TV Ratings: Marshals Rides to Big Premiere on CBS

The first Yellowstone-verse series to premiere on a broadcast network has carried on the franchise’s winning track record.

Marshals, a Yellowstone spinoff focused on Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), drew the biggest premiere audience for a scripted show of the 2025-26 season — and quite a few seasons before that. Excluding shows with football as a lead-in, Sunday’s debut episode had the largest same-day audience (9.52 million viewers)for a broadcast scripted series premiere since FBI topped 10 million viewers in September 2018. (One caveat: Nielsen has changed its ratings collection methodology a few times since 2018.)

The 9.52 million viewers also puts Marshals ahead of most episodes of its parent show. While the season 5B premiere of Yellowstone accumulated 16.4 million viewers on its first night in November 2024, that number includes an eight-network simulcast on cable, replays on Paramount Network and a special showing on CBS.

Marshals edged ABC’s Dancing With the Stars finale (9.43 million viewers) for the largest same-day audience for a network series (excluding live sports and news) so far this season. The previous high for a scripted show this season was 8.85 million for CBS’ Tracker in early November.

Marshals follows Kayce Dutton as he joins an elite team of U.S. marshals in Montana following [spoiler alert] the (offscreen) death of his wife, Monica (played by Kelsey Asbille in Yellowstone). Showrunner Spencer Hudnut told The Hollywood Reporter after Sunday’s premiere that he and Grimes landed on that idea after learning Asbille wouldn’t be available for the spinoff. “It wasn’t like Luke and I were sitting there saying, ‘We should kill Monica,’” Hudnut said. “It was more like, ‘If she’s not available for this, then what’s the best way to move on from that character in the least exploitive way?’”

In addition to Grimes, the Marshals cast features Logan Marshall-Green, Arielle Kebbel, Ash Santos and Tatanka Means along with returning Yellowstone actors Mo Brings Plenty, Brecken Merrill and Gil Birmingham.

Paramount Television Studios and 101 Studios produce Marshals. Hudnut executive produces with Yellowstone creators Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, David Glasser, Art Linson, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Michael Freidman, Grimes and Greg Yaitanes.