It’s not easy to find positivity around the Paramount media universe these days. Sure, they appear to have won the battle for Warner Brothers, the half-assed efforts of Rob Bonda, Richard Rushfield and Elizabeth Warren notwithstanding. But at the same time they’ve been losing substantially more wars. CBS is no longer America’s Most Watched Network–when regular series viewership dips to the kind of miniscule levels we’ve seen of late, the Olympics and the Super Bowl alone can tilt a full-season table in your competitor’s favor. Speaking of football, this past week their sports division also lost the rights to this year’s installment of the practically annual Chiefs-Bills battle. They’re also about to lose Stephen Colbert, a drumroll that gets increasingly poignant and tear-jerking as the countdown to late night extinction draws to its end. And just about every night they lose more viewers and credibility for the once-hallowed Evening News as its mannequin anchor sits an island away from where its future head of HR has been farting and ass-kissing his way into President Xi’s good graces because the Bari-um Enema in charge is too freaking busy doing the same to him to worry about trivial matters such as making sure said mannequin had a valid visa.
They’re also losing Taylor Sheridan, the mastermind behind YELLOWSTONE and just about every one of their most well-received scripted series of this decade, who is already hard at work developing content for the same conglomerate that owns the viewership crown and the first possible encounter of Taylor Swift and New Highmark Stadium (NBCU, BTW)/ But they at least still have his IP and just as MARSHALS was able to provide a glimmer of good news for CBS this year, his latest spin-off was able to give Paramount Plus a much-needed shot in the arm last night. At least VARIETY’s William Earl seems to think so:
“Dutton Ranch” is going to carry the torch for our Western dramas. Notably, the show stars the two “Yellowstone” breakouts, as Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser reprise their roles as Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler…At the end of “Yellowstone,” the lovebirds, along with their adoptive son Carter (Finn Little), moved to a small ranch near Dillon, Montana, where they could focus on the land and not have the responsibilities of the Dutton name. Yet within just a few minutes of “Dutton Ranch,” their property has burned down, displacing them to the fictional town of Rio Paloma six months later. But drama is sure to hamper their fresh start, given the cast includes icons such as Ed Harris and Annette Bening.
Earl then proceeded to rattle off an entire laundry list of gushing accolades and observations that you can choose to peruse and debate at your leisure. Personally, my assessment was more in line with the more measured view that his Penske-verse compatriot Angie Han offered up on Thursday:
Where the Duttons and their various dramas were well known in their corner of Montana, they’re total newcomers in the small town of Rio Paloma, nestled a few hours north of the Mexican border. And from the moment they land, they’re making new friends and new enemies as quickly as creator Chad Feehan can invent them.
The former camp include a pair of loyal ranch hands, the friendly Azul (J.R. Villarreal) and the sad-eyed Zachariah (Marc Menchaca), as well as Everett (Ed Harris), a gallant Navy veteran turned veterinarian. (It tells you something about the insistently straight-faced tone of Dutton Ranch that it refrains from cracking even the smallest joke about Everett being a vet vet.).
You did read that first paragraph correctly–this is indeed the brainstorm of Sheridan’s lieutenant Feehan. Though according to what was shared by PAGE SIX’s Lauren Sarner, that’s not necessarily bad news:
Although “Dutton Ranch” is a spinoff from Taylor Sheridan’s flagship series, “Yellowstone,” new cast members — such as James Eddie, Sterlin English, Marc Menchaca and Juan Pablo Raba — exclusively told Page Six that they didn’t meet the franchise’s prolific creator “at all.” “But, I’ve heard great things,” English reassured us..,Despite Sheridan’s more hands-off approach for the spinoff, Menchaca told Page Six that the cast was in good company, as director and executive producer Christina Alexandra Voros — who is Sheridan’s “trusted confidant” — “steered the ship” throughout filming.
I drew some comparisons with the machinations of a couple of soap operas from an earlier CBS era–DALLAS, for not only the setting but the storyline that would offer more than a few dramatic moments and hot bods on a regular basis, and KNOTS’ LANDING, which took one of the Ewing boys into a fish-out-of-water setting that created fresh opportunities for both character and viewer. Considering KNOTS actually lasted a coupla more seasons than did J.R. and company, that’s actually fairly high praise. And if DUTTON RANCH can even come close to that sort of proportionate success for Paramount Plus at such a seminal point in its existence that would be welcome news indeed.
You may or may not get that reference, and I highly doubt someone like Bari-um Enema would, either. But I know what remaining viewers she has will, and they’re exactly the target profile of who is likely to find DUTTON RANCH appointment viewing. My objective counsel: take the win while you can.
Until next time…