Paramount+ No Longer Home of All of Star Trek as Prodigy Pulled

As announced last week, Star Trek: Prodigy has been officially removed from USA's Paramount+ streaming service and indefinitely shelved along with its completed season 2. Its possible some other company may buy the streaming rights to the series. This along with dozens of other shows was pulled just ahead of the Paramount+ and Showtime streaming merger that also came with its own monthly cost increase. 

As for availability, international Paramount+ subscribers still have access but unknown how long that may last. Currently, Amazon Video is only place to buy the full first season for $18. A Blu-ray and DVD set of the first half of the season is was released but keep in mind its only the first 10 episodes. The second half of the season is unlikely to ever get a release since Paramount is not going to give up their home video distribution rights to the series.

In theory all other Star Trek series plans remain on track but these services have made it clear that their word is meaningless at this point. The only service that isn't playing the bizarre game of pulling shows for a tax write-off at this point is Netflix so at least their promises of release still has meaning. 

I have yet to read a good explainer on why shelving series is good for a company's bottom line. Tax write-ups are a percentage of the cost of a thing that failed. Its not 100% return on a failed investment but more like 20% or maybe 30% if really exaggerate the numbers. As crazy it as it sounds, these write-offs are the equivalent of you burning a $100 bill so you can take $30 off your taxes. If that makes no sense, welcome to what all the head-scratching is about on these moves. You only do something this stupid if you are trying to hit some arbitrary financial number so the executives in charge can reach their bonus goals. Its the only explanation that fits.