On November 13th, Taylor Sheridan’s latest show, Tulsa King, premiered, starring Sylvester Stallone.
In the show, Sly Stallone plays a mafia man named Dwight “The General” Manfredi who had just been released from prison in New York after serving over 20 years. He served his time, didn’t squeal, and expects to be rewarded when he returns to the fold.
Except he’s not… the mob boss sends the former capo to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he begrudgingly tries to set up shop, get back on his feet, and resume his mafia ways.
With that being said, the show has already seen an insane amount of success.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tulsa King has already been renewed for a second season.
Nielsen Numbers provided by Paramount show that Tulsa King beat out HBO’s House of the Dragon, the prequel series to Game of Thrones, making it the highest-rated series debut this year with 3.7 million viewers.
Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios president and CEO Chris McCarthy weighed in:
“’Tulsa King’ scored as the number one new series of the year, topping all others including the Game of Thrones sequel ‘House of the Dragon.’
With its preview on Paramount Network, and on Paramount+, it shattered records, driving us to our biggest new sign-up day in history, which is why we instantly greenlit season two.”
Paramount Streaming’s chief programming officer Tanya Giles added:
“With the combination of the incomparable Sylvester Stallone and Taylor Sheridan’s darkly comedic twist on the beloved mobster genre, we have found our latest hit in ‘Tulsa King.’
The series’ premiere on Paramount+ helped drive a record sign-up day fueled by our unique ability as Paramount Global to tap into Paramount Network’s incredible ‘Yellowstone’ audience.”
Yellowstone kicked off their season five premiere with around 12.1 million viewers, and has since jumped to 17 million.
Needless to say, everything Taylor Sheridan is touching right now is turning to gold.
Stallone himself weighed in on his role on Tulsa King as well:
“I’ve always wanted to play a gangster. But I wanted to play a unique gangster who is not like a gangster — at least, not when you meet him. He’s actually a guy who likes to cooperate. I thought about Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.
Like, what if you woke up and you were now in a different profession but you had the same personality? That way, you don’t assume the automatic cliché of a thug who stares at you dead-eyed and (slides into his Rocky/Rambo speaking voice for a moment — just to show) doing the deep voice.
But if he has to get heavy, it’s gonna get real heavy. So I said, ‘I’m gonna play him as close to myself as I’ve ever done in my life.’”
If you haven’t had a chance to check out Tulsa King, it’s pretty good… and much like Yellowstone, it has a pretty good soundtrack with a decent amount of country music.
