1923 more than doubled its premiere audience size between its first and second seasons. The Yellowstone prequel returned after a nearly three-year wait on Sunday, February 23 on Paramount+, and the streamer says that the Season 2 premiere is now the most-watched premiere of an original series in the platform’s history. Season 2 is rumored to be the final season. With viewership so high, indicating clear interest in this generation of Duttons from Taylor Sheridan‘s universe, could this prompt a 1923 Season 3?
1923 Season 2 Episode 1, “The Killing Season,” broke Paramount+’s global viewership record with 5.4 million global viewers, the streamer announced on Wednesday, February 26. This is 2.5x higher than the December 18, 2022 Season 1 premiere, which had 2.2 million viewers. Social media activity about the show is also up by 187 percent with 1.6 million views.
These numbers come from internal streaming data on premiere day provided by Paramount+. The numbers from premiere day come from Paramount+, Apple Channels, Roku Channels, and Amazon Channels.
1923 stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as Jacob and Cara Dutton, the patriarch and matriarch of the Dutton family in Prohibition-Era Montana. The Season 2 ensemble features Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer, Jerome Flynn, Darren Mann, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, Michelle Randolph, Sebastian Roché, Timothy Dalton, and Jennifer Carpenter. Sklenar and Schlaepfer’s Spencer and Alex met in Africa in Season 1 and quickly fell in love. This sent them on a high-stakes adventure that took a turn when they learned of Spencer’s brother’s death. John Dutton (James Badge Dale) was killed in a shootout at the Dutton ranch that also saw Ford’s Jacob injured, prompting the newlyweds Spencer and Alex to return to Montana. Spencer’s unjust arrest threw a wrench in that plan, separating the couple in the Season 1 finale.
Season 2 opened four to five months into their separation, and the stakes are even higher as a cruel winter brings new challenges and unfinished business to Jacob and Cara back at Dutton ranch. With harsh conditions and adversaries threatening to end the Dutton legacy, Spencer embarks on an arduous journey home, racing against time to save his family in Montana. Meanwhile, Alex sets off on her own harrowing trans-Atlantic journey to find Spencer and reclaim their love.
During the show’s hiatus, Sklenar said that Season 2 would be its last. He also confirmed that he’ll finally be seen acting with Ford and Mirren, who play Sklenar’s uncle and aunt, in Season 2.
“It’s so hard for me to not give away spoilers. I do get plenty of Helen [Mirren] and Harrison [Ford] time, and it’s going to be special,” Sklenar told Forbes in 2024. “I mean, the finale of the series is probably one of the best things I’ve read in my life. I’ve kind of known how it was going to end since day one — Taylor [Sheridan] kind of told me. I knew the full arc of Spencer from day one, so in shooting part one, [you’re] mindful of where he needs to go. I’m really excited.”
He told The Hollywood Reporter that same year that Season 2 is the final part. “It’s bookend. It’s still limited, but I think of it as one piece — there’s just a split in the middle, but it’s all one piece. It will conclude,” he said.
Paramount+ has not confirmed if Season 2 will be the show’s last, but the viewership shows clear interest in the story. And with Yellowstone now done until the Beth and Rip spinoff comes around, 1923 is now the only Yellowstone-universe series currently running. But with highly sought-after stars like Ford and Mirren in the cast, it may be tricky to wrangle that pair back to set.
Spencer and Alex are the franchise-favorite couple behind Beth and Rip. Perhaps there’s a world where they carry 1923 into the future? Or maybe their older counterparts will be the stars of the reported upcoming 1944 spinoff?
1923, Sundays, Paramount+