Taylor Sheridan ecosystem.
Sylvester Stallone as Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi in Tulsa King (2022), Paramount Plus
Shows like Landman, Tulsa King, Yellowstone, and Mayor of Kingstown continue to dominate the Top 10, even when some of them haven’t released a new episode in quite some time.
Landman’s strong placement is expected, as its current season is still unfolding. What’s far more telling is that Tulsa King, Yellowstone, and Mayor of Kingstown are still outperforming a brand-new Star Trek episode designed to launch a new generation of fans. It should be noted that of that list, only Landman is currently releasing new episodes.
A CW-Style Show Wearing a Star Trek Logo
At this point, the pattern is impossible to ignore. Starfleet Academy may carry the Star Trek name, but audiences aren’t treating it like a must-watch franchise entry. Instead, it’s behaving like a low-retention, front-loaded streaming release—one that spikes briefly out of curiosity and then collapses.
A screenshot from the trailer to Star Trek Starfleet Academy – YouTube, Paramount Pictures
READ: Rose Tico Actress Kelly Marie Tran Calls Kathleen Kennedy Exit “Such a Loss” for Lucasfilm
This aligns with long-standing criticism of Alex Kurtzman’s creative direction, which has increasingly pushed Star Trek toward a CW-style formula: younger casts, exaggerated character beats, contemporary dialogue, and storytelling that feels disconnected from the franchise’s legacy of competence, professionalism, and aspirational tone.
For longtime fans, the disconnect is obvious. For casual viewers, the show simply isn’t compelling enough to stick with once the novelty wears off.
Viewership Tells the Real Story
Studios can spin social engagement. They can highlight isolated data points. They can point to brief chart appearances and declare momentum.
But sustained Top 10 performance is harder to fake.
A screenshot from the trailer to Star Trek Starfleet Academy – YouTube, Paramount Pictures
When a new episode can only briefly reach #9, slide to #10, and then disappear entirely—while reruns and dormant series continue to thrive—the message from audiences is unmistakable.
Simply put: people aren’t watching.
And in the streaming era, that’s the only metric that ultimately matters.
Are you surprised that the Star Trek Starfleet Academy viewership has tanked again? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
UP NEXT: Sydney Sweeney Hollywood Sign “Scandal” Likely a Fake, Scripted Stunt, According to X Community Note
When I was younger I had a weekly gaming group that basically took all day Saturday but at 7pm everything stopped so we could watch the new TNG episode. If I were with that group now I doubt we’d stop to watch any of the new Trek, except maybe to pull an MSK3000 and have a running commentary/drinking game.
Between him (+ an assist from JJ Abrams), Kathleen Kennedy, and Russel T. Davies we don’t have many/any evergreen sci-fi franchises left.