INSP has green-lit a fourth season of its cowboy competition series Ultimate Cowboy Showdown.

The new season of the series will feature the return of original series judge Trace Adkins along with top contestants from the first three seasons. Over the course of the season cowboy contestants will participate in individual and team challenges that put their skills to the test, according to the network.

The winner of the Ultimate Cowboy Showdown All-Stars Edition will receive his own herd worth at least $50,000, according to network officials. 

 “We believe these incredible all-stars should be given a second chance at being crowned the winner of Ultimate Cowboy Showdown,” INSP executive VP of programming Doug Butts said in a statement. “However, season four promises to put their endurance and skills to the test. These veteran cowboys return with their big personalities and their best cowboy game in hopes of winning the grand prize! Each cowboy must display expertise and cowboy competency, but they cannot abandon the cowboy code. After each individual and team competition, Trace will render his decision.”

Also: INSP’s Dale Ardizzone Rounds Up Audiences With Western Shows

Adkins, who will also serve as executive producer for the series, added: “It's time to saddle up again. I’m looking forward to season four with these all-stars.” ■

Viewers are saddling up to contemporary Western-themed series and movies as the classic TV genre looks to lasso viewers from a new generation.

Led by record-setting ratings for the November 7 season premiere of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, cable and streaming services are rustling up shows that showcase the traditions and romance of the old West, often seen through diverse and unique perspectives that have broadened the appeal of the genre for today’s audience. 

“What you have to deal with are new sensibilities with your audience — you can’t do the John Wayne-type westerns of the past,” TV analyst Bill Carroll said. “You can set things in what used to be called the old west but deal with it in a different, contemporary way.”

The genre has ebbed and flowed on the small screen almost from the debut of television into the 1960s, with shows such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Lone Ranger and The Wild Wild West. Over the last 20 years, Western-themed shows like HBO’s Deadwood and Westworld, as well as Longmire on A&E (and Netflix), have found critical and ratings success, but such shows have been few and far between.

‘Yellowstone’ Sparks a Revival

The genre’s recent renaissance can be traced to the ratings success of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner. The series, about conflicts among Montana cattle ranchers, land developers and residents of tribal lands, drew more than 8 million viewers for its Nov. 7 fourth-season debut and 14.3 million viewers in Nielsen live-plus-3 ratings, making it cable’s most-watched scripted show of the year. Through the first four episodes the series is averaging 10.6 million viewers (on a live-plus-3 basis), up from 6 million viewers for the same period during the show’s  third season, Nielsen said.

“Yellowstone has a premium scripted feel with heartland appeal,” ViacomCBS chief programming officer for streaming Tanya Giles said. “You have this universal appeal of a family drama and family conflict mixed with some criminal elements amid beautiful landscapes and an A-list movie actor and a great cast. It’s great to see more people embracing it.” 

Keith Cox, president of scripted content for MTV Entertainment Studios, which produces Yellowstone, said the show — and its Paramount Plus prequel series 1883 (starring Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliott) debuting Dec. 19 — showcase a sliver of American culture that has resonated with television audiences for decades. 

Independently-owned network INSP’s mix of classic Westerns and new original series has landed the network in the top 10 most watched cable networks in primetime for the last two months. Originals Wild West Chronicles and competition-based series Ultimate Cowboy Showdown (hosted by Trace Adkins) mesh well with reruns of Gunsmoke and The Big Valley, INSP chief operating officer Dale Ardizzone said. 

“Westerns feature compelling characters and storylines, and they all have themes of right prevailing over wrong,” Ardizzone said. “There are a lot of heroic characters there, and I think we’re going through a time where I think people enjoy that type of character on screen and seeing justice have its day.” 

ViacomCBS’s Giles said the pandemic has helped endear viewers to Western-themed content and stories of pioneers entering unfamiliar territories to face unknown dangers. 

“We spent time at home in the pandemic and looking at things very internally, but like the Western frontier, when we come out it’s like starting a new journey,” Giles said. “I think there’s some appeal to that from an audience perspective.” 

Adding Modern Perspective

A key to the genre’s newfound success, according to Carroll, is in mixing Western themes with unique and diverse perspectives that reflect today’s audience. Netflix’s recent original film The Harder They Fall, about relatively unknown African-American gunslingers from rival 19th-century gangs, generated 1.2 billion minutes of viewing during its debut week from Nov. 1-7, making it the streaming service’s most-watched show over that timespan, according to Nielsen figures.

The film — executive produced by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and starring Idris Elba, Regina King and Jonathan Majors — outperformed among viewers under 34 and Black viewers, Samba TV reported. 

Joe Pickett, a Spectrum Originals series based on C.J. Box’s books about a small-town Wyoming game warden, premiered December 6. And ViacomCBS and Yellow­stone creator Taylor Sheridan have another spinoff in the works. Paramount Plus will stream 6666, centered on the Four Sixes Ranch, a huge ranch owned by a group that includes Sheridan.

Starz is developing for 2022 Billy the Kid, an eight-episode series starring Tom Blyth as the famed outlaw, while AMC Plus last month acquired rights to Western drama series That Dirty Bag, starring Dominic Cooper. 

Western-themed cable network INSP has greenlit a new original competition series, Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, that will premiere this fall, the network announced Thursday.

The six-night event will feature 12 male and female cowboys from across the country who will undergo a series of grueling and mental challenges for a shot at a grand prize of a herd of cattle worth more than $50,000, said network officials.

Country music icon Trace Adkins will host the series, which will be produced for INSP by Glassman Media.

“We believe Ultimate Cowboy Showdown will appeal to a wide variety of viewers, including those who enjoy classic Western programming, those who idolize the modern day cowboy way of life, and those who love high energy/action-based competition shows,” said Craig Miller, vice president of original programming and development for INSP in a statement. “To be the ‘ultimate cowboy,’ the winner will be required to pass a challenging array of tests, and display the highest level of grit, toughness, and courage demanded of cowboys in every era. We believe this will be highly entertaining, with edge-of-the-seat drama that will amaze audiences.”