Watch Yellowstone Season 5: Why Paramount’s Top Show Isn’t on Paramount Plus
Yellowstone is, by far, the biggest hit on the Paramount Network — and one of the top hits on cable television overall. Its fourth season finale earlier this year eclipsed 10 million viewerstopping even the finale for House of the Dragon last month. The saga of the Dutton family returned Sunday with its fifth season premiere in what the network called a “two-hour event.”
Paramount Plus would seem the natural place to turn to for anyone hoping to stream the premiere and the show’s past seasons to catch up. But, counterintuitively, the one show most associated with the Paramount name is nowhere to be found on Paramount Plus.
If you want to binge Yellowstone’s first three seasons, you’ll need to pay for rival service Peacock, which has an exclusive deal to be the only subscription service for Yellowstone streaming. If you want to catch up on the previous season (season four), you can watch with Peacock or you can try to unlock the Paramount Network apps. And if you want to stream the new fifth season, then the Paramount Network app or website is the only option.
But you won’t find any Yellowstone on Paramount Plus, except spinoffs.
As confusing as that is, it was somewhat by design. Having a hit show on a traditional cable channel like Paramount Network is a big business, and so is the revenue generated by licensing out shows to other services. Paramount placed a bet a while ago — before it