How do Taylor Sheridan shows rank according to Rotten Tomatoes scores?
Everyone is familiar with Rotten Tomatoes and their scoring, right? Believe it or not, the review website has been active since 1998, so it’s been a go-to source for seeking out whether or not a TV show or movie is worth watching for over two decades. It’s obviously evolved overtime, and recently, it’s become a big part of the media consumer’s process.
When’s the last time you went to a movie or dove into a TV show without looking at the Rotten Tomatoes score first?
Most of the time, I’d say Rotten Tomatoes aggregate ranking system hits the nail right on the head with its ranking. The critics score is the one that’s usually the most respected, but the addition of the audience score allows for normal, everyday people to give their two cents on a movie or TV show, and those rankings can be valuable too.
In this story, we’re going to look at the critics rankings on Rotten Tomatoes, and specifically apply them to any show that Taylor Sheridan has had a hand in as an executive producer, creator or director (no acting roles). And if we’re being honest, there’s probably not anyone in the TV industry busier than the Yellowstone creator.
Though his flagship series is wrapped up, he continues to be the mind behind various other hits that bring in millions of viewers per episode. For today’s standards, that’s almost uncalled for, but Sheridan has evidently cracked the code… and for the most part, he’s gotten some really respectable Rotten Tomatoes scores along the way.
Here’s every Taylor Sheridan show ranked from worst to best based on Rotten Tomatoes critics score, and oddly enough, the critics usually ranked it much higher than fans did.
8) Mayor of Kingstown (53%)
The show – which stars Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky – follows the McLusky family in Kingstown, Michigan; a city where prison is the only real industry. Acting as the mediators between the street gangs, prisoners, guards, cops and politicians, the McLusky family battles to keep the peace in Kingstown, and has done so for decades.
Mayor of Kingstown has already run for three seasons, and has a fourth set to air on October 26. Despite the show boasting four seasons (one on the way), it’s the only Sheridan show that has a “Rotten” rating, which is any score below 60%.
7) Special Ops: Lioness (73%)
The special operations and intelligence series – starring Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Laysla De Oliveira, Morgan Freeman and Dave Annable – had a lengthy delay between seasons two and three. After resolving the issue that surrounded Nicole Kidman’s contract, the third season is officially on its way.
Lioness centers around a CIA operative named Joe (Zoe Saldana) who tries to balance work and personal life while on the frontlines of her agency’s war on terror. It’s an underrated action series of Sheridan’s, and it is certified fresh at 73% on the Rotten Tomatoes meter.
6) Landman (78%)
Landman was the hit Taylor Sheridan show that seemingly came out of nowhere at the end of 2024. Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris, who plays an oil fixer in Texas, and the business and family stories that the series explored in its first season were wild and unpredictable.
Season 2 will premiere on November 16 of this year, and no one really knows what’s in store for MTex Oil, Tommy Norris, and the other colorful characters of Landman. All we do know is that the critics gave it a respectable rating of 78%, and I’ve got a feeling that score could creep up higher following the show’s second season.
5) Lawmen: Bass Reeves (79%)
This period piece was set in the 1880s and starred David Oyelowo, who played Bass Reeves: the “first African-American marshal west of the Mississippi, policing the entire Oklahoma territories.” The series was a smash hit when it premiered in November of 2023, and many fans wanted to see more from the Lawmen universe.
Unfortunately, there are still no confirmed plans for a second season of Lawmen: Bass Reeves. And as time goes on without any updates, or more episodes, the likelihood of it returning diminishes. Oyelowo did once say that a second season could happen if more people kept asking for it, but at this point… it’ll probably be a standalone story, and one that got a 79% rating.
4) Yellowstone (83%)
Taylor Sheridan’s flagship series ended its ratings-dominant run at the end of 2024. Some say it ended with a bang, while others will tell you that it limped to the finish line. Kevin Costner starred as John Dutton in all but the back half of the finale season, and we’ve since found out why he may have decided not to come back.
If you are reading this, I’ve got a feeling that you don’t need a synopsis of the western drama that followed the Dutton family and their Yellowstone ranch. It was a heck of a ride, and it’s a shame that it didn’t get to conclude with Costner. However, it still boasts a respectable 83% rating.
3) Tulsa King (88%)
Sylvester Stallone stars in this mafia show that premiered in 2022 and is currently in the midst of airing its third season. Stallone plays a mafia man named Dwight “The General” Manfredi, who gets out of prison in New York and gets sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma to set up shop and resume his mafia ways.
It’s an entertaining show, and boasts quite the impressive supporting cast of Garrett Hedlund, Frank Grillo, and Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Patrick. And the show’s intricate, crime-thriller ways lands it a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88%.
2) 1883 (89%)
This show, which only ran for one season and starred Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliot and Billy Bob Thornton, acted as an origin story for the Dutton family. It revealed how they settled in the Paradise Valley of Montana after making their way north from Texas, and it was very much critically acclaimed.
The two country stars in leading roles were phenomenal, and the show itself helped build out the world of Yellowstone that much more. Fans loved the show, and critics did too. It comes in at 89% on the Rotten Tomatoes meter.
1) 1923 (94%)
Finally, we get to the top ranked Taylor Sheridan show according to Rotten Tomatoes. 1923, another Yellowstone prequel spinoff, takes home the award for the highest ranked Sheridan show according to critics. The show – which starred Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford along with impressive supporting actors and actresses like Brandon Sklenar, Jerome Flynn, Darren Mann, and Michelle Randolph, among others – let fans see how the Duttons handled Western expansion, the Prohibition Era, and the Great Depression.
And why was it to loved? Where should I start? The production design? The period costumes? The impressive performances from Ford and Mirren? It was a whirlwind of perfection (the series finale had mixed reactions, I suppose), and that’s why it was so well-received in the eyes of the critics.
Well there you have it! That’s the entire list of Taylor Sheridan shows that are able to be ranked based upon Rotten Tomatoes scores. Soon, there will be other Yellowstone spinoffs (and other shows from the mind of Sheridan) to add to the list, but until then, that’s all she wrote.
And just for fun, I thought I’d also communicate where all of these shows ranks based upon audience score instead of critics score. The list definitely looks a bit different, with 1923 and Mayor of Kingstown doing complete 180-degree turnarounds when compared to the score they received from critics, and Lawmen: Bass Reeves making a huge jump in the list in the eyes of the fans.
Here’s every Taylor Sheridan show ranked from worst to best based on Rotten Tomatoes audience score:
8) 1923 (54%)
7) Landman (64%)
6) Special Ops: Lioness (74%)
5) Yellowstone (76%)
4) Tulsa King (77%)
3) 1883 (78%)
2) Mayor of Kingstown (82%)
1) Lawmen: Bass Reeves (93%)
