“Star Trek” Streaming Creator To Stay With CBS Until 2026

Paramount + effectively revolves around Alex Kurtzman given his continued reliance on Star Trek, and it’s clear that CBS will do whatever it takes to keep the director and producer on board. CBS Studios has signed an agreement whereby Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout unit will exclusively produce shows for Paramount + and other platforms until 2026. He will continue to direct Star Trek efforts for the “next six years,” CBS said.

CBS did not say how much it paid, although Deadline sources understood that the deal was in the order of “150 million dollars”. Kurtzman still had two years on an existing deal, but it was worth much less at “only” $ 25 million.

Kurtzman is no less than six Star Trek current shows, including existing productions Discovery, Picard and Lower decks as well as future efforts like Strange new worlds, Prodigy and the currently unnamed Section 31 spin-off. He is also responsible for Showtime offerings like the next The man who fell to earth TV remake, and Secret Hideout is working on projects like an adaptation of a Stephen King short story.

So it’s no surprise that CBS is paying a premium for Kurtzman. While he’s not the only one creating well-known shows for Paramount +, losing him and Secret Hideout would risk leaving a giant void in CBS’s streaming strategy. The risk, of course, is that CBS ties its fate more to one person and one production company – Paramount + could be in a tough spot if there were major issues with Kurtzman’s shows.