‘Yellowstone’: Kevin Costner’s Exit Draws in Biggest Premiere Audience Ever
The Dish on the Duttons
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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 premiere.]
The first episode of Yellowstone since Kevin Costner‘s exit from the hit drama delivered the highest premiere audience ever for the series. Paramount Network has revealed there was a three percent increase from the Season 5 Part 1 premiere in November 2022.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 premiered at 8/7c on Paramount Network on Sunday, November 11, and revealed John Dutton’s fate following Costner’s exit from the series earlier this year. Encore airings ran on eight other cable networks that same night, including a 10/9c airing on CBS. All of these airings contribute to the total premiere night viewership of 16.4 million. The Season 5 Part 1 premiere on November 13, 2022, included seven cable networks, bringing in 15.9 million viewers.
The viewership is based on VideoAmp’s projected Total Persons/Live+SD gross viewership across all cable network and CBS airings (premieres + encores): Breakout of premiere + encores by networks available five to seven days post-airing based on VideoAmp standard reporting.
Costner, notably, was not one of the millions of viewers who tuned in on Sunday, November 10. His character, John Dutton, was killed off in the episode, which wasted no time revealing the patriarch’s demise. John was killed by professional hitmen hired by Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) girlfriend, Sarah (Dawn Olivieri). His death was made to look like a suicide. Jamie wasn’t aware of Sarah’s moves, but she was acting on the idea he floated in the Season 5 Part 1 finale that aired in January 2023.
Costner said in an interview on The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM on Monday, November 11 that he had no idea the premiere was airing on November 10, so he didn’t tune in. He still hadn’t watched by the time of his interview, but the Oscar winner did confirm that he had learned how his character was written off. The suicide plot has made him less eager to watch the episode soon.
“Well, I’m going to be perfectly honest. I didn’t know it was actually airing last night. That’s a swear-to-God moment. I swear to God,” Costner said. “I mean, I’ve been seeing ads with my face all over the place and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, I’m not in that one.’ I’m not in this season. But I’ve been seeing, but I didn’t realize yesterday was the thing.”
“I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it,” he added. Host Michael Smerconish said that John doesn’t seem like a “suicide kind of guy.” Costner’s response shows that he trusts there will be more to this storyline than meets the eye.
“Well, they’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring,” he said. “Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”
New episodes of Yellowstone will air on Paramount Network. Next-day streaming is not available on streaming services for this series, but fans with a Paramount Network cable login can watch the episodes live and after they air on ParamountNetwork.com.
Yellowstone, Sundays, 8/7c, Paramount Network
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