Taylor Sheridan’s First Yellowstone Sequel Is an Instant Streaming Hit, Officially Breaking a 7-Year Record

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Taylor Sheridan created a successful TV world with his show Yellowstone, which concluded in 2024. But even before the end of Yellowstone, he began building a larger franchise, starting with the 2021 prequel 1883. That show told the story of the Dutton family’s difficult move from Tennessee to Montana in 1883 and how they established the Yellowstone Ranch. Now, the first official sequel to Yellowstone has launched, and its debut ratings were the highest in seven years.

Luke Grimes, known for his role as Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone, now stars in his own series, Marshals. The show launched on CBS with 9.52 million viewers—the largest debut for a new series since FBI premiered in 2018 with 10 million viewers. Marshals’ debut audience was even bigger than many of the premieres for Yellowstone itself, and it also outperformed the finale of Dancing With the Stars (9.43 million viewers), making for a very successful launch.

Marshals Just Proved That the Yellowstone Franchise Is Still Strong

As a big fan of the Yellowstone universe, I’ve really enjoyed the prequels 1883 and 1923, but it’s different when those shows live on a streaming service like Paramount+. When a show hits broadcast TV – especially one of the major networks like CBS, NBC, or ABC – it reaches a whole new audience. I’m really curious to see how many people check out Land Man after it finishes its run on Paramount+. It’ll be a better test of how popular this corner of the Yellowstone world really is.

The series Marshals centers on Kayce Dutton, a former Navy SEAL, after he leaves the Yellowstone Ranch. He joins the U.S. Marshals, where he uses his skills from both the military and his experience as a cowboy to combat crime in Montana. Throughout the series, Kayce also battles the emotional trauma of his past and mourns a significant loss.

Marshals Shocks Fans With A Major Yellowstone Character Death

While developing the Marshals spinoff of Yellowstone, the team faced a problem: Kelsey Asbille, who played Monica, wasn’t available for the new show. Instead of rewriting the story, showrunner Spencer Hudnut and Taylor Sheridan made a dramatic decision (spoiler alert): they wrote Monica’s character out by having her die of cancer, and this loss will be a key part of Kayce’s storyline at the beginning of Marshals.

Hudnut clarified to The Hollywood Reporter that he and Luke never planned to kill off Monica. Instead, they were discussing how to handle the character if the actress wasn’t able to continue, and they wanted to do so respectfully and without sensationalism.

Though Monica isn’t returning, Marshals features several actors you’ll recognize from Yellowstone. Mo Brings Plenty (as Mo), Gil Birmingham (as Chief Thomas Rainwater), and Brecken Merrill (as Tate Dutton) are all back. Joining the Yellowstone universe through Marshals are Logan Marshall-Green (known from Upgrade), Arielle Kebbel (9-1-1), Tatmanka Means (Killers of the Flower Moon), and Ash Santos (Mayor of Kingstown).

You can watch Marshals on CBS and Paramount+. Share your opinions about the show with other fans on the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-03-05 20:42