The Season 5B premiere recorded the largest viewership in the show’s history.
Maybe it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. On Sunday, the first new episode of Yellowstone to air in 22 months scored the show’s highest ratings ever for a season premiere.
Specifically, the kickoff episode for Season 5B — in which viewers learned the fate of John Dutton (Kevin Coster) — brought in 16.4 million viewers, the largest first-night audience in the history of the Taylor Sheridan-produced drama. According to the analytics company VideoAmp, that total includes premieres and encores on CBS and eight cable networks.
By comparison, the Season 5 premiere that aired in November 2022 drew 15.9 viewers.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The VideoAmp numbers don’t include streaming — nor could they, as Yellowstone doesn’t have a night-of or next-day streaming home. Prior seasons are on Peacock as part of a years-old licensing deal that also precludes new episodes from showing up on Paramount Network’s corporate sibling Paramount+ after they air.”
Sunday’s episode was simulcast on CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, Logo, Pop and TV Land in addition to Paramount Network for its first airing and an encore at 11:15 p.m. ET. CBS aired it between the two simulcast showings at 10 p.m. ET.
It remains to be seen, of course, if ratings for Yellowstone will remain so high for the final five episodes of Season 5B now that Kevin Costner is out of the equation. But it’s almost a certainty that many — most? — longtime viewers will keep tuning in just to see if and how the mercurial Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) manages to avenge her father.
Meanwhile, Taylor Sheridan will unveil a brand new series this Sunday, Nov. 17, on Paramount +: Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton as a crisis manager for a Texas-based oil company.
