Kevin Costner accepts acting award while Yellowstone cast hit premiere after he snubbed final episodes

Kevin Costner attended an awards ceremony in Germany on Thursday night while his former Yellowstone castmates assembled in New York for the red carpet premiere for the show's final chapter.

The acclaimed actor and director received the BAMBI Award in the Actor International category for his acting excellence, visionary creativity, and outstanding contributions to the film industry at Bavaria Studios in Munich.

The German award, which is handed out annually by Hubert Burda Media , recognizes excellence in international media and television to personalities in the media, arts, culture, sports, and other fields 'with vision and creativity who affected and inspired the German public that year', both domestic and foreign.

Before heading out on stage to receive the actual BAMBI, Costner stepped out for a round of photos on the red carpet decked out in a traditional three-piece, black tuxedo with a matching bowtie.

Rounding out his overall look, the Academy Award-winner also wore shiny black black dress shoes, and he styled his blonde hair short without a part, while sporting a well-manicured beard and mustache combination.

Costner, 69, would also proudly pose with his BAMBI Award in hand for the cameras on the red carpet.

The other winners of the BAMBI 2024 are Robbie Williams (Entertainment), Toni Cross: (Sport), Margot Friedländer: (Courage), Jella Haase (Actress National), Tedros (Teddy) Teclebrhan (Comedy), Shirin David (Music National), Lars Eidinger (Actor National), Bernd Siggelkow (Silent Heros), Sven Väth (Culture) , Maxton Hall (Audience Award), Reinhold Messner (Our Earth), and Bryan Adams (Legend).

Created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, Yellowstone follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, commonly known as The Yellowstone.

The plot revolves around family drama at the ranch, as well as the conflicts along the ranch's shared border with the Broken Rock Indian reservation, Yellowstone National Park, and land developers.

The series, which stars Costner as Dutton family patriarch John Dutton III, premiered on the Paramount Network in June 2018, and has been a huge hit for the network since its inception.

Viewership of the series has grown with subsequent seasons, with the season three premiere garnering 7.6 million viewers in June 2020, which would be followed by a tally of 12.7 million viewers for the season 4 premiere in November 2021, according to Wikipedia . It wasn't until the first part of season five that the numbers dipped slightly to 12.1 million viewers.

With the rising ratings for the series, the show cemented itself as the most-watched show on cable, according to Time , all while breaking some premiere records for live and same-day viewing.

In February 2022, Paramount Network renewed the series for a fifth season, which was split into two installments, but by the time the first half had aired in early 2023 the show stalled.

At first the halt to production was due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which affected scores of shows and films, but scheduling conflicts would also persist because of Costner's work on Horizon: An American Saga, his self-funded series of four planned epic westerns.

Costner maintains he always planned to come back to wrap up John Dutton's story if it worked with his schedule, even if that meant going to a sixth of seventh season.

But in the end, he and Sheridan couldn't work things out in terms of the scheduling, and as a result he left the show, leaving the show creator and his writers left scrambling to do rewrites to the story.

In May 2023, Paramount revealed Costner would be leaving the series after the first part of season five, while the actor took to Instagram in June to formally announce he would not be returning to the fold to play Dutton one last time.

'I want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that's required, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love, I just realized that I'm not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future,' he said.

He added, 'It was something that really changed me. I loved it. And I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know that I won't be returning and I love the relationship we've been able to develop and I'll see you at the movies.'

Luke Grimes, who plays Costner's onscreen son Kacey Dutton, said the actor's absence was felt but he thinks fans will be happy with how the rest of the shows plays out.

'He's a big presence, man, guy's an icon,' Grimes said, as reported by Deadline . 'So not having him around to set felt a little different. But as always, I mean, we're a big family now. It was just as special and hopefully, the fans will be able to connect with the story just as much ... I think they will be able to.'

Grimes and his co-stars are now left to tell the rest of the Duttons' story at Yellowstone, which also includes cast members Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Brecken Merrill, Jefferson White, Danny Huston, and Gil Birmingham, among many others.

The second part of the fifth and final season is scheduled to premiere on the Paramount Network on November 10.

The finale episode, which is the 14th of split season five, is slated to air on December 14.