'Yellowstone' creator says it's not 'the red-state Game of Thrones,' pushing back on the idea that it's a conservative TV show

"Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan says it's not a "red-state" series: "I just sit back laughing. I'm like, 'Really?'

• "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan pushed back against the notion it's a right-leaning series.
• "I just sit back laughing. I'm like, 'Really?'" he told The Atlantic in a new profile published Thursday.
• It's not the first time he's contested that "Yellowstone" is a conservative TV show.

Paramount Network's "Yellowstone," the biggest series on cable, has a reputation for being a right-leaning TV show.

It performs well in middle-America, conservative areas, and follows a powerful Montana rancher played by Kevin Costner. The show's creator, Taylor Sheridan, owns a ranch in Texas.

But Sheridan is pushing back against that notion.

"They refer to it as 'the conservative show' or 'the Republican show' or 'the red-state Game of Thrones,' " Sheridan said in an Atlantic profile published on Thursday. "And I just sit back laughing. I'm like, 'Really?'"

A Guardian review of the series in September referred to the show as "'Game of Thrones' set on a ranch." A Forbes piece last year asked, "My own blue state bonafides are pretty obvious ... So what to make of my serious love of 'Yellowstone,' which sure seems like a red stater's delight?"

A New York Times opinion piece in August referred to the show as "a conservative fantasy liberals should watch."

"The show's talking about the displacement of Native Americans and the way Native American women were treated and about corporate greed and the gentrification of the West, and land-grabbing," Sheridan continued. "That's a red-state show?"

"Yellowstone's" fourth season finale scored over 9 million viewers in January, making it the biggest cable telecast since 2017. Season five debuts Sunday on Paramount Network.

Sheridan has contested before the idea that "Yellowstone," or other projects that he's written or directed, are right leaning.

"People perceive all my stuff as red state, and it's the most ridiculous thing," he told The New York Times. "If you truly look at this show or 'Wind River' or 'Sicario,' these are pretty wildly progressive notions. The people who are calling it a red-state show have probably never watched it."