The NFL brand and viewership have taken a beating while NFL players have made “taking a knee” during the national anthem the new celebrity cause du jour. NFL viewership dropped last year and continues to drop this year. Fans have also reportedly been contacting DirecTV and cable companies to try to unsubscribe from their NFL Sunday Ticket packages.

Unsurprisingly, Hollywood had some thoughts on the anthem protests — but many stars seem to have missed the unpopularity of the “take a knee” movement.

Highly paid stars have been performing acts of self-sabotage by promoting their products using the highly divisive image or gesture of kneeling on social media to show solidarity with NFL protesters. This could seriously hurt the bottom line of many fall shows looking to draw viewers.

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Embracing the anthem-protest pose early on was a series with a built-in audience and legions of science fiction fans. Actress Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Commander Michael Burnham on “Star Trek: Discovery,” decided to post the cast’s #TakeAKnee protest on Instagram with the majority of her “Star Trek” coworkers.

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Many fans responded in disgust at the cast’s alienating their audience on the night of the show’s premiere.

“Discovery … you are DOA! Did you think taking a knee was going to make you more popular? You and the cast performed a foolish act! Count me out!” wrote one user.

“I’m taking a STAND against your show. I will be boycotting it with many other patriotic Americans. Your empty gesture is meaningless and will cost you viewers,” said another.

“Your empty gesture is meaningless and will cost you viewers.”

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One Trek fan told Sonequa she “should have stayed fighting zombies” on her other former show, “The Walking Dead.”

“I’ll never watch it now! These jerks don’t know how to keep their political views out of the limelight,” wrote an Instagram user in part.

Many others warned of the tune-out factor that would come with the cast’s taking a knee.

Related: NFL National Anthem Kneelers Are Ignoring Real Issues

“If you are trying to sell a product you probably shouldn’t piss off any of your customers. Yes?” asked one Instagram user.

“I’ve watched every single ‘Star Trek’ that’s ever come … You just couldn’t leave politics out of it,” wrote a fan. “I will cancel CBS streaming and now I can’t watch ‘Star Trek’/ thanks a lot.”

“The X-Files” stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny (pictured together above) also joined the “take a knee” movement via social media when Anderson posted a photo on Twitter showing the actors on bent knee to promote Season 11 of their show.

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Some “X-Files” fans cheered the photo — while others showed clear annoyance.

“I’m gonna take a knee on the #XFiles if this season is as bad as the last was,” responded one Twitter user.

“I’ll be sure to NOT tune in to XFiles!” wrote another.

Yet another declared, “Won’t be watching!”

“Please do not [let] real-world politicize ‘The X-Files.’ You want to take a knee? Do it as yourself and not by an ‘X-Files’ logo. Thank you kindly,” wrote another fan.

Related: Football Players Protest America While Taxpayers Help Fund the NFL

Shonda Rimes — creator of the long-running and wildly popular “Grey’s Anatomy” — and the cast of her show joined the “protest on the knees” to celebrate the 300th episode of their series.

“We took a knee in solidarity of racial justice. #takeaknee #greysanatomy #300th,” tweeted Rhimes, and included a photo.

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“Thanks for freeing up my Thurs nite @shondarhimes you just lost me as a viewer, I’ll take a knee and find another show to watch,” wrote a Twitter user (in stream-of-consciousness style) in response to the photo.

“Give me a break respect the flag now I’m glad I’m not watching the show anymore,” said another.

Some fans even tried to get the hashtag #BoycottGreysAnatomy to trend.

“#boycottgreysanatomy So many shows to boycott for taking a knee, so little time. When will Hollywood realize we don’t care what they think?” wrote a Twitter user.

Related: Sports Are Now More About Politics Than Athletics

And of course, “Empire” creator Lee Daniels had to join in by taking a knee and encouraging others to do the same.

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Hollywood loves a trend — but its most successful projects sell the idea of escapism. Yet today’s stars believe their business to merely be an instrument for their political whims. “Grey’s Anatomy” star Ellen Pompeo even went so far as to recently tell her Twitter followers, “I don’t want Trump supporters for fans.”

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The entertainment business just suffered a pitiful summer at the box office, and viewers continue to turn away from polarizing content and its stars. Hollywood can #takeaknee if it chooses to — but these people are forgetting that America’s ability to #turnitoff in silent protest can be powerful and even dramatically, emphatically career ending.

(photo credit, homepage image: Gage Skidmore, Flickr; photo credit, article image: vagueonthehow, Flickr)