Everyone is just going to have to wait another year to get 'Stoned one last time.
Paramount Global announced Thursday that the final six episodes of Yellowstone will finally premiere on the Paramount Network a year from now, in November 2024. That's a full 12 months following the debut of the first seven episodes of the show's final campaign, season 5.
Paramount also said that series mastermind Taylor Sheridan is working on two more Yellowstone spinoffs, 1944 and 2024, both operating under working titles. The studio didn't release any details regarding the spinoffs, the latter of which has been widely rumored to star Matthew McConaughey. Ostensibly, both shows will debut on subscription streaming service Paramount Plus, but Paramount didn't specify that, either.
“Within five years, we grew Yellowstone from a hit U.S. cable show with 5 million viewers into a global hit franchise with over 100 million fans around the world and multiple extensions — and we’re just getting started,” Chris McCarthy, president and CEO, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, said in a statement.
Season 5's final leg has been delayed by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA talent strikes, but also by amply reported tensions between Sheridan and series star Kevin Costner, not to mention the script delays that come with Sheridan single-handedly writing half a dozen Paramount series at once.
Still unannounced is a premiere date for season 2 of 1923, the Yellowstone prequel series starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Lawmen: Bass Reeves, a spinoff of the original Yellowstone spinoff, 1883, debuts Sunday on Paramount Plus.
Sure, Yellowstone depicts rural Montana as a cesspool of murder and political corruption, while visitors are often stereotyped as Asian tourist nitwits, oblivious to the dangers all around them, natural and otherwise, or feckless Californians, looking to relocate and plunder yet another state.
And Sheridan's "Yellowstone" empire may still be a few years away from maturing and expanding into the depth and breadth of say, "Star Trek." But the producer and the franchise are arguably the most vital creative forces in Paramount's arsenal right now. (You can observe that Thursday at 4:30 p.m. EST, when Paramount conducts its third-quarter earnings call. Sheridan's name will probably come up at least several times.)
Season 1 of Yellowstone, which originally debuted on the Paramount Network back in 2018, ran on strike-struck CBS over the fall, averaging an astounding 6.6 million viewers, 52% of which had never seen the show before. Outside of NFL and college football, the broadcaster has nothing in its own programming vault that can come close to pulling in that kind of audience.
CBS just started in on season 2 last Sunday.
"The global success of Yellowstone continues to thrill and excite us at 101 Studios and Bosque Ranch. This has been such an exhilarating ride with our partners at MTV Entertainment Studios and we can't wait to bring 1944 and 2024 to audiences everywhere,” said David Glasser, CEO of Sheridan's 101 Studios, which co-produces the Yellowstone franchise along with Paramount's MTV Studios.
