Are the Star Trek: Discovery premiere ratings stellar for CBS?
As a whole, the first episode generated in linear ratings a 1.6 in the 18-49 demographic, and that’s not counting anyone who watched it on CBS All Access, which is going to be the show’s home for the remainder of the season. We also know that the show fueled a record number of single-day signups on Sunday for the streaming provider, breaking the record set previously during the Grammys earlier this year. Given that the service also is the home for the Big Brother live feeds and had The Good Fight earlier this year, this record is not a nothing-burger and is absolutely something that should be celebrated.
Unfortunately, CBS All Access does not announce the number of signups that they have received for the show, so it remains to be seen what sort of percentage of new users that they have. If they are able to get just a small fraction of these viewers to sign up, you have to think that this is a breakaway hit for them. Let’s put it in this perspective: If just 1 million people out of the 8.2 million out there who saw the premiere live sign up, that’s around $6 million a month. If they sign up for the ad-free plan, that’s even more. There is also money from advertisements that is coming in plus also streaming deals with some of the other broadcasters all over the world. The show could have a financial model that works.
Let’s also spend a moment or two here rolling our eyes at some of the people out there threatening to not watch the show because they don’t want to pay for it — so many people these days are willing to spend $10 to go to a movie per person, and that’s without popcorn or a drink. You’re not going to be willing to pay $12-18 for two or three months of All Access programming to watch this show? Technically, you could wait until later in the fall and watch the whole thing for the price of a single month, while getting all of the other CBS programming you like at your convenience in the process.
Ultimately, what we’re trying to say here is mostly that it’s not that big of an investment, and if you do love Star Trek and want some quality fall programming, it’s worth the buy. You’ve also got the After Trek aftershow as well, which we’re all about just because we at CarterMatt are big fans of its host in Matt Mira from his time on the Nerdist Podcast.
What do you think about the Star Trek: Discovery premiere ratings?
Share now in the comments, and be sure to head over to this link to read more about why CBS should go ahead and order a second season of the show. (Photo: CBS.)