Lucille Ball, Reruns and a Slow Start: How Star Trek Found Its Audience

Lucille Ball was an unlikely saviour of the original Star Trek, according to Trevor Roth, chief operating officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. Roth made the remarks at the MIA Market in Rome on Wednesday, 21 October, a trade event for the television and audiovisual industry.

Roth said the show was a failure for a long time before it built its audience in the United States and around the world. It was first broadcast on NBC, which cancelled it. The story that followed, as Roth told it, depended on reruns.

Ball ran Desilu Studios, the production company she ran with her husband, Desi Arnaz. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ball had watched Arnaz and Desilu put I Love Lucy into reruns after NBC ended that series. Roth said Desilu was able to get Star Trek into reruns, or syndication, once it had 80 episodes. Syndication means selling episodes to local stations and channels outside the original network, so the show could air in more places. Ball's studio had also helped bring the original series to television, including through a second pilot, a test episode made to convince a network to order a show.

The tribute came during a wider talk about the franchise's future. Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, is chief executive of Roddenberry Entertainment. Roth also works as an executive producer on the franchise's recent shows, including Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and Picard.

On the film side, Paramount has chosen John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to write and direct a new Star Trek movie. It will be made through their GoldDay production banner and will not connect to earlier Star Trek stories. Roth said development on the film is moving ahead.

Cinema audiences have not seen a new Star Trek film since 2016. Star Trek Beyond took $343.4 million at the global box office that year, according to the report. Roth did not give a release date for the new film in the reported remarks.

For fans, the reruns story is a reminder that a show's early ratings do not always decide its future. Roth's account suggests that a second life on other channels can carry a series a long way. The original Star Trek was cancelled by its first network, yet it went on to become one of the best-known franchises on television.