Yellowstone Season 1’s 58% Rotten Tomatoes Score Broke a Major TV Trend That’s Still Wild to Think About 7 Years Later

Yellowstone’s First Season Had a Lukewarm Reception

Yellowstone’s Popularity Only Came Over Time

Yellowstone may be one of the most popular television franchises ever, but it didn’t start that way. When the show first premiered, it was not only not a massive hit but also drew mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes ranks Yellowstone first season at a mere 58% approval rating. The Critics Consensus reads, “Yellowstone proves too melodramatic to be taken seriously, diminishing the effects of the talented cast and beautiful backdrops.” Audiences were much kinder to Yellowstone‘s first season, giving it a collective 82% approval rating, marking a difference of 24% between critics and fans. Nevertheless, this was a disappointing debut for Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western series, especially as it still tried to win over an audiences in its freshman season.

Critics weren’t just being arbitrary in their negative reviews. The first season of Yellowstone has several flaws that make it difficult to relate to the inhabitants of the Dutton Ranch in their early storylines. The note on the show’s melodrama proves to be quite accurate; while there is nothing wrong with a little bit of drama, the intensity of characters’ emotional outbursts in the first season makes most of the main cast appear grossly unlikable. Nevertheless, the show still stood out for its amazing production value and talented cast of actors, led by the unparalleled Kevin Costner. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the first season managed to hook enough of an audience to warrant a renewal, allowing Taylor Sheridan and his team to fix any flaws that viewers may have had with Yellowstone‘s debut. This also led to Yellowstone breaking a noted curse in the world of television.

Yellowstone Didn’t Experience a Sophomore Slump Like Most Other Shows

Yellowstone Only Got Better With Its Second Season

Unlike most other popular television shows, Yellowstone didn’t suffer from a “sophomore slump” in its second season. A “sophomore slump” is when a series manages to fascinate audiences in its first season, only for the second season to decline in quality and engagement. Many shows experience this as creators work to recognize what viewers loved about the first season and replicate it moving forward. Usually, these issues are ironed out in later seasons, though some shows never recover. Perhaps the best example of this would be the show Heroes, which became a national phenomenon in its first season but quickly lost viewers’ interest in its second. In the case of Heroes, the show never really recovered from its massive sophomore slump. Yellowstone, on the other hand, defied expectations by actually improving on its first season. Rotten Tomatoes gives Yellowstone‘s second season an 89% approval rating from critics, marking a whopping 31% difference over Season 1. The audience score is also up, though not as dramatically, giving Yellowstone‘s sophomore season a 90% approval rating.

Rotten Tomatoes‘ more generous approval ratings are reflective of an increase in quality for the Sheridan-created series. Yellowstone‘s second season irons out some of the show’s glaring issues to deliver a more palatable series overall. Characters become more relatable through storylines that hold back on the melodrama. The Duttons, who were always portrayed as morally ambiguous, face off against the Beck brothers, who are far more evil than they, making Yellowstone‘s main cast look like heroes in comparison. Overall, the characters become much more likable during Yellowstone‘s second season. The show then settles into what it was always meant to be: a gripping story about family, legacy, and the vast divide between the two. Now, the series holds an overall approval rating of 82% from critics and 76% from fans, reflecting a strong increase in quality since its first season.

How Yellowstone Grew to Become a Phenomenon

The Yellowstone Franchise Is Bigger and Better Than Ever

After recovering from mediocre reviews upon its debut, Yellowstone inspired a much larger franchise that has become wildly successful over the last seven years. The original 2018 series ran for five seasons, concluding in late 2024 with an explosive finale that many agree perfectly wraps up the show’s overarching narrative. Two prequels, 1883 and 1923, chart the history of the Dutton family in two separate centuries. These limited series also proved to be wildly successful, snagging several major stars to appear therein, including Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Tim McGraw, and more.

The Yellowstone franchise continues to expand with new spinoffs that aim to portray the continuing adventures of the Dutton family beyond the events of the series finale. Y: Marshalls, a Yellowstone spinoff starring Kayce Dutton, is set to explore a different genre altogether, adopting a procedural format completely original to Sheridan’s franchise. Meanwhile, Dutton Ranch, a spinoff following Beth and Rip, is set to explore their continuing adventures after the events of Yellowstone. Michelle Pfeiffer is also slated to join Yellowstone in a completely original spinoff titled The Madison, which has limited connections to the original series despite being set in the same universe. It’s safe to say that Yellowstone has completely flipped the script on its reviews from its freshman season, becoming a wildly popular television franchise that doesn’t show any signs of stopping.