Fans Shred ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 With Its Lowest Scores Yet

Yellowstone is back and now in a very weird place now that it has (spoilers) killed off its lead, John Dutton, after Kevin Costner left the show to pursue his own western movie dreams. It was meant to look like a suicide, but was really a hired hit, and fans are…not really on board with all this, or the direction the series has gone in season 5, especially now that part 2 has arrived.

Yellowstone season 5 is currently the second-lowest rated season of the show by critics on Rotten Tomatoesbut far and away the lowest scored one by fans. Here’s how the list breaks down now after the season 5 part 2 premiere:

• Season 2 – 90% audience score, 89% critic score
• Season 3 – 87% audience score, 100% critic score
• Season 4 – 82% audience score, 91% critic score
• Season 1 – 83% audience score, 57% critic score
• Season 5 – 40% audience score, 84% critic score

So yes, you can see that it is the lowest rated season of the series, not even half as high as any of the others, and this has always been a very audience-beloved show. The anger about the show’s direction, however, did not dissuade viewers from watching it as it drew a record 16.4 million viewers on cable, a stunning figure in the age of streaming, and it remains one of the most popular shows in America.

This is in fact the last season of Yellowstone, but the “universe” is planned to continue on after this. It seems the show wanted a fresh start after the departure of Costner for this season, and sequel series The Madison will focus on “the Dutton family dynasty” and will head straight to Paramount Plus. It will star Michelle Pfeiffer, but it seems unlikely that it will reach the current highs of Yellowstone. But it and other spin-offs will continue to be pumped out, it seems, as Paramount tries to boost the fortunes of its streaming service. After its deal with Peacock ends, all seasons of Yellowstone will eventually move there as well.

Yellowstone may have outstayed its welcome according to fans, but the Kevin Costner situation threw them a bit of a curveball and they’ve had to adapt with things like unexpected deaths and offscreen drama. We will see if things pick up in the rest of these part 2 episodes, but without its main star for the last four years, it’s unclear if say, Beth can bring this all home.

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