Mount up, Yellowstone fans, Season 5 will be a far bigger affair thanks to the wild success of Season 4 and Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount deal.
The #1 show on cable television is officially set to return for a fifth season. While this is shocking to none, big news hit Wednesday that’s sure to excite fans.
Yellowstone Season 5 will be 14 episodes long, Wall Street Journal confirms via Paramount. The news follows ViacomCBS’s investor presentation Tuesday, with plenty more reveals hitting fans today. There’s one shake-up, however. Yellowstone Season 5 may be longer, but it’ll be split into two halves. How Paramount Network will release a single season in two parts remains to be seen, but fans may not be as keen on the development if there’s a big wait in-between said halves.
In addition, Yellowstone Season 5 will serve as Paramount’s launching pad for a slew of new series. Taylor Sheridan’s gargantuan $200 million production deal with ViacomCBS will continue to take center stage for the company. This means more time within Yellowstone proper devoted to setting up spinoffs; a phenomenon met with mixed reviews from Season 4 viewers who sat through extensive exposition for Jimmy Hurdstrom (Jefferson White) and his 6666 exploits.
The second prequel series, 1932, is also well underway. Yellowstone Season 5 may bring flashbacks for this series as a result, similar to how Season 4 flashbacks would serve 1883.
“We want to double down on that momentum and not waste it,” says Chris McCarthy Wednesday. As chief executive of ViacomCBS Media Networks and MTV Entertainment studios, McCarthy co-produces all current Yellowstone properties with Sheridan’s 101 Studios.
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Will Come From Paramount Global, ViacomCBS’s Rebranding
As a result of Yellowstone‘s wild success, ViacomCBS is also rebranding to Paramount Global. The company will refer to itself as Paramount singularly, further placing confidence in their ever-expanding Taylor Sheridan Universe.
While this news may irk fans weary of oversaturating the market with Yellowstone, more episodes in Season 5 should allow Sheridan to expand on future shows without compromising the core Dutton story. Fans are eager to see more of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton, alongside fan-favorites Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser).
The latter duo became household names through Yellowstone Season 4’s record-breaking success. Shattering cable television records in 2021 and 2022, Season 4 brought an average of 10.4 million viewers for Paramount Network across all episodes; no small feat in the era of streaming’s domination.
Sheridan’s success for Paramount didn’t stop there, either. 1883 has become Paramount’s top streaming property by a landslide. The Yellowstone prequel would outperform his other critical darling, Mayor of Kingstown, by millions of views. 1883, too, is receiving another season as a result.
Yellowstone Season 5 nears production itself, with principal cast returning to Montana in May. The season will hit Paramount Network exclusively this fall. How long we’ll have to wait for the second half of Season 5, however, is unknown.
