The hit Paramount Network show “Yellowstone” reached a new record for the series after the Season 5 premiere aired Sunday.
The Kevin Costner-lead western drama scored 12.1 million cumulative live-plus-same-day viewers in the series’ biggest launch since it premiered on the network in 2018, the Hollywood Reporter reported in a piece published Tuesday.
The highly-anticipated return of the hit show ended up increasing previous numbers in the coveted 18-49 demographic by double digits, the outlet noted. The show grew by 52% among the 18-34 demographic.
Thank you to all the #YellowstoneTV fans! #LetsGoToWork https://t.co/mmUN4LbT7Y
— Yellowstone (@Yellowstone) November 15, 2022
The breakdown of the numbers showed that 8.8 million people watched in the initial airing of the series on Paramount. Those numbers are up 10% from the Season 4 premiere, Variety noted. Once simulcast airings on such networks as TV Land and CMT were figured in to the equations the number grew to 10.3 million. Then adding in encore telecast numbers the final number of those who watched the show grew to 12.1 million, compared to compared to 11.2 million the year prior, Variety reported.
The final number makes the series the top scripted premiere of all of 2022, Samba TV noted, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“After four seasons, the show’s massive audience base continues to impress with its latest season premiere becoming the most watched scripted television premiere of 2022,” Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV, shared. “Yellowstone continues to tap into the passions of a broad swath of viewers throughout the American Midwest hungry for Western-themed genres that have been largely underrepresented on television in recent years.”
“Viewership significantly over-indexed for the season premiere within cities such as St. Louis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and not surprisingly under-indexed in the largely coastal urban centers of San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York,” the CEO added.
Costner was recently asked about returning for a sixth season of the show, but he declined to give a direct answer, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
“I was only going to do one season, but I’ve done this many,” the superstar actor explained. “I give everything I can to what I’m doing. But the moment I feel that it’s not right, I’m just going to step away.”
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