Data reveals nearly 50% of ‘Yellowstone”s huge CBS debut audience had never seen the show

After scoring a 6.6 million-person audience by bringing Yellowstone to CBS on September 17, a deep dive into the numbers revealed 50% of those viewers had never seen the Paramount Network show. 

The Taylor Sheridan drama starring Kevin Costner was called up by CBS from its sister network in part to make up for a content shortfall stemming from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. But the debut on the Eye Network attracted new eyes that never moseyed over to Paramount to watch the neo-Western, according to Variety. 

In fact, the trade says viewers of the show’s debut — which grew to 7.5 million folks counting DVR and Video On Demand watchers — was about half greenhorns and half who were already familiar with the goings on at the Dutton ranch. 

That’s especially interesting considering Yellowstone is already a massive hit on the cable network: season 5’s debut drew some 8.8 million fans, four times its debut on Paramount Network in 2018.

That said, CBS chief marketing officer Mike Benson told the trade the network previously polled its viewers and 80% had never seen the show; the strike gave the network a chance to show off the drama to those who weren’t familiar.