THE PITT vs Starfleet Academy - a tale of two shows

John Ondo, a 40-year TV and filmmaking veteran, compares HBO’s The Pitt and Paramount’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy—both are teacher-and-student shows with very different outcomes—to explain what content creators can learn about respecting audiences. He argues The Pit succeeds by trusting viewers with real-time, authentic hospital storytelling, minimal handholding, and relatable characters with consequences, helping it become a top streaming hit with broad demographic appeal (75% 30+; 10 million weekly global viewers). In contrast, he says Starfleet Academy tells viewers what to feel, violates core Star Trek principles, targets youth while alienating legacy fans, and has seen viewership drop from 2.1 million to under 200,000. Key takeaways: respect the audience, build real characters instead of message vehicles, and don’t chase demographics—tell universal human stories. #thepitt #startrek #starfleetacademy #contentcreators #television #mediainfluencer #writing #media #MediaTips #AudienceEngagement #ondomedia #podcast

00:00 Two Shows One Lesson
00:23 Host Intro And Setup
01:41 Why The Pit Works
04:40 Why Starfleet Academy Fails
05:43 Authenticity And Audience Respect
07:43 Demographics And Ratings Reality
08:45 Creator Takeaways
10:15 Wrap Up And Subscribe

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Today, a tale of two shows The Pit versus Star Fleet Academy. Two shows with a similar idea, a teacher and a group of students. One show connected, one show is canceled. Now why did this happen and what can we learn as content creators from this? It's about respecting the audience because the audience knows they always know. I'm John Ondo and this is the Media Download. Welcome to the Media Download. I'm a 40 year television and filmmaking veteran who's won some awards, and I've learned a few things about making film and TV look big time on a small budget. Sorry, I've been gone so long. March and April are really busy months from my production consulting company onto media. I'm so glad to be back. And yes, the, the look is a little different. I've been in the witness relocation program now and let's just keep that between you and I. But if you can like and subscribe my podcast. So there are some important lessons we can learn from the two streaming programs that have been the buzz on social media. Now I've been a fan of hospital emergency shows since I was a kid, and I've been a Star Trek fan. Forever. So on paper, I should be a huge fan of both of these programs. The pit from HBO and Star Trek's, star Fleet Academy on Paramount. But as someone once wrote, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And that sets us up for some great storytelling lessons today. So let's start off with the pit. It's a teaching hospital fast, unforgiving doctors struggling to save lives while their mental health spirals. It has a senior attending physician who places the ER above everything else. There's no soundtrack other than the beeping EKG monitors, and it's all about real time storytelling. Now let's compare that to Star Fleet Academy. Also set in the classroom on Earth, 900 years in the future. The student faces crisis, but instead of tension, we get explanation. We get commentary, we get told what matters. Instead of feeling what matters, what,

Speaker 2 2:23

man? Why does everything have to be a full-on lesson in this place? Because it's a school, Caleb.

Speaker 2:29

That's the difference. One series lets you experience the reality of the story. The other tells you what you're supposed to experience. So you can already tell I'm a huge fan of the pit and so is my wife, and I'm not alone because. It's been one of the most talked about programs on streaming television, and it breaks a lot of rules. Noah Wiley's vision of taking ER to a modern level of drama and entertainment is well deserving of all the accolades on the other side. In my life, I have never abandoned the Star Trek series before I gave up on Star Fleet Academy after three episodes. The irony is the actors and showrunners on both the Pit and Star Fleet Academy claimed that they wanted to bring the experience of their show genre to a wider audience. It's how they did this, how the writers and the show writers approached this, that has caused one show to become the center of television table talk, and the other show to nearly destroy a 60 year franchise. So let's break it down. The first element that I see is respect the pit and their production team trusts you. Since it's a teaching hospital, that creates a great tool where the audience gets to learn as the doctors and the med students explain what they're doing and why. Rules may be broken, but rarely, and it's often with consequences. Noah, Ws team respect the fact that you're intelligent, that you have been in a hospital, so they're set and their actors are 100% authentic. No handholding. You're gonna go on a 50 minute rollercoaster ride and at the end of the show, when you're waiting for the most anticipated moment of the episode, this happens. That's, that's just not fair. But what the pit also has developed is amazing characters, and we can relate to them because we all work with these people. How this doctor will react with this patient. How will this charge nurse react to this situation and crisis while having a cigarette? The show works because. I can place myself in all of those scenes because the people are real to me. And that is the key to great writing now, star Fleet Academy from show to show. The pace can be totally different. It often leaves Star Trek fans scratching their heads because this isn't. How Star Trek works, and the characters are written in a way that disrespects the heritage of Star Trek, which at its core is an adventure show. Shrouded in naval military style structure, captains and lieutenants, rules and regulations, duty and honor. But they lost me and many Star Trek fans in the very, very first episode when the captain played by award-winning actress, Holly Hunter, stretched out in the hollowed captain's chair to read a book. I don't know, which offended me more, the disrespect of what Patrick Stewart referred to as the royal throne of the ship, or the fact that the bridge was so boring that she had time to read a book. Also with anyone who has a real job, you know? You can't do that when you're on the clock, right? Yeah. The second point I believe is authenticity. The pit feels real. You can see exhaustion, bad calls. Second guessing the doctor makes a wrong decision and lives with it. No reset button, that's real. Then Star Fleet Academy. The world is different. 900 years in the future, the perspective is different. So we do need some connection to today's world, or at least the Stark Trek. Culture, but the show throughout many of the established principles from the previous 60 years of programs. And when you do that as a showrunner, you're not making the show better. You're disrespecting the audience, like trying to be funny by making fun of the very things the audience is expecting to be respected. In many interviews, the Star Fleet Academy actors literally said, we wanna introduce the franchise to a younger audience. Nothing will make an audience revolt more than being told by actors, you're too old and not cool enough to like our new show. On the other hand, the pit speaks wide. You don't need to be young, you don't need to be old. You just need to be human stress. Fear responsibility, that's universal. Star Fleet Academy aimed for the younger. And here's the risk. When you aim at one generation, listen to this content creators. When you aim at one generation and you miss, you miss everyone. The pit breaks so many rules that most executives would've insisted on in the show, but the pit has none of them. They do one set, no soundtrack. It breaks all the trends of flashy special effects kind of marvel. Everyone must suddenly die when you least expect it kind of story. Writing the pit's. Writing is about the moment with a bare minimum on the romance or the home life. Weaved into the storylines compared to the other teaching show we're talking about Star Fleet Academy, which was all about drama through personal stories. So let's look at the numbers. What does the audience want? The numbers don't lie. 75% of the people who watch the pit are 30 plus year olds. That's the working demographic. The male to female split is 42 to 58%. That's unheard of in today's ratings. The pit is a top three in the ratings averaging 10. Million viewers a week globally and most important, it represents all generations, all cultures, all lifestyles. No matter who you are, you will connect with someone on the pit. Star Fleet Academy, they aim for the youth. They figured the legacy audience will just watch it anyway, they were wrong. Star Fleet Academy never attracted the younger viewers. They didn't connect to the stories and it alienated the legacy fans. It started off with 2.1 million views in the first episode, and it quickly dropped to under 200,000. It became the lowest viewed Star Trek series in history. So here's your takeaway. The pit didn't target a demographic, it attracted one. Meanwhile, star Fleet Academy targeted a demographic and struggled to hold it. So if you're a podcaster, a writer, maybe an audience consultant, or more importantly, maybe you're someone who's taking over the reigns for the content creation of a legacy organization, here's the takeaway you need to take from these two shows. One, respect the audience. The audience doesn't wanna be told how to feel. They wanna experience it. Bottom line, if you don't trust your audience. They will not trust your story. Number two, build real people. Real characters, not a message. Delivery system characters drive connection, not themes, not concepts, not agendas. When characters feel like they exist to prove a point, audiences will absolutely disengage. When characters make flawed human decisions, audiences will lean in, audiences will follow people. Not ideas. Finally, number three, don't chase demographics. Tell a story that crosses over them. Narrow targeting often shrinks your audience instead of growing it, stories rooted in the universal human experience, travel further focus on this pressure, fear, hope. Consequences and my personal favorite redemption. These translate across the ages, cultures, and platforms. This is why I believe I have one of the best jobs in the world as a digital storyteller because nothing is better than telling a real story about a life or an organization and how they got on their roads of success. And I hope this podcast will help you do the same. I hope you found this helpful. Look for new episodes, I hope every week or so, and if you have suggestions or ideas, please just please loop those in the comments below. Also, find out more about my company at On Media based in beautiful Columbus, Ohio. Thanks for joining me. Your download is complete.