After “Yellowstone” Season 1’s ratings success during its broadcast debut on CBS, the network will begin airing the second season of the Paramount Network hit at the end of October.
“Yellowstone” Season 2 will premiere Sunday, Oct. 29, on CBS, with new episodes of the sophomore installment dropping on Sundays. The Season 2 launch will pick up one week after CBS airs the drama’s Season 1 finale this Sunday, Oct. 22.
Continuing to air “Yellowstone” is an obvious decision for CBS, as the Kevin Costner-led series has drawn nearly 21.6 million viewers who tuned in to at least one episode over the airing of its first installment. Its CBS premiere on Sept. 17 drew in 6.83 million viewers and scored a 0.67 rating in the key broadcast demographic among adults 18-49, marking the largest audience for a scripted series since the “NCIS” series finale in May.
Since its September debut on CBS, “Yellowstone” has secured the No. 1 primetime entertainment program each Sunday night, and has averaged 5.49 million viewers per episode.
The launch of the Taylor Sheridan series has also exposed a new audience to the Dutton family drama, with 52% of its CBS viewers having not seen a single episode of “Yellowstone” in the past year on either Paramount Network or streaming services.
CBS’ move to leverage the hit series from within its parent company came amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike this summer, which prompted the major broadcast networks to shuffle their fall schedules as labor disputes halted production on virtually all scripted programming from struck studios.
The network also moved several Paramount+ streaming shows, including “Seal Team,” “FBI True” and Paramount+ spin-off “NCIS: Sydney,” which was originally slated to air exclusively on Paramount+, to its fall schedule, while also importing the British version of “Ghosts” for the fall slate.
“From ‘Yellowstone’ to ‘NCIS: Sydney’… from ‘Survivor’ to ’60 Minutes’… from ‘FBI True’ to more versions of ‘Ghosts’ and brand-new reality series, we have a lineup with more than 220 hours of original programming that speaks directly to our CBS audience,” CBS Entertainment EVP of programming strategy Noriko Kelley said in a statement to TheWrap about the network’s fall schedule in early September.
