Posted in: Paramount+, TV | Tagged: taylor sheridan, yellowstone

Yellowstone Season 5B Return Episode Rounds Up 16.4 Million Viewers

A lot of folks wanted to see how Taylor Sheridan and John Linson's Yellowstone was going to handle Kevin Costner's John Dutton not returning.

Well, it's safe to say that a whole lot of folks were interested in seeing how Taylor Sheridan and John Linson's Yellowstone would handle Kevin Costner's John Dutton not being around during the show during its final (???) run – but more on that in a minute. Based on the numbers reported by VideoAmp, 16.4 million people tuned into Sunday night's Season 5B return episode – an increase of 3% as compared to the Season 5A premiere (15.9 million viewers). Those figures are based on VideoAmp's projected Total Persons/Live+SD gross viewership across all cable networks and CBS airings – including premieres and encores. Season 5A returned in 2022, with premieres/encores airing across seven cable networks, while Season 5B returned on Sunday, November 10, on CBS and eight cable networks.

Yellowstone Return Reveals Fate of Kevin Costner's John Dutton

After not appearing for the first day of his impeachment trial, we learn that John's body was found in the bathroom of the Montana governor's mansion – an apparent victim of a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound. Beth (Kelly Reilly) arrives on the scene first, followed by Kayce (Luke Grimes). Though Kayce can't see him having anything to do with it, Beth is certain that Jamie (Wes Bentley) was responsible – not surprising, considering Beth and John vowed to kill Jamie and vice-versa heading into the midseason break. We're going to stop the spoilers there, but let's just say there's some question as to how much involvement Jamie and/or Sarah (Dawn Olivieri) had – a question that gets a very definitive answer by the end of the episode (with Jamie getting a hard lesson in the importance of proper communication with Sarah moving forward). Oh, and not surprisingly, no one on John's side is buying the suicide angle…

During his visit with SiriusXM's The Michael Smerconish Program earlier this week, Costner shared his thoughts on his character's fate during the return episode of Yellowstone. Costner was made aware of where the storyline went with his character, but the actor/director didn't watch the actual episode. In fact, Costner claims he didn't know the show returned this past weekend.

"Well, I'm going to be perfectly honest. I didn't know it was actually airing last night. That's a swear-to-God moment. I swear to God," Costner revealed. "I mean, I've been seeing ads with my face all over the place, and I'm thinking, 'Gee, I'm not in that one.' I'm not in this season. But I've been seeing… but I didn't realize yesterday was the thing. I really have… my focus has been on what I was having to do, and I've got a few calls to make. So you think — sometimes I'm like just a passenger in my life, you know, there's a lot going on. And somebody said, 'You know it played last night?' And I said, 'Hmm, OK.' So no, I found out about it this morning actually."

Based on what Costner learned regarding John's demise, it doesn't sound like he plans on watching it anytime soon, either. "I didn't see it. I heard it's a suicide, so that doesn't make me want to rush to go see it," Costner said. From there, Costner and Smerconish discuss how that wouldn't fit with a character like John Dutton, with Costner adding an additional thought that would end up being proven before the credits rolled. "Well, they're pretty smart people. Maybe it's a red herring. Who knows? They're very good. And they'll figure that out," the actor/director said.

Produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios and distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution, Paramount Network's Yellowstone is executive-produced by Sheridan, Linson, Costner, Art Linson, David C. Glasser, Bob Yari, Stephen Kay, Michael Friedman, Christina Voros, and Keith Cox.

If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

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