The already very big season four premiere of Yellowstone tacked on even more viewers in the three days after its debut.
Per Nielsen figures, the drama has a cumulative audience of 14.7 million viewers over three days, including a simulcast three other ViacomCBS channels (CMT, TV Land and Pop) and same-night replays. The bump from delayed viewing pushed the show past NBC’s Sunday Night Football (14.3 million) in the three-day ratings.
On Paramount Network alone, the premiere grew to 10.5 million viewers, a jump of about 2.38 million (29 percent) over the 8.12 million who watched on Sunday. It’s up by about 61 percent over the season three premiere (6.5 million) in June 2020.
The simulcast on CMT, TV Land and Pop added 2.2 million more viewers to the total over three days, and replays supplied the remaining 2 million.
ViacomCBS also managed to bring in such big numbers without the benefit of streaming. Yellowstone currently isn’t available on the company’s Paramount+ platform (though it can be streamed via the Paramount Network app). Past seasons are licensed to NBCUniversal’s Peacock.
“Over 14 million viewers tuned in for our Yellowstone premiere which will now serve as massive launch pad as we sneak episodes of Taylor Sheridan’s new series Mayor of Kingstown, whose full season will be rolling out exclusively on Paramount+ starting Sunday,” said Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of MTV Entertainment Group. “Taylor has created a cinematic experience that our remarkable cast led by Kevin Costner brings to life in a way audiences can’t get enough of, and we are excited to deepen our relationship with him and capitalize on this tremendous momentum by building out the Yellowstone franchise together.”
