‘Yellowstone’ Premiere to Air on CBS & Paramount, Preempting ‘The Equalizer’
The Dish on the Duttons
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Yellowstone is expanding its horizons. After the first three seasons started airing on CBS last year, Season 5 Part 2 of the Paramount Network hit will be doing the same.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 premieres Sunday, November 10 on Paramount Network. The first episode of the new season (its first new season in almost two years) will also air later that night on CBS, according to Variety. This showing will follow an episode of Tracker and preempt an episode of The Equalizer, but this won’t be a weekly occurrence. This marks the first time Yellowstone will air on a major broadcast network in-season.
Here’s all the latest updates on the upcoming season.
Is Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 filming?
Production on Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 began as of May 20.
When does Yellowstone come back?
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 is set to premiere on Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 8/7c on Paramount. The first episode of Part 2 will air on CBS on Sunday, November 10 at 10/9c. It will premiere on Paramount+ in Canada on November 10, the U.K. on November 11, and in Latin America, Brazil, and France later in November.
60 Minutes will air at 8/7c on November 10, followed by Tracker at 9/8c and Yellowstone at 10/9c. There will be no episode of The Equalizer that night. Tracker is set to air at 8/7c on Sundays on CBS, with The Equalizer scheduled to air after Tracker at 9/8c. (Check out the CBS fall schedule here.)
CBS is only airing the first episode of Yellowstone‘s new season, not the entire six-episode arc.
Is Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 the last season?
Season 5’s final six episodes were previously to be believed to be the final season, but new reports say that the series will continue with a sixth season centered on Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser‘s Beth and Rip. This continuation has not been confirmed by Paramount.
Where did Yellowstone Season 5 leave off?
The battle for the future of the ranch will be a civil war when the show returns, as the Season 5 Part 1 finale pitted Kevin Costner‘s John and Beth against Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley). Jamie went ahead with impeachment efforts against his father, who had been elected Governor of Montana at the beginning of the season. This declaration of war was a refusal to comply with Beth’s demands after she had Jamie under her control all season. The existential threat against John and the ranch has made Beth and Jamie’s rivalry reach a climax, one that will undoubtedly have a violent fallout in the upcoming episodes.
It’s hard to imagine reconciliation between TV’s most toxic sibling rivalry. Bloodshed is far more likely for this Taylor Sheridan series. And based on all the teasers and key art for the season so far, it seems all but certain that Costner’s character is getting killed off.
Will Kevin Costner be in Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2?
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And as of June 21, we know for sure that Kevin Costner‘s John Dutton will not be part of the series moving forward. The Oscar winner confirmed in a message to fans on Instagram that “won’t be returning” for Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2.
“Hi everyone. I just 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 in the video. “It was something that really changed me. I loved it, and I know you loved it. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning. I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”
For a while, rumors said Costner was done with Yellowstone. His commitment to his four-film Western saga, Horizon, which he directs, co-writes, and stars in, trumped his commitment to finishing Yellowstone. The actor didn’t just want to ghost the Paramount Network series that won him a Golden Globe, but he reportedly requested a shortened filming schedule for Season 5 Part 2.
This scheduling issue is said to have caused a dispute with Sheridan, who reportedly preferred not having Costner involved in the final episodes over having him on set for less time than the series needs. In Costner’s divorce hearing in September 2023, the actor said Season 5 was not meant to be filmed and released in two parts at first. When that change was made, it conflicted with Costner’s previously set schedule for Horizon.
“They wanted to do 5A and 5B; [it] affected Horizon,” Costner said, per Deadline. “I was going to do my movie Horizon and leave that show, do my movie, then do B. [But] a show I was only doing once a year, I was now doing twice.”
According to industry newsletter Puck, Costner wanted to at least make a cameo in the final episodes, if not more, now that Sheridan’s scripts for Season 5 Part 2 are complete. The only confirmation that Costner won’t be back in Yellowstone came from Costner himself. Announcements about the upcoming season from the network have not mentioned Costner among the cast, but the series has also never officially confirmed that Costner won’t be seen in the upcoming episodes.
Costner again discussed scheduling issues in an interview on Today earlier this summer while promoting Horizon.
“There’s a chance to do both of them, but material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren’t able to do that,” he said on Today. “And I thought, well, after five years, I’m just going to do this. And if we can get that, and I can do that, then I will do it.”
Peacock
Will Yellowstone kill off John Dutton? And how?
Costner is said to have a clause in his contract that requires a meaningful death for John, should the character be killed off. Given how deadly this show is (the eldest Dutton child, Lee Dutton, died in Season 1, and there have been explosive attempts to kill the remaining family members throughout the series), fans have long believed it possible that a major death in the family could occur. Fan theories about how John could die in the series have been floating around for years as a result.
One theory in particular seems incredibly likely: John was diagnosed with colon cancer in Season 1, which ramped up the pressure for him to decide who of his children would run the ranch after he was gone. Surgery helped treat the cancer, but fears that it came back emerged in Season 2 when John started coughing up blood. It turned out to be a burst ulcer that was treated on the ranch by the veterinarian in a rather gruesome scene. If John is to be killed off off-camera, his cancer returning is an easily explained death that satisfyingly ties back to the very first season.
Teasers for Season 5 Part 2 use old footage of Costner from past seasons showing him inside the Dutton house and sitting by a fire. Flames are heavily featured in all of the promotional material, leading to our theory that Jamie may set the ranch house on fire with John inside. Since Costner presumably didn’t film his character’s potential death scene, he would need to be killed off offscreen. This fire would allow for that, and it could be a good setup for the rumored sixth season. Beth and Rip would undoubtedly commit themselves to rebuilding their family’s ancestral home.
Is there a Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 trailer?
Yes! The teaser above shows the aforementioned old footage of Costner. It also shows new footage of Beth, Rip, Jamie, and Kayce, and unsurprisingly, Jamie and Beth are preparing to face off in it.
A teaser released on June 20 features the ranch’s branding iron engulfed in flames. Key art also shows what looks like John’s outline next to the Dutton family graveyard. See below.
Paramount Network
Who is in the Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 cast?
Reilly, Bentley, Grimes, Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Gil Birmingham, Mo Brings Plenty, Brecken Merrill, Dawn Olivieri, Finn Little, and Wendy Moniz are all returning for the final installment. And it’s safe to assume the ranch’s employees who live in the bunkhouse will also be back for one last ride.
That cast includes Ian Bohen, Forrie J. Smith, Denim Richards, Ryan Bingham, and Jen Landon. Piper Perabo, who guest starred in Season 4 and Season 5 Part 1, could also return.
Josh Lucas, who plays the younger John Dutton in Yellowstone flashbacks, told SiriusXM’s Jessica Shaw that he believes he’ll be back for more episodes. He also told ET that Sheridan said the final season would be 10 episodes long. Season 5 Part 1 had eight total episodes.
“I texted [creator] Taylor Sheridan a couple months ago, and his response was, ‘Absolutely, we’re going to finish this with 10 episodes or so,'” Lucas said. “I know as much as you do, but I think we got 10 episodes to kind of wrap it up and I can’t wait to go do it.”
Yellowstone, Season 5 Part 2 Premiere, Sunday, November 10, 8/7c, Paramount Network, Encore Airing, 10/9c, CBS
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