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‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Scores High Ratings for Premiere

Well, folks, Taylor Sheridan looks to have done it again. The premiere of his new series Mayor of Kingstown was met with a massive audience on Sunday night. The new series capitalized on the viewership of Yellowstone’s second episode and hauled in more than 2.5 million viewers between Paramount Network and Paramount Plus.

That was all part of the plan for MTV Entertainment Studios and ViacomCBS. Taylor Sheridan’s products speak for themselves. But why not use the popularity of his Western hit series to bring Mayor of Kingstown to folks’ attention?

The Jeremy Renner-led series will soon move away from Paramount Network and exclusively be available on the streaming service. But for now, the boost from Season 4 of Yellowstone is too good to pass up. Variety reported that Paramount Network captured 7.5 million viewers during the second episode, and plenty of them were willing to stick around to see what else Taylor Sheridan has to offer.

“The testing was through the roof leading up to the series, so we felt really good and confident about Taylor delivering only what Taylor can for us. And the numbers really show that. It is kind of astounding to see a new series at this stage get those numbers,” said Chris McCarthy, the president and CEO of MTV Entertainment.

2.5 million may not seem like much compared to Yellowstone, but the studio has plenty of reason to be excited. Mayor of Kingstown has plenty of room to grow.

“When Yellowstone premiered in 2018, people didn’t think it was going to get as big today, but we knew. I’m excited because what you have here is the beginning of another massive hit,” McCarthy continued.

‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Marks Beginning of Taylor Sheridan ‘Dynasty’

Mayor of Kingstown’s subject matter is a significant departure from that of Sheridan’s previous hit. The series explores the prison industry in small-town Michigan. But one holdover from Yellowstone is doing it through the lens of a family. It’s equally, if not more, gritty than its predecessor. But the setting, cast, and subject matter make for an entirely new experience.

The big numbers from Mayor of Kingstown indicate good things to come regarding future Taylor Sheridan projects.

“The beauty of having a show go massive right out the launch is that it really frees up our marketing resources to target brand new audiences. On our own platforms, we’ve really honed in on bringing the Yellowstone audience for Mayor, and I also think that our incredible marketing team did a fantastic job in bringing brand new shows to this genre,” McCarthy added.

The CEO went so far as to call Sheridan’s success the beginning of a dynasty. And if we know anything about TV (talking about you here, Dick Wolf), a dynasty is very much in the cards.