Shill media outlet CBR, which is owned by Canadian conglomerate Valnet, quickly reversed course on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy after it was apparent the show was a dud.
Late last week the outlet ran a headline titled “In Just 1 Day, Star Trek’s Divisive New Series Officially Becomes a Streaming Hit.” Within the article, writer Jamie Lovett claimed, “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy debuted on Thursday with two episodes on Paramount+. Those two episodes have landed the show at the number seven spot on the Paramount+ TV streaming chart, just above Tulsa King and right below Criminal Minds: Evolution.”
However, earlier today, the outlet ran an article declaring the exact opposite, “Star Trek’s Most Controversial Show of the Decade Fizzles Out on Streaming After Just 4 Days.”
In this article written by Sam Feng, he claims, “Per FlixPatrol, Starfleet Academy quickly debuted at #3 on Paramount+'s Top 10 TV Shows in the United States chart on Jan. 16. Unfortunately, in the days that followed, it has been on a downward trajectory, quickly slipping to #6 on Jan. 17 and holding that spot on the 18th. It's experienced a similar fall in other territories, including the United Kingdom, where it went from #3 to #5, and later tenth.”
The shift is stark: from “streaming hit” to “fizzles out” in under 72 hours, with CBR shamelessly cherry-picking the most flattering snapshot for their initial puff piece—running the glowing “hit” article right after the January 15, 2026 premiere based on early, partial-day data showing a modest #7 spot—while conveniently waiting until January 19 (today) to drop the doom-and-gloom follow-up once the full downward trend became undeniable. This isn’t journalism; it’s blatant narrative manipulation, timing stories to ride whichever wave of clicks looks juicier at the moment, whether hyping a “divisive” show as a surprise success or burying it as a quick failure.
CBR, as a Valnet-owned content farm notorious for churning out sensationalized headlines to game algorithms and outrage traffic, exemplifies the worst of unethical modern entertainment “reporting.” They amplified premature positivity when the numbers were fresh and green, only to pivot to exaggerated negativity the instant the charts dipped.
And the reality is the show’s first episode that premiered on YouTube only achieved 160,000 views in its four days.
As for viewership data on Paramount+, we’ll have to wait at least a month until those numbers are released by Nielsen and that's if the show even charts, which based on its YouTube performance is highly unlikely.
Especially since, even at its most flattering it was only 7th on Paramount’s list. For perspective Paramount only had one show on the most recent Nielsen chart in Landman, which was second with 1.6 billion minutes viewed.
It did have a second listing on Nielsen’s Originals charts with Mayor of Kingstown raking in 486 million minutes viewed, but that also includes views from Pluto TV as well as Paramount+.
NEXT: William Shatner Responds To Stephen Miller's Plan To Save 'Star Trek'
Nobody likes gays or fat women, especially fat black women.
It’s such a shit show.
I still can’t get over the fact that they had less than FIFTEEN HUNDRED concurrent viewers on a FREE premiere on YouTube.