Star Trek’s Controversial New Series Hits Major Streaming Setback After Divisive Response

1 week ago 11

Published Jan 28, 2026, 8:00 AM EST

Felipe Rangel is a Superheroes Lead Writer and Reviewer at ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021, with a focus on superhero projects. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Since the launch of the Superheroes vertical in 2023, he has focused his efforts on coming up with insightful analyses of Marvel and DC's projects.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Paramount+'s new Star Trek series has already released its first few episodes, and after a promising start, the show is facing streaming setbacks. When it comes to the biggest Sci-Fi franchises of all time, there is no doubt that Star Trek is part of that select group. Over the years, Star Trek has explored wondrous worlds across different mediums.

On Paramount+, multiple Star Trek TV shows have helped expand the franchise with new characters and worlds, as well as the return of beloved players, such as the introduction of Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Now, a new series adds to the long timeline of the Star Trek franchise, but it is facing problems.

According to FlixPatrol, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is not one of the titles on Paramount+'s global Top Ten TV Shows list. That chart is led by the long-running animated series South Park. Some of the other series to find success on Paramount+ all over the globe are the Taylor Sheridan shows Tulsa King, Landman, Yellowstone, and Mayor of Kingstown.

Besides its poor performance worldwide, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has also fallen out of the top ten list in the United States. Nationwide, the Paramount+ series ranked 9th on the chart from January 23 to January 24. However, it has since fallen completely out of the coveted list. Paramount+'s successful releases in the United States include NCIS, Frasier, and more.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has not fallen from the top ten only in the United States, but also in eight other countries. According to FlixPatrol, the Sci-Fi series was once as high as 4th in Austria, 6th in Canada, 9th in France, 4th in Germany, 5th in Ireland, 4th in Switzerland, 6th in the United Kingdom, and even 1st in Italy.

As of January 26, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is not in the Paramount+ Top Ten TV Shows list for any of those countries, indicating diminishing interest in the space opera. So far, three episodes of the Star Trek show have been released, with episode 4, "Vox in Excelso," set to arrive on the streaming service on Thursday, January 29.

A factor in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's Paramount+ setbacks is the divisive reception to the show. While the Sci-Fi series boasts a positive 88% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, the space opera stands at a measly 43% audience score. With eight more episodes left to be released, there is still time for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to resurge on Paramount+.