After “60 Minutes” last night, CBS began its Sunday “Yellowstone” marathon.
With all new shows on hold, CBS filled the space on Sundays with reruns of their Paramount Network show.
The gambit paid off. “Yellowstone” scored 7.87 million viewers in its first hour, then dropped to 5.82 million. That’s the size of a normal CBS Sunday night hit.
“Yellowstone” wasn’t going to do any better than that. Millions have seen it over and on Paramount and on DVD.
Last night’s episode was the first, from 2018. It played like a cable or streaming show, not a network show. The pacing was much more leisurely, the violence was far more pronounced, and there was sex scene that usually would not be seen in prime time.
I have actually never watched “Yellowstone” before last night, The highlights of the show are Kelly Reilly’s Beth and Luke Grimes’ Kayce Dutton. Wes Bentley’s character has potential. Kevin Costner’s John Dutton harumphed around a lot, I hope he improves in future episodes.
“Yellowstone” is no “Dallas.” There’s no sense of humor and the scenes are plodding. There’s also no thru-line yet except John Dutton being greedy for no reason. The Ewings battled but showed a lot of love, cracked wise, drank, and caroused with more enthusiasm. They also had the Bobby and Pam story, a Romeo and Juliet saga at the center. John Dutton really needs a boozing wife, but he’s a widower. God only knows what he did to his wife!
