On September 22, 2022, VideoAge‘s Water Cooler feature ran a piece about Paramount’s neo-Western drama series, Yellowstone, which was receiving rave reviews among politically and socially conservative American TV viewers. That was like prehistoric times for the series, which is broadcast on the Paramount Network cable channel, its Paramount Plus streaming service, and the Peacock streaming platform. Indeed, after last fall, Paramount Studios released a sequel, and soon after, a prequel. And it appears that these two new series (as well as the original) no longer simply appeal to conservatives, but to the general public at large.
Tapping into a recognizable hit is all too common for U.S. TV executives, who in the last few years have used sequels, prequels, reboots, spinoffs, and remakes (see VideoAge’s November 2022 Issue) as their main programming strategy.
Yellowstone was first pitched to HBO in 2013, who passed. It wasn’t greenlit by Paramount until 2017. It debuted on Paramount Network the following year, with the streaming rights sold to Peacock, the service that would become a competing streaming platform to NBCUni. The series’ fifth season is solely on the Paramount Plus streaming service, while seasons one to four are still exclusively on Peacock’s streaming platform.
The 10-episode prequel arrived in 2021 (titled 1883), while the prequel’s sequel (titled 1923) premiered in December.
The latest eight-episode season of 1923 cost Paramount $176 million, or $22 million per episode, while the next eight-episode output of 1923, which will begin production in the spring, will cost just $17 million per episode.
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