Written By Chad W. Shreeves

These days streaming services have become the biggest battleground for consumer cash. With a plethora of choices and rising costs, viewers are going to need to be picky about what they want. And with massive heavy hitters like Max and Netflix out there, it’s a question of what comes next.

Paramount’s own streaming service, Paramount+, has been considered by many to be the bottom tier service, ranking last in time watched and by viewer ratings. But why? Let’s dive into what happened, and why Paramount+ has actually become a sleeper hit in the streaming wars.

It wasn’t that long ago that Paramount/CBS first entered the streaming wars with the CBS All-Access app. While they did have some original programming on it, the main focus of this iteration was to provide live streaming of CBS’ lineup to cord cutters. The only problem? CBS All-Access was a disaster. The content was limited, the ad supported tier had way too much promotion to it, and the touted live streaming of CBS and CBS Sports hardly worked (in my experience). Even when they released what was meant to be their marquee original series with Star Trek Discovery, it was too little, too late. Audiences en masse had already abandoned the fledgling service and it was doomed to failure.

So Paramount did what any other company would have done in their situation. They completely abandoned CBS All-Access, and took what little did work on the service with them. Folding CBS with the other brands the studio owned, like MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and Nickleodeon, Paramount now completely bundled them all together into one promising mega service, Paramount+. Even then, it was met with a ton of skepticism.

The marquee attraction of All-Access, live streaming of CBS, CBS News, and CBS Sports, remained. And much of the issues I experienced during the short time I had All-Access have improved. Yes it still stutters and delays every once in a while (a source of heavy debate and disappointment during last month’s Super Bowl), it is much improved.

While many maligned yet another streaming service in the already too-crowded field, Paramount+’s programming lineup accelerated. And in my opinion, created one incredible streaming product. They took the success of Star Trek Discovery and made it its own internal cinematic universe with Picard, Lower Decks, and the exceptional Strange New Worlds.

That’s on top of Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan bringing his hugely popular universe to the service, with hits such as 1883, 1923, Tulsa King, and Lawman: Bass Reeves. Probably the biggest sin is that due to contractual obligations with Peacock, he was unable to bring one of the biggest shows on TV to the service, but the spinoffs have all been highly received.

Couple that with some brilliant original shows like Rabbit Hole (Everything Entertainment Award Winner for Most Underrated Show 2023), and others. Not to mention special features like the South Park special presentations and some well received Spongebob shorts, Paramount+ has really had something for everyone.

And on top of that, last year they combined Paramount+ with Showtime, which means that classic series like Dexter, Shameless, and Weeds are all on the service as well as modern hits like Billions and Yellowjackets. The inclusion of Showtime has really been a benefit.

That’s not to say everything on Paramount+ has been a hit. Sure, they’ve had misses like Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Which infamously was pulled from the service completely due to low viewership) and very divisive titles like Halo. But so has Netflix, Hulu, and Max.

And there’s much more down the pipeline. From new seasons of Beavis and Butthead, to hit series returning like 1923 (potentially, it appears production was stalled due to last year’s writers/actors strike and has yet to resume due to the backlog of content). Season 2 of Halo has been receiving significantly better reviews than the previous season did, and we know that the final season of Star Trek Discovery and a new season of Strange New Worlds are both in the works for this year with an original Star Trek movie also being filmed for the service. Not to mention one of my most anticipated series of the year, Knuckles, releasing this April.

That hasn’t stopped the reality. People subscribing to the service, despite its plethora of quality content, has been low. And viewership of its original programming has been even lower. Amid these struggles, talks of shuttering Paramount+ or merging with another service (rumors have been swirling for a couple months now about Paramount approaching both Apple and Comcast about mergers) in order to save the content on the service. That’s without even considering the reports that Paramount themselves have been approached by a few different organizations regarding complete acquisition, which would cause ripples through the entertainment industry as well as for Paramount+.

As I’ve slated here, despite its struggles, Paramount+ really has a multitude of reasons to enjoy. Of course it’s all subjective entertainment, and the things I’ve enjoyed on the service may not be what you enjoy. But I personally have liked a lot of Paramount+’s offerings more than I have much of Disney+’s output or Peacock. Here’s hoping that Paramount+ can either survive or this quality content and find a new home elsewhere. Some of these shows that are underappreciated now I feel will be rediscovered in a few years.

The Everything Entertainment Network is an independent fan site dedicated to the entertainment industry. The views expressed are the author’s own. The author has no relation or connection with Paramount Studios or any of their subsidiaries. All images are copyrighted to their original owners.