9.5 Million Watched Taylor Sheridan's 'Marshals' Premiere

The Yellowstone universe, long dominant on cable and streaming, crossed into broadcast TV this weekend when Marshals premiered on CBS. The debut episode averaged 9.5 million viewers per Nielsen, the largest scripted broadcast series premiere in more than seven years, excluding shows that aired directly after NFL games; the last scripted broadcast debut with a larger audience was FBI, which premiered on September 25, 2018 with 10.1 million viewers.

Marshals is the first Yellowstone-set series to air on broadcast television and sees Luke Grimes reprise his role as Kayce Dutton. It nearly matched the earlier premiere figures without the kind of sports lead-in that can inflate ratings. Collider’s review noted that Marshals wisely avoids trying to be a straight-up Yellowstone sequel and instead pivots into a CBS-friendly procedural that offers Kayce a new beginning, albeit with some growing pains.

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