The Season 4 premiere of Yellowstone garnered significantly more viewers than NFL’s Sunday night football.
Paramount’s Yellowstone premiered its fourth season to 14.7 million viewers, nearly 400,000 more than those watching NFL’s Sunday night football, which pulled in 14.3 million viewers overall. This is a 66% increase in viewers from Yellowstone’s third season, which brought in 7.6 million when it premiered. These ratings make Yellowstone the number one television series across broadcast, cable and premium networks and the most-watched season premiere since The Walking Dead in 2017.
“Over 14 million viewers tuned in for our Yellowstone premiere which will now serve as massive launch pad as we sneak episodes of Taylor Sheridan’s new series Mayor of Kingstown, whose full season will be rolling out exclusively on Paramount+ starting Sunday,” said Chris McCarthy, President and CEO of MTV Entertainment Group. “Taylor has created a cinematic experience that our remarkable cast led by Kevin Costner brings to life in a way audiences can’t get enough of and we are excited to deepen our relationship with him and capitalize on this tremendous momentum by building out the Yellowstone franchise together.”
When Season 4 first premiered, its Live+Same Day viewership reached 8 million alone, not only trumping AMC’s The Walking Dead, but also the Season 4 premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones by 1.4 million. “Taylor [Sheridan] has created a riveting world that our remarkable cast led by Kevin Costner brings to life in a way audiences can’t get enough of,” McCarthy said at the time. “The Yellowstone season four premiere numbers are just another reason why we are thrilled to deepen our relationship with Taylor and capitalize on this tremendous momentum by building out the Yellowstone franchise together.”
Created by Sheridan and John Linson, the first season of Yellowstone premiered in 2018. The series stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, the proprietor of the Yellowstone/Dutton Ranch, which borders both national parks and Native American reservations. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, Yellowstone is clearly popular enough based on viewership alone, but the series has also led to two spinoff series: 1883 and 6666. The Season 4 premiere was also accompanied by the first trailer for Paramount+’s 1883 spinoff series, which stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as James Dutton and Margaret Dutton, respectively. 1883 will premiere on the streaming service Dec. 19.
“Yellowstone is a massive hit show with tens of millions of fans — with 1883, we are taking those fans back to the origin story, and in the process, turning the Yellowstone world into a global hit franchise to fuel the growth of Paramount+,” said McCarthy. “We are thrilled to have Sam, Tim and Faith as the stars of Taylor Sheridan’s new series exclusively for Paramount+ around the world.”
New episodes of Yellowstone premiere every Sunday on the Paramount Network.
Source: Paramount
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