Pathetic Ratings Force Paramount To Cancel Woke 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' Before Season Two Even Airs
Another expensive franchise failure proves that injecting politics into sci-fi is a recipe for disaster.
It should be so simple and easy for the entertainment industry. Make quality entertainment, and people will watch.
Hollywood in recent years has shot itself in the foot, repeatedly undermining legacy stories, intellectual property, and popular franchises by unnecessarily injecting left-wing politics into theatrical or streaming content. And unsurprisingly, with few exceptions, it's been a dramatic, historic failure.
Movie after movie has failed, spectacularly, the most recent example being a feminist re-telling of Frankenstein, called "The Bride!" That film was made because the director, Maggie Gyllenhaal, was so impacted by Donald Trump's election that she turned to making feminist-themed movies.
Streaming shows have suffered from the same problems. "The Acolyte," from Disney+, despite being part of the "Star Wars" universe, was an unmitigated disaster. Canceled after one season due to low viewership, completely ignored by most fans of the franchise, and so comically woke that its absurd plot points became a running joke on social media.
These are avoidable problems. And yet, in 2026, "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" exists. Well, existed. This week, news broke that the latest entry in woke entertainment was officially canceled after failing to find an audience. What a surprise.
Bill Nye attends Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" world premiere at The American Museum of Natural History on January 06, 2026, in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Augello/THR/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
Woke ‘Star Trek’ Show Canceled At Paramount+
It's not an exaggeration or hyperbole to say that "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" was a "woke" show. And in fact, its political ideology wasn't some sort of hidden, secret message, it was a proud part of almost every episode.
A male Klingon character wore a dress. Tig Notaro, one of the stars of the show, was in a lesbian "power couple" relationship with another character. "You have these two actors who are the funniest stand-up comedians in the world, so it seemed pretty natural that we should make them a couple. It seemed organic that they would fall in love," said the show's creator, Noga Landau.
In some type of horrific PR speak from the show's creative staff laundered through an industry publication, the other half of the lesbian "power couple" was described as, "Not only is she the first openly gay Black actress to play an openly gay character in a ‘Trek’ series, but she's also playing the franchise's first female-presenting part-Klingon, part-Jem'Hadar character and the first of that particular combination that's in a lesbian relationship."
Stunningly, this show was not particularly popular with audiences. And incredibly, it's been canceled before its second season even airs. That's how poorly it's doing.
Variety reported this week that Paramount+ was canceling "Starfleet Academy" after its upcoming second season, which just wrapped production. That's correct, Paramount canceled a show before its second season could even be edited, let alone aired. Just imagine, just imagine, how bad the second season must be if studio execs announced it was ending before it even reached post-production.
Their statement was remarkable: "We’re incredibly proud of the ambition, passion, and creativity that went into bringing ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ to life," said CBS Studios and Paramount+. There certainly was passion, it was just passion for some of the dumbest writing and worst acting we've ever seen in a major studio television show.
Unsurprisingly, given its political bent, the show had an 87% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. Which tells you how many critics reviews are based on their ideology and desire to stay in good graces with major studios, and how utterly dishonest they are about evaluating the quality of the content they're watching.
Equally unsurprising, nobody watched it, and those who did, hated it. Soon after the show launched, the IMDb rating, influenced by audiences and not left-wing ideologues, gave it a 4.2/10. And Variety said that "Across its 10-episode first season, it has failed to rank on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming viewership charts."
It's remarkable how many times Hollywood has seen this same exact story play out. Greenlight a show based on the political ideology or characteristics of the creative staff. That staff injects an unpopular viewpoint into every aspect of casting, development, production, and storytelling. Critics love it, because they agree with that ideology. Audiences hate it, and either don't watch, or give astonishingly bad reviews. Show gets canceled, or movie bombs at the box office, leading to huge financial losses. And this, in a nutshell, is why David Ellison is taking over at Paramount. This show started production in 2023, long before he bought the studio. Sure enough, now that he's in charge, it's canceled. The days of pouring money into failing woke products, at least at Paramount and potentially Warner Bros., are likely over.
Again, this should be so simple. It's so easy. People will go see movies or will watch shows that are focused on quality first. Hollywood's simply forgotten that because it's been overrun by progressives. Maybe "Starfleet Academy," serving as yet another reminder, will finally be what fixes it. But probably not.