One Of The Most Popular TV Shows In America Returns Today, But There’s A Catch

It's been nearly two years since the wildly popular modern Western drama Yellowstone last aired an episode. Season 5, Part 1 ended with its 7th episode in December of 2022. Episode 8 drops today.

That's a long goshdarn wait, y'all. I'm allowed to write sentences like that because I'm from the very place this show takes place: Bozeman, Montana, born and raised. It's where I rode my first horse, though I didn't do any bronco riding and I can't lasso to save my life. I can hit the side of a barn with a rifle, but I'm no John Dutton.

In fact, "no John Dutton" is apropos, because Kevin Costner will not make an appearance in this half-season of the series. The movie star and filmmaker of the show had a much-ballyhooed dispute with mega-producer Taylor Sheridan about the amount of time he was required to be on set. Costner was—and remains—in the process of making his epic four-part Western movie series Horizon: An American Saga, and his attention was too divided to remain a part of the Yellowstone melodrama.

( I rather liked Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 , and I'm excited to see Chapter 2 later this year).

'Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1' Review — Kevin Costner's Sprawling Western Is Flawed But Still Great

In any case, the story of the Dutton family continues on Paramount Network tonight at 8pm ET and at 10pm ET on CBS (a special airing).

The big "catch" in the title of this post is that this is the only way to watch unless you wait for the streaming release on Peacock months later. That's not entirely true. You can also purchase the season on Prime Video and watch episodes sooner online. But the only way to keep up with Beth (Kelly Reilly), Rip (Cole Hauser), Kayce (Luke Grimes), Monica (Kelsey Asbille), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Jimmy (Jefferson White) and all the rest of the sprawling cast of cowboys and their antagonists, is to have traditional cable TV.

Are you watching Yellowstone still? I know a lot of fans have been unhappy with the trajectory of the show over the past couple of seasons, but it remains a wildly popular soap opera (I call it a soap opera just like I considered Sons of Anarchy to be a soap opera, but you may disagree). Let me know your thoughts on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook . Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog . .