The return of Yellowstone, without Kevin Costner, draws record-breaking ratings. After an extended break away from audiences, Yellowstone season 5 part 2 returned on Sunday night. The popular drama wasted little time explaining what happened to John Dutton after Costner’s high-profile exit, revealing in its opening minutes that the show’s central character suffered a tragic fate.

Paramount reports that the Yellowstone season 5 part 2 debut delivered the show’s biggest premiere night audience ever. Counting viewers on both cable and CBS, the premiere garnered 16.4 million viewers. This initial data, which is from the media measurement company VideoAmp, includes both the original showings of the episode and any encores.

What The Ratings Success Means For Yellowstone

The Curiosity Likely Helped

 

Before the opening credits of Yellowstone season 5 part 2 start rolling, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) discover their father’s lifeless body in the restroom of the Montana governor’s mansion. The audience never sees John’s face, but it’s confirmed to Kayce and Beth that John is dead after a fatal gunshot wound. Beth immediately suspects her sibling, Jamie Dutton, is involved in what happened given that Jamie (Wes Bentley) was plotting against the family in the first half of season 5.

The episode, titled “Desire Is All You Need”, is written by franchise creator Taylor Sheridan and directed by Christina Voros. It takes time to unspool what specifically happened to John, showing how Jamie and his lover Sarah (Dawn Oliveri) conspired to make John’s death look like a suicide. Even though Costner had a high-profile exit from Yellowstone, he retains his executive producer credit and his name appears in the opening credits for the premiere.

Even though he’s no longer there John’s demise drives the story and likely drives interest in terms of audiences curious to see how his absence will be handled. But even beyond that element of curiosity, Yellowstone is easily among television’s biggest shows. The latest numbers reinforce that, paving the road for the Western to continue without its main figure.

Our Take On Yellowstone’s Ratings

It’s Time To Turn The Page

With questions about Yellowstone season 6 still unclear, the one thing to watch is whether the remaining episodes of the series’ long-awaited comeback continue to operate at such a high level. If that is the case, some continuation for Beth, Kayce, and Rip (Cole Hauser) seems almost inevitable. Given the high ratings that Yellowstone premiered its new batch of episodes with, interest among viewers seems to only be growing.