One of CBS's hit shows of the 2023 fall TV season has been Yellowstone season 1, despite the fact the first season of the western series originally debuted in 2018 on the Paramount Network. With Yellowstone on CBS, many US viewers were able to watch the Taylor Sheridan western for the first time. But now that Yellowstone season 1 is wrapping up on the network, the question becomes whether or not Yellowstone season 2 is going to air on CBS?
Yellowstone, which stars Kevin Costner as rancher John Dutton who fights multiple enemies trying to take the land his family has long lived on, has been a fixture of CBS's Sunday night broadcasts since September 17. One or two episodes from the first season have aired each week depending on the NFL on CBS schedule. The season 1 finale airs on the network on Sunday, October 22, at 9 pm ET/PT.
Is Yellowstone season 2 going to fill the hole in the weekly schedule when Yellowstone season 1 concludes? Here's what we know.
Is Yellowstone season 2 airing on CBS?
Viewers are going to get to continue to enjoy the Yellowstone ride on CBS, as the network officially announced on October 20 that season 2 episodes are going start airing on Sunday, October 29.
The Yellowstone season 2 premiere is going to air at 9 pm ET/8:30 pm PT on October 29. The episode is titled "The Thundering" and sees Kayce (Luke Grimes) settle into his new role on the ranch, while a damaging article threatens John and Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) pitches his plan to the tribal council.
By all indications, CBS is going to follow the same scheduling plan that it had with Yellowstone season 1: if there is an NFL on CBS doubleheader, then there will be one episode of Yellowstone airing that week; if there's just one NFL on CBS game airing on local stations across the country, then viewers are going to get two episodes of Yellowstone.
Yellowstone season 2 has 10 total episodes, so they should keep running on Sundays until sometime in December on CBS.
Yellowstone season 1 has performed very well on CBS. The Yellowstone series premiere that aired on September 17 had 6.6 million viewers, with episodes 2-4 all getting between 4 and 5 million viewers, as reported by Variety and other outlets.
The show has been a great programming boost for CBS as Hollywood is impacted by strikes. When Yellowstone season 1 premiered, both writers and actors were on strike seeking new labor agreements with studios, meaning CBS (and other networks) had few new TV shows to fill out its lineup. The writers' strike has been settled, meaning scripts can be written for shows, but the actors' strike is still ongoing, meaning production for new shows is still on pause.
Even if the strike ended tomorrow, CBS shows like Ghosts season 3, Blue Bloods season 14, NCIS season 21, Fire Country season 2 and more likely would not be able to get new episodes out until late winter/spring at the earliest. So Yellowstone and its multiple seasons could in theory be used as a fixture of CBS's lineup in the meantime.
At least to a point. Yellowstone season 5 also has been impacted by the strikes, with the second half of the final season still waiting to be completed. But that still leaves three more full seasons of Yellowstone and possibly the first eight episodes of season 5 if CBS opted to go that route.
If you can't wait for CBS to make the call, all episodes of Yellowstone are currently streaming on Peacock for US consumers.
