For a great deal of people, primarily in the flyover states, their long national nightmare is finally over, and no, it has nothing to do with political choices.
After a hiatus of nearly 22 1/2 months, a new episode of YELLOWSTONE will air tonight and if you happen to be a cord-cutter or a cord-never, you’re actually out of luck. Thanks to the fact that the show premiered just before the management at Paramount decided to enter the streaming wars itself, the non-linear rights to the show were sold off to Peacock, which has a traditional “off-network” window of availability of episodes once they complete their window of availability to the mothership. So no matter how hard you look or what site you might be inclined to pirate, you will not find tonight’s episode on Paramount+ or Paramount+SHOWTIME, let alone Peacock.
You’ll find it first and foremost at 8 PM ET on The Paramount NETWORK, that almost forgotten general entertainment basic cable bauble in the pantheon of what were once the Viacom networks that superserviced audience segments from cradle to grave, with Paramount, especially when it was known as TNN (which once stood both for The Nashville Network and, subsequently, The National Network), getting more of those closer to their graves.
But in case there’s a late window overrun or you happen to have dinner reservations (perhaps to celebrate the results of your election choices) , you WILL have a second chance opportunity to watch when it encores on CBS at 10 PM ET. And if that sounds familiar, that’s because YELLOWSTONE repeats from the first three seasons indeed aired for several months as strike filler on CBS during the latter part of 2023 into early 2024. And more often than not, they ranked among the most-viewed episodes of a given week, handily outdelivering whatever unscripted programming was being aired elsewhere. It wasn’t young-skewing, but what broadcast TV is this days?
You may have been attracted to it initially because it was a unique TV showcasing for an argubaly iconic actor, Kevin Costner, who portrayed family patriarch John Dutton. But as TV GUIDE’s Lauren Piester and Tim Surrette recently reported, don’t expect to see him now:
Star Kevin Costner will not appear in the second half of Season 5 as the actor moves on to a new passion project of his own, a series of Western films. But (t)here’s still a lot of unfinished business to take care of on the flagship series. Civil war has broken out among the Duttons, with Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) at each other’s throats, John (Costner) at risk of being impeached, and a devastating illness spreading through Montana wildlife and endangering the Duttons’ cattle.
YAHOO! Entertainment’s Eve Crosbie adds to the anticipation:
Season five saw John Dutton move into the world of politics and become governor of Montana in one of the most unexpected storylines to date on the show. But by the end of the first half of the season, John was facing impeachment. In his personal life, John also reignited his unlikely romance with animal rights activist Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo), who was living at the ranch under house arrest after John used his political power to get her out of prison.
Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) has earned herself a reputation as being a cutthroat businesswoman and a bit of a loose cannon, meaning that she has helped the family ranch almost as much as she has harmed it over the years.
The first half of season five saw Beth spin out of control a few times — she got arrested after punching up another woman in a bar and also got physical with John’s new girlfriend during a family dinner.
She also appeared to be fighting some personal demons as she contemplated all the wrong she had done to Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) over the years, despite now being happily married.
For the moment, this first of a six-episode arc is being billed as the end of the series. But even that has quite a bit of intrigue surrounding it, as SYRACUSE.com’s reported earlier this week:
“Yellowstone” is extremely popular and has already inspired two prequel spinoffs, with two more on the way: one currently titled “1944″ and another, initially named “2024″ and later changed to “The Madison.” Also, in August, reports circulated that Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser were in talks to star in a sixth season, although no official confirmation has been announced.
And even though Paramount Global can’t take direct advantage of the show for Paramount+, which has been deemed to be a priority for the incoming Skydance management team, they are attempting to use the halo of the expanded Taylor Sheridan universe to opportunistically launch his latest creation, LANDMARK, which just happens to feature a couple of iconic names as leads in a world not dissimilar to that of the Duttons. Per COMING SOON’s Abdullah Al-Ghamdi:
The new Landman trailer highlights Billy Bob Thornton and Demi Moore leading the Taylor Sheridan show, which releases its first two episodes on Sunday, November 17 on Paramount+. From there, episodes will drop weekly on Sunday.
“Set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, the series is a modern-day tale of fortune-seeking in the world of oil rigs,” according to the official logline. “Based on the notable 11-part podcast Boomtown, the series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics.”
And yes, it will be head-to-head not only with YELLOWSTONE, but also its lead-out, the Paramount network premiere of one of those other spinoffs, 1923, which just happened to feature a couple of unknowns named Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.
So yep, there’s a big reason for you to find some Luddite who still has a traditional MVPD this week. But, after that, it sure appears that the mentality of this herd is moving forward.
Until next time…