The expansion of the Yellowstone franchise is proving to be a good thing for Paramount Network and Paramount+.
Paramount+ today announced Sunday’s premiere of the highly anticipated 1883 broke a new record for the service as its most-watched original series ever, up more than double over the previous record, across the service’s owned and operated platforms.
In addition, the MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios produced series marked the most social drama series Sunday night across streaming, according to data from Talkwalker Social Content Ratings.
In addition to its record-breaking premiere on Paramount+, the premiere also delivered 4.9 million total viewers during its special event on Paramount Network following Yellowstone.
The impressive cable bow makes it the biggest new series premiere on cable since 2015.
“The results of 1883’s debut are truly phenomenal,” said Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer, ViacomCBS Streaming.
“The day 1 streaming numbers coupled with the results of the linear sampling effort, and social response from our audience show the tremendous promise for this series.”
“We look forward to continuing on this epic journey with our subscribers.”
“The success of Taylor Sheridan’s 1883 is another proof point of our unique model to leverage our linear platforms and franchise our biggest hits to supercharge Paramount+,” said Chris McCarthy, President and CEO ViacomCBS Media Networks.
“We went big with 1883 – the ‘Yellowstone’ prequel – and it delivered big and shattered all records – as both the #1 most watched original series premiere ever on Paramount+ and the biggest new cable premiere since 2015, with nearly five million viewers tuning into Paramount Network Sunday’s airing.”
“Given the tremendous viewership on Paramount Network, I’m confident our strategy of sampling on the Paramount Network will drive awareness and viewers to Paramount+.”
“Getting this show out to audiences in 2021 was an epic undertaking,” David Glasser, CEO of 101 Studios.
“We were presented with an almost impossible set of circumstances but we achieved our goal in record-breaking fashion.”
“That success is due to the dedication of the unbelievably gifted cast, crew, ViacomCBS and the passionate vision and leadership of Taylor Sheridan.”
“101 Studios could not be more proud to have worked alongside Taylor to shepherd 1883 into the world.”
The series got off to a great start with critics, and it will be fun to see if the viewers on Paramount Network follow it over to Paramount+ when the episodes stop airing on the linear cable network.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.