‘Yellowstone’ Shut out of Another Major Awards Show

Yellowstone is continuing to be snubbed by the awards circuit. The Taylor Sheridan-created Paramount Network series, starring Kevin Costner, did not receive a single nomination for the 2021 Critics’ Choice Awards, which is set to take place on Sunday, Jan. 9. The blatant snub came just Costner, who stars as John Dutton, was snubbed by the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, with Yellowstone also not receiving a nomination in the outstanding drama category.

The nominations for the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards were unveiled on Monday ahead of the Jan. 9 live broadcast from the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. While many may have assumed Yellowstone would be up for drama series, the show was left off the list, which is packed with nominations for Evil, For All Mankind, The Good Fight, Pose, Squid Game, Succession, This is Us, and Yellowjackets. In fact, Yellowstone didn’t receive any nomination at all, not even in the best actor/actress and best supporting actor/actress categories, despite the stellar performances from the cast, which includes Costner, Luke Grimes, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Danny Huston, Kelly Reilly, Brecken Merrill, Jefferson White and Gil Birmingham.

The snub comes as a major surprise given not only Yellowstone’s critical acclaim – the series has an 80% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with Season 3, the most recent complete season, sitting at 100% – but also its popularity and record-setting ratings. Throughout the course of its run on Paramount Network, Yellowstone has garnered a loyal fanbase that has quickly grown, and that fanbase has continued to tune in week-to-week, helping the show set some jaw-dropping records. After setting records throughout its first three seasons, Yellowstone returned for Season 4 in November, with the opening episode more than doubling the live audience for the Season 3 premiere last year, drawing in an astonishing 8 million total live viewers. That number made the episode the most-watched cable series telecast since a 2018 episode of The Walking Dead and also made the show the No. 1 series of 2021 across all television. Each episode of Season 4 has drawn in over seven million viewers. 

Created by Sheridan and John Linson, Yellowstone stars Costner as John Dutton, the John Dutton, a sixth-generation patriarch of the Dutton family who owns the largest ranch in the United States. The ranch is constantly under attack by those it borders, including land developers, an Indian reservation, and America’s first National Park. The success of the series has launched a Sheridan universe, which includes Mayor of Kingstown and the upcoming Yellowstone prequel 1883. A second Yellowstone spinoff, 6666, has also been confirmed. News episode of Yellowstone air Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.