Yellowstone returned for Season 2 with a even bigger audience for Paramount Network.
The drama series drew 2.4 million viewers Wednesday, the show’s second-largest audience ever behind the series premiere (2.83 million). Replays on Paramount and fellow Viacom channel TV Land and a simulcast on CMT pushed the total for the night to 3.9 million.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Hollywood Reporter writes the hit series also hit highs in the core demographic for the network, growing by double digits over the series premiere in both adults 25-54 and 18-49. The numbers are expected to get much larger in the future with delayed and digital viewing.
Season 1 averaged 5 million viewers per episode across all platforms.
The coder-day western drama from Taylor Sheridan and John Linson centers around the Dutton Family Ranch and its efforts to protect their generations-old ranch — the largest in the country — from land developers, a Native American Reservation, the first National Park and a slew of other outside forces threatening its existence.
Paramount Network gave the show an extra dose of confidence ahead of the premiere episode Wednesday when it renewed the show for Season 3, also announcing Lost star Josh Holloway would be joining the cast in the upcoming season, expected to air in 2020.
Holloway will play the role of Roarke Carter, a new recurring character described as a handsome, charming, shaggy-haired hedge fund manager with ambitious plans for Montana.
“We really want things to be cinematic with really great storytelling and have complex, nuanced, complicated characters where the setting is almost like a prime character of the whole piece,” Kent Alterman, President of Comedy Central, Paramount Network, and TV Land, told the publication in May. “The best example of that is Yellowstone. It’s very cinematic. It has a movie star in Kevin Costner. It’s got really deep, rich, complicated characters, the great interpersonal family relationships, and it can just keep exploring a lot of different stories with those characters.”
Kevin Costner, playing his first regular role on a TV series, leads the cast, which also features Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser and Kelsey Asbille. Sheridan, John Linson, Art Linson, Costner, David C. Glasser and Bob Yari are the executive producers. The show is co-produced by 101 Studio.
Co-creator Sheridan is also set to premiere an unscripted series, The Last Cowboy, in July on the Paramount Network, showing the confidence the relatively new cable outlet has on the brand.
Yellowstone airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.
Most Viewed
-
(Photo by Ben Curtis – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) -
US singer Miley Cyrus attends the 97th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 2, 2025. (Photo by Angeka Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) -
A ring of vibrant marigold flowers with glowing candles at the center, set against a dark background. (Credit: Eduardo Monroy Husillos / Getty Images) -
Antique TV set with color bars, on black background. 3D rendering -
NEW YORK CITY – DECEMBER 19: "Toil and Trouble" – Elsbeth is thrown into the world of television after the showrunner of a long-running police procedural is brutally murdered in his office, and although it appears to be the act of a disgruntled fan, she begins to suspect the show's longtime star Regina Coburn (Laurie Metcalf) who yearns for artistic fulfillment. Meanwhile, Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson) continues to be a thorn in Elsbeth's side, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 19 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Carra Patterson as Kaya Blanke. (Photo by Michael Parmelee/CBS via Getty Images)
