The Yellowstone finale hit a ratings high point, but there’s a catch

Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone hit a major viewership high point for its Sunday, December 15 finale, according to new data released by Paramount.

The series’ high stakes finale saw a major death, advanced set-ups for a few promising spin-offs, and sent the entire Dutton Ranch into the sunset, one board at a time.

Watching the finale is almost as complicated as the series itself, which released in the United States on the Paramount Network (not Paramount+, where it released in Canada, the UK, and Ireland).

Despite the complexity of viewing the highly anticipated finale, the episode hit a major ratings high point for Paramount… with one small catch.

A virtual army watched Yellowstone ride into the sunset

According to VideoAmp data released by Paramount, 11.4 million viewers turned in to the Yellowstone premiere on Sunday (via Variety). Paramount reports that figure as the most watched episode in series history. The picture’s a little bit more complicated, however.

Paramount

A slight wrinkle in the announcement is that Paramount had reported (also via VideoAmp data) that the Season 5B premiere netted 16.4 million viewers.

This total, however, includes its broadcast over the Paramount Network, CBS, other cable networks, as well as encore airings. The new ratings data (also via VideoAmp) thus only includes Live and Same Day viewing across the Paramount Network and CMT.

Past ratings for the show had utilized Nielsen data, though Paramount Global’s talks with the company are still continuing after the experation of its contract in September. The finale and Season 5B premiere are immediately comparable in terms of data source, but Nielsen confirmation versus the whole of the series is a more complicated affair.

Here‘s how you can catch the long-awaited finale, or check out what’s next for Sheridan’s network of series here, including new updates on The Madison and 1923 Season 2.