‘Landman’ Opens As Paramount+’s Biggest Premiere in Two Years

Chalk up another strong series debut for Taylor Sheridan: The showrunner’s drama Landman brought in a sizable audience for its Nov. 17 premiere.

The series opener accumulated 5.2 million viewers on Paramount+ and Paramount Network, where it aired following episode two of Yellowstone’s current run. The streaming portion of that total makes it the top Paramount+ series debut in two years — since another Sheridan series, Yellowstone prequel 1923, opened to 7.4 million cross-platform viewers (including several encores) in December 2022.

Paramount+ says Landman, which stars Billy Bob Thornton as a Texas oilman, joins 1923 and Tulsa King as the streamer’s top series premieres, and that its streaming-only audience in the United States is the biggest for any original on the service after three days.

The 5.2 million viewer total for Landman comes from VideoAmp linear measurement of the Paramount Network airing and internal streaming data for Paramount+. Like most streaming outlets, Paramount+ didn’t offer detailed viewing data, but another source of linear ratings gives some indication of the split: According to Nielsen, just under 3 million viewers watched the premiere on Paramount Network, with 400,000 watching a simulcast on CMT. That would would mean about 1.8 million saw the episode on Paramount+. (Paramount Global is not currently using Nielsen ratings due to a contract dispute, and Nielsen and VideoAmp linear numbers may differ to some degree.)

Yellowstone, meanwhile, drew 6.89 million viewers across Paramount Network and CMT for its initial airing on Nov. 17, according to Nielsen. The record-breaking premiere a week earlier grew to 21.1 million viewers with three days of additional viewing, per VideoAmp, a growth of 29 percent over its night one audience.

Sheridan and Christian Wallace co-created Landman, which is based on the Texas Monthly podcast Boomtown that Wallace hosted. The series comes from MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios; Sheridan and Wallace executive produce with 101 Studios’ David C. Glasser, David Hutkin, Ron Burkle and Bob Yari; Geyer Kosinski; Michael Friedman; Stephen Kay; Dan Friedkin and Jason Hoch of Boomtown producer Imperative Entertainment; and J.K. Nickell and Megan Creydt for Texas Monthly. Peter Feldman is co-EP.