Why Everyone Thought Yellowstone’s Cancellation Was Inevitable: Paramount CEO Reveals How the Show’s Streaming Rights Landed with Peacock

The Paramount CEO fully explains how Yellowstone‘s streaming rights ended up with Peacock, and how that influenced Paramount’s strategy. Taylor Sheridan’s Western series began in 2018, running for five seasons and concluding late last year. Though it got a slow start with critics in its premiere season, Yellowstone ended up being extremely well-reviewed and has expanded its universe through multiple spinoff series. One of the spinoffs is currently on streaming, 1923 season 2, which is getting stellar reviews thus far.

Speaking with The Wrap, Paramount CEO Chris McCarthy fully explained how Yellowstone‘s streaming rights ended on Peacock. When the show had completed season 2, it was expensive enough to warrant selling the streaming rights to Peacock. Strategically, McCarthy decided to switch Yellowstone to Sunday nights and to work on streaming exclusives 1883 and 1923. Then, when Paramount+ launched, he decided to focus his energy on shows with big-name stars. Check out McCarthy’s full quote below:

So, when I came on board, many people assumed canceling ‘Yellowstone’ was a forgone conclusion. However, after connecting with Taylor, understanding his vision and doing a deep dive to forecast where there was a white space to build a universe that would unleash an untapped audience demand, I decided to double down – partnering with Taylor in his first TV overall [deal] and placing a bet that ‘Yellowstone’ could be the catalyst to unlock a bigger cultural phenomenon.

To succeed, we need to identify subtle emerging signals, ones that are easily missed, of cultural trends that could go mass, in order to place calculated bets and make big hits that can transform our business. By embracing this strategy and delivering against Taylor’s creative vision, we succeeded in overcoming the obstacle of not having ‘Yellowstone’ for SVOD and turned it into an opportunity to reinvent the model, which has driven Paramount+ to industry leading growth four years in a row.

To make up for lost time, we designed a strategy betting against the status quo that the winners of the SVOD war won’t be the ones with the most content, but rather the ones with the biggest hits that break through the crowded and competitive landscape.

Our content outpunches its weight class.

What This Means For Paramount+

Paramount Has Produced Several Major Shows

Now that Paramount+ is a streaming service, not having streaming rights to Yellowstone is an undeniable loss. However, McCarthy is vouching for how Paramount changed its entire strategy to account for this and take the best path moving forward. The streamer, unfortunately, faced the challenge of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes not long after launching but eventually was able to carry forward with their major shows led by major stars. They made Lioness with Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman, Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone, and shows like Landman and The Agency.

Even without Yellowstone available to the streamer, the impressive lineup has kept the reviews strong for Paramount+ shows. According to Nielsen data, the streamer was ranked no. 2 on SVOD in terms of most hours watched of original series during the fourth quarter of 2024. This was likely helped by shows like Landman and Tulsa King, which are A-lister-driven and a clear part of their ongoing strategy. So, Paramount+ may not be able to benefit from Yellowstone‘s streaming numbers, but McCarthy was smart to pivot strategies to account for this loss.

Our Take On Yellowstone’s Streaming Status

There Is A Future Yellowstone Spinoff In Jeopardy

While Paramount+ still gets to rest in the streaming glory of Sheridan shows like 1923, selling the Yellowstone streaming rights to Peacock still could present challenges moving forward. A few months ago, it was announced that the flagship show’s team would develop a spinoff featuring Rip and Beth and that Yellowstone would be part of the title. Following this announcement, some reports surmised that this likeness could create legal issues for Paramount in securing the rights for the spinoff series. The streamer could continue to lose more potential streaming revenue should Peacock maintain rights to this offshoot program.