Yeah...they say that now that the internet has been continuously shitting all over them for a few weeks.
Final product, if even tangentially related to this concept still, will blow. They don't want to be seen to panic...but that concept was rejected decades ago for good reasons. Trying to resurrect it was stupid.
Though, on this topic, I'm hearing a few things about this show I kinda like the idea of. Making it highly serialized is a plus for me, as is taking the focus off The Captain and putting it on someone in the middle of the command structure. Imagine something like a TNG from Tasha Yar's perspective...where the captain isn't the central character...but an authority figure once removed from the central character's viewpoint of events. Sounds pretty fresh. Apparently the show will be a bit more adult in tone. Not sure how I feel about setting it 10 years before Kirk...but that is actually an interesting period and I'm getting used to the idea.