Yellowstone Season 2 Premiere Delivers Series Highs
Paul Dailly
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Yellowstone's highly anticipated return to Paramount Network delivered robust ratings for the Viacom-owned cabler.
Yellowstone Season 2 Episode 1 pulled in 3.9 million total viewers across the night, according to a press release.
In doing so, the Kevin Costner-fronted drama became cables most-watched original premiere this summer.
Related: Yellowstone Scores Early Season 3 Renewal
The premiere was simulcast on CMT, while an encore aired later on Wednesday night, and those numbers have been factored into the figures given from Paramount.
In adults 18-49, Yellowstone Season 2's premiere was up 19 percent vs. last year' series premiere.
L+SD ratings for the Yellowstone season two premiere are included below, followed by the increase from the season one premiere:
· P25-54: 1.13 (+11%)
· M25-54: 1.28 (+20%)
· W25-54: .99 (+2%)
· P18-49: .79 (+19%)
· M18-49: .89 (+24%)
· W18-49: .68 (+12%)
The series also emerged a hit on social media, becoming the #1 most social cable drama for the night, with 45,000 interactions.
On Twitter, it had 20,000 mentions, building 10 percent from the series premiere.
Yellowstone stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, who controls the largest contiguous ranch in the United States. It is co-created by critically-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, Hell or High Water and Sicario), and John Linson.
The impressive cast list for Yellowstone also includes Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Brecken Merrill, Jefferson White, Danny Huston, and Gil Birmingham. Neal McDonough joined the cast for season two.
The cabler clearly knew the series was going to amass huge figures because it was renewed for a third season hours ahead of Wednesday's big return.
On top of that, it was announced that Josh Holloway (Lost, Colony) would be joining the cast as "a handsome, charming, shaggy-haired hedge fund manager with ambitious plans in Montana."
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Yellowstone continues Wednesdays.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
