Paramount has renewed Taylor Sheridan's Tulsa King, after the show's premiere helped lead subscription streaming service Paramount Plus to its biggest signup day ever, while also commanding basic cable's largest scripted premiere audience so far this year with its preview on the Paramount Network.
Tulsa King stars Sylvester Stallone as a mafia capo, just released from prison and trying to build a new criminal life in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The first episode scored 3.7 live + 3 day viewers after it was previewed on Paramount Network, besting the linear cable performances of HBO's House of Dragon (2.8 million L+3 viewers), FX's The Old Man (2.3 million), AMC's Dark Winds (2.3 million) and A&E's Secrets of Playboy (2 million).
Paramount didn't disclose the level of streaming viewership for Tulsa King on its home base, Paramount Plus, where the series is now situated with most of the rest of the Sheridan kingdom -- Mayor of Kingstown, and Yellowstone spinoffs 1883 and the upcoming 1923.
Also read: Paramount Plus Claims Its Biggest Signup Day Ever on NFL Football and the 'Taylor Sheridan Universe'
The show that got Sheridan, a former Sons of Anarchy bit role actor, rolling, Yellowstone, streams its repeats exclusively on NBCUniversal's Peacock in what has to be one of the more short-sighted content licensing deals of all time.
Paramount also said that the season 5 premiere of Yellowstone on Paramount Plus back on Nov. 13 has risen to an audience of 17 million linear viewers when L+7 metrics are factored in. It's the biggest linear number of the year for a scripted show.
"Tulsa King together with Mayor of Kingstown, 1883 and the upcoming 1923, undeniably confirm the success of our strategy to franchise Yellowstone and use it to supercharge streaming growth -- none of which would be possible without the creative mastermind of Taylor Sheridan," said Chris McCarthy, president/CEO of Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios.
"With the combination of the incomparable Sylvester Stallone and Taylor Sheridan's darkly comedic twist on the beloved mobster genre, we have found our latest hit in Tulsa King," added Tanya Giles, chief programming officer for Paramount Streaming. ■
