‘Yellowstone’ Premiere Makes Record For Paramount; Reaches Nearly 16 Million Viewers
EXCLUSIVE: Big news from the Dutton ranch: the simulcast of the season five premiere of Yellowstone averaged nearly 16 million, according to L3 results from Nielsen. Its performance on the Paramount Network also earned the distinction of being the most watched show across all of TV in 2022 and the most watched cable premiere since 2017’s The Walking Dead.
The combination of the premiere and encore performances of the episode on Paramount, CMT, Pop and TV Land averaged 15.7 million, up 6% vs. the season 4 premiere (14.7 mil).
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“Taylor Sheridan has done it again with nearly 16 million viewers watching Yellowstone’s return on Sunday night, solidifying its status as the number one show across all of TV,” said Chris McCarthy President/CEO of Showtime/Paramount Media Networks. “The premiere night was up across all demos, most interestingly with younger viewers up nearly 60%, proving this franchise still has a lot of room to grow.”
“Taylor and I could not be more thrilled with the response to our season five premiere,” added David Glasser, CEO, 101 Studios. “When we started this journey, we all truly believed in Taylor’s vision for the Dutton family and now the fans have spoken. We cannot thank Chris McCarthy, MTV Entertainment Studios/Paramount Network enough for their support – they have taken our show to places we never dreamed possible and we value their partnership and friendship more than we can say.”
The premiere kicked off with a reluctant Dutton taking on a new role in government — something he and his daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) aren’t relishing. “They are both incredibly reluctant to be there,” Reilly told Deadline. “I don’t think either one of them have any interest in this world. However, and it is a big one, Beth understands, as does John, that this is necessary in order to shut down the building of the airport. And the only way that they can enforce real change is for him to become governor. To see John and Beth in this position of power, perhaps squirming in it, it’s not how they play. They’re dirty in the way they do their dealings in business and now they’re having to toe the line a little bit and do things properly. It’s quite fun to see Beth not quite able to manage that.”
From MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios, Yellowstone is from Sheridan (Wind River, Hell or High Water and Sicario) and John Linson. Executive producers include Linson, Art Linson, Sheridan, Costner, David C. Glasser, Bob Yari and Stephen Kay.
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