No spoilers below for Yellowstone's Season 5 winter finale, so read on freely!
Yellowstone gave fans a surprise ahead of Season 5 when it was announced that this would be the western drama’s first to go beyond ten episodes, which paved the way for the reveal that fans would have to go without the Duttons during its midseason hiatus. Now, the Paramount Network hit has given audiences a better (or worse) idea for when we’ll reconnect with Kevin Costner & Co. by closing out its winter finale with the big update that new episodes will be back in…the summer.
That’s right. The summer. If only I’d just misspoken in rhyme, having meant to say “will be back in the spring, ahead of the movie about a video game plumber.” But no, it really is the SUMMER.
Check out the quick and to-the-point video below teasing Yellowstone’s eventual return.
So for one, this means my theory about the Duttons being mega-duped would now be considered a longer-than-long-con, since the show apparently isn’t coming back for nearly six full months. That’s a whole lot of time to mull over everything that played out in the midseason finale. Perhaps too much time?
Yellowstone set up its midseason finale ahead of the Christmas Day break, and that week off alone was hard enough to get through. As such, I can’t imagine what kinds of reactions fans will have after learning the ninth episode won’t be airing until after a whole other season has come and gone.
Though the Montana-set drama’s numbers have been as big as ever with Season 5, seemingly more viewers than usual have been complaining about the show’s pacing and storytelling, as well as Beth’s perceived turn from hardcore badass to petulant teenager. And while those opinions are a minority in the face of widespread praise, this news likely won’t please any of the naysayers.
The news that Yellowstone won’t return until the summer is surprising for more than one reason, too. It’s fairly rare for any ongoing series to inject such a large hiatus into a season, given the risk of losing fans’ attention spans with such a long gap. That said, it’s possible that the mass viewership earned by linear repeats gave Paramount Network execs the confidence to pull this off with limited consequences expected. If any show can survive and thrive after such a move, it’d be the most popular one.
But it’s also a somewhat shocking move by the network when it comes to Paramount’s overall partnership with, and content from, creative workhorse Taylor Sheridan. I can certainly understand giving the flagship series a rest while Sheridan’s prequel 1923 is currently getting audiences familiar with Jacob and Cara Dutton’s clan, not to mention while Sylvester Stallone continues winning viewers over on the currently airing Tulsa King. But I still would have bet all kinds of money that Yellowstone’s new episodes would have been locked to return soon after those two dramas concluded, even knowing that Mayor of Kingstown’s second season is on the way to the streaming service.
The only silver lining that could be had here is if Paramount Network unveils that the Four Sixes spinoff will be debuting ahead of Season 5’s return. Which might make things confusing on the overall narrative timeline, but confusion is worth it if it means getting Jimmy and Emily back on our TVs.
Without a specific date locked down from Paramount Network just yet, Yellowstone will be on hiatus until Summer 2023, but there’s still a lot left to go in the first season of the spinoff prequel 1923, for those with Paramount+ subscriptions. And as the video above reminded everyone, the Yellowstone podcast hosted by star Jefferson White is very much ongoing and entertaining.
While waiting to see what happens next within the Dutton family, head to our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see what other big shows will be debuting during the long stretch until new eps on the Y.
