‘Yellowstone’ Ratings: First Episode Without Kevin Costner Reaches Over 13 Million Viewers
UPDATED: The return of “Yellowstone” on Sunday delivered massive ratings for Paramount.
According to Nielsen data, the initial airing of the premiere drew 5.4 million viewers on CBS alone, while it hit 5.85 million on Paramount Network. When adding up the other broadcasts and encores on networks like MTV, CMT and Pop, it comes out to approximately 13.62 million viewers.
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This post will be updated should further Nielsen information become available. Paramount Global is not currently using Nielsen data as the contract between the two companies expired in September. Talks remain ongoing.
Paramount is currently pulling data from VideoAmp, which reported that the episode drew 16.4 million viewers across all Paramount networks that simulcast the premiere, as well as encore airings Sunday night. Per Paramount, that makes Season 5 Episode 9 the biggest premiere night audience ever for “Yellowstone.”
The initial data includes CBS and eight cable networks that showed both the “Yellowstone” premiere and encores of it. A further breakdown will be available five to seven days after the original airing.
The Season 5 premiere, which aired in November 2022, reached 8.8 million viewers on Paramount Network alone, which was a 10% increase from the Season 4 premiere in November 2021. Across Paramount Network, Pop, CMT and TV Land, the Season 5 premiere pulled in 10.3 million viewers compared to 9.5 for Season 4, which was an 8% increase. When factoring in the encore airings for the Season 5 premiere, the total viewership rose to 12.1 million viewers, compared to 11.2 million the year before. (It should be noted, however, that the Season 4 premiere was only given encore airings on Paramount Network, not on Pop, CMT, or TV Land.)
The latest episode of “Yellowstone,” which picks up where Season 5 left off in January 2023, marks the series’ first episode without Kevin Costner, who led the Western drama as patriarch John Dutton for five and a half seasons. Costner departed from the show after scheduling conflicts with his film saga “Horizon” could not be resolved.
Costner said in an interview Monday morning that he hadn’t seen the episode and didn’t know how the show would write his character off until after it aired. “They’re pretty smart people,” Costner said of the “Yellowstone” writers, adding that how they dealt with Dutton was entirely “their business.”
He said of no longer being on the show, “It was difficult for them to keep their schedule. It seemed to be, it was just too difficult for them to do it.” He added: “I didn’t leave. I didn’t quit.”
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