‘Yellowstone’ Reruns Draw Millions To CBS In Smash Ratings Success Amid Strike

Topline

The most popular scripted series on television so far this month belongs to a show that first premiered five years ago, but Kevin Coster’s Yellowstone has courted an entirely new audience with its move from cable to network TV.

Kevin Costner during the Cannes Lions Festival 2018 on June 21, 2018 in Cannes, France.

Getty Images for Cannes Lions

Key Facts

Yellowstone, which aired on CBS for the first time earlier this month, has drawn millions of viewers each week in a broadcast rerun made necessary by an ongoing actors strike and writers strike that just ended Wednesday.

The show’s network premiere on September 17 was seen by 6.8 million people, and back-to-back episodes that aired September 24 pulled in 5 million and 4.5 million, respectively, making up for strike-related gaps in CBS’s fall lineup.

Yellowstone’s first week on network TV brought in the biggest scripted-series audience since the season finale of NCIS in May.

The numbers put Yellowstone ahead of Krapopolis, Big Brother and even ratings darling America’s Got Talent in its first week, though the reality show was back on top after the premiere.

Yellowstone first aired on the cable Paramount Network, which shares a parent company with CBS, and pulled in 2.8 million viewers for its initial premiere, Deadline reported—viewership rose to 12.1 million for its season 5 premiere.

The jump from cable to network is rare but not unheard of, particularly in struck times: Dexter moved to CBS from Showtime in 2008 and premiered to 8.1 million viewers on broadcast television, and limited runs of Psych and Monk moved from the USA Network to NBC shortly after—all in the same year Hollywood writers were striking and left gaps in the primetime schedule.

Key Background

Yellowstone is currently in its fifth and final season on Paramount Network and the franchise has spawned two spinoffs with a third on the way. The finale of the 1883 series starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill was viewed by 2.4 million people in August after premiering to 3.8 million viewers in June. The other show in the Yellowstone universe, 1923, has been renewed for a second season after its own impressive ratings history—7.4 million viewers tuned in to its December premiere. An untitled sequel (possibly starring Matthew McConaughey) has been announced following the original series’ end.

Tangent

Nielsen data showed the two episodes of Yellowstone that aired last Sunday made it one of only three non-football shows to break into the top 12 most watched on broadcast television in the week from September 18 to 24. Two episodes of America’s Got Talent on NBC scored higher ratings with 5.4 million and 5.3 million viewers, respectively, and Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes on CBS had 7.1 million viewers.

Big Number

24.3 million. That’s how many people watched the Kansas City Chiefs trounce the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Fox said, a spike in ratings largely attributed to the attendance of pop star Taylor Swift. Swift, who cheered on the Chiefs from a box with rumored boyfriend Travis Kelce’s mom, set off a media firestorm that drew the attention of brands, fans and the NFL itself.

Surprising Fact

Meanwhile, on cable, Fox News won back several of the top ratings spots it’s lost since the start of football season. The top two most-watched shows of the week were on ESPN, but Fox News held the next seven spots with episodes of The Five, Jesse Watters Primetime and Hannity, each scoring between 2.4 and 2.7 million viewers. The Arkansas vs. LSU college football game on ESPN was the 10th most-watched show.