‘Yellowstone’ concludes with record viewership

Yellowstone, the perpetually snubbed by the Emmys frontier drama, aired its likely final episode on Monday night, to 11.4 million same-day viewers. The fifth and final season was split in two, and the big conclusion was a 4% increase over the last episode in season “5A.” 

While these numbers are nothing compared to finale records of past generations—the 1983 conclusion of M*A*S*H had 106 million viewers in the United States alone—take a moment to consider that this means, in the age of streaming and apps and TikTok and whatnot, that 11.4 million television sets were tuned, at the same time, to Paramount Network or CMT.

The season 5B premiere in November, the first episode following the departure of Oscar and Emmy-winner Kevin Costner, carried a whopping 16.4 million viewers. That special event episode and its same-day encores aired on 8 cable networks plus CBS. 

Paramount Global also boasted that the Costner-free Season 5B was the “most social” season of the series, citing a 103% increase in “views” and a 68% increase in “engagement.”

While Yellowstone remains eternally dissed by the Emmys, having received just one nomination for production design in 2021 (and losing to Mare of Easttown), Paramount still has plenty of Taylor Sheridan projects in the mix, including the Yellowstone prequel 1923 (Season 2 of the Harrison Ford-led series debuts in February) and The Madison, a Yellowstone sequel with Michelle Pfeiffer making its bow next year. There is also a direct Yellowstone spinoff in the works with original Yellowstone actors Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser.

Costner, who essentially ditched Yellowstone for his planned four-part, largely self-financed Horizon: An American Saga, has yet to announce a domestic debut date for Chapter Two, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival. The third chapter was reportedly shot concurrent with the second; the fourth film’s state of completion remains unclear.