I think we can go ahead and confirm, Taylor Sheridan is an absolute mastermind.
I remember when I first started watching Yellowstone, every bone in my body wanted to know how in the hell the Duttons became the owners of the largest ranch in the United States.
And I figure everybody else did too.
The obvious answer is, well… generations ago, but Sheridan and company delivered the visually stunning answer by creating 1883, the prequel series to Yellowstone, as it documents the original Dutton family making their journey west to the promised land, Montana.
Not to mention, he hired a star studded cast with Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, LaMonica Garrett, and even appearances from Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Hanks.
And now, with the official premiere of the show this past Sunday, Sheridan can now add another record to his long list of accolades.
According to Deadline, 1883 set a Paramount+ record for most watched series premiere.
In the television broadcast following Yellowstone, it garnered 4.9 million total viewers, beating out the series premiere of Fear The Walking Dead back in 2015.
On top of that, Sheridan dropped another show titled The Mayor Of Kingstown, which garnered 2.6 million views with its premiere, and will likely finish second behind 1883.
Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer for ViacomCBS, had a lot to say about the show’s success:
“The results of ‘1883’s’ debut are truly phenomenal. The day 1 streaming numbers coupled with the results of the linear sampling effort, and social media response from our audience show the tremendous promise for this series.”
Combining the Paramount Network’s premiere, along with the simulcast on CMT, the show racked up 6.4 million viewers in total.
Chris McCarthy, President and CEO ViacomCBS Media Networks, added:
“The success of Taylor Sheridan’s ‘1883’ is another proof point of our unique model to leverage our linear platforms and franchise our biggest hits to supercharge Paramount+.”
And if that doesn’t convince you to tune in, you can watch the very first episode right here… for FREE.
Enjoy.
