Just how popular was the Paramount Network drama this year? Very.
On Friday, Variety — a.k.a. The Show Business Bible — released its annual list of the year’s 100 most-watched primetime telecasts. And as you might expect, there were plenty of sporting events on the list, with Super Bowl LVI looming large at No. 1 with 99,659,000 viewers, and the NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco Giants coming in at No. 2 with 50,443,000 viewers.
“But those are specials,” Variety noted. “When it comes to episodic scripted TV, only 24 episodes made it to the list of the year’s most-watched primetime telecasts. Leading the pack: Yellowstone, and its Season 4 finale on January 2, 2022. That episode, ‘Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops,’ averaged 13.1 million viewers. That makes it the most-watched episode of any regularly scheduled entertainment series in 2022, broadcast or cable.”
But wait, there’s more: “Yellowstone also boasted the second-most watched episode of the year, the Season 5 premiere on November 13.” In total, Yellowstone “landed six episodes on the year-end telecast ranker,” surpassed only by NCIS with nine and FBI with seven.
Of course, we offered recaps of every Yellowstone episode to make the Variety Top 100. Click the title, and you can read what we wrote.
No. 32: “Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops” (13.1 million viewers)
No. 37: “One Hundred Years is Nothing” (12,684,000 million viewers)
No. 48: “The Sting of Wisdom” (11,799,000 million viewers) **
No. 49: “Horses in Heaven” (11,637,000 million viewers)
No. 55: “Tall Drink of Water” (11,399,000 million viewers)
No. 68: “Watch ‘Em Ride Away” (10,962,000 million viewers)
And by the way: The midseason finale of Yellowstone will air at 8 pm ET Sunday on Paramount Network. Happy New Year!
** This episode aired immediately after “One Hundred Years is Nothing.”