Yellowstone Season 5 returned with a bang, breaking ratings records with 12.1 million live-plus-same day viewers on Paramount Network.
The Season 5 premiere became the No.1 scripted television premiere of 2022, according to data from Samba TV, with five million U.S. households watching during the live and same day window. The number climbed up to 12.1 million when adding in simulcast airings on CMT, TV Land and Pop and encore telecasts.
“Yellowstone has become a cultural sensation for millions of fans becoming one of most beloved TV franchises of the past decade. After four seasons, the show’s massive audience base continues to impress with its latest season premiere becoming the most-watched scripted television premiere of 2022. Yellowstone continues to tap into the passions of a broad swath of viewers throughout the American Midwest hungry for western-themed genres that have been largely underrepresented on television in recent years,” said Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV, in a statement.
The neo-western series starring Academy-winner Kevin Costner as John Dutton III, follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. In the Season 5 premiere, John was sworn in as the governor of Montana.
The success of Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone has spawned two spin-offs: the limited series, 1883, which is a prequel on how the Dutton family came to own Yellowstone Ranch which ran from December 2021-February 2022 and the upcoming series, 1923, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, which follows the Dutton family during the Prohibition and Great Depression in the early 20th century.
1923 will debut on Paramount+ December 18.