Exciting News: The 13-Part Action Thriller Series ‘Marshals’ Update That Will Make Taylor Sheridan Fans Happy
Taylor Sheridan has spent the better part of a decade building one of the most loyal TV audiences of all time. Yellowstone turned his name into a brand, and every show that followed, from 1883 to Lioness, arrived with built-in anticipation. Marshals made its way to Paramount+ with all the same expectations and somehow ran into a wall. Critics dismissed it. Yellowstone fans called it a watered-down procedural. The show launched with the lowest critic score of any Sheridan-connected series. And then, week after week, something interesting started happening.
Marshals is currently streaming every Sunday night on CBS and the next day on Paramount+. It follows Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) as he trades ranch life for an elite U.S. Marshals unit in Montana after a devastating personal loss. It’s different from other shows in the Yellowstone universe; it’s faster, more procedural, and built around case-of-the-week storytelling instead of the slow-burning family drama the franchise is known for. That difference is what the backlash is about, and it’s also what’s driving the show’s success.
‘Marshals’ Reviews Are Mixed, But Nobody Seems to Care
Marshals debuted with a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, marking Sheridan’s first “rotten” television project and the lowest-rated entry in the entire Yellowstone franchise. The audience score sits even lower at 29%, and it’s the worst of any show in the universe. Critics were consistent in their diagnoses about how the show swaps Yellowstone’s rich character work for something similar to NCIS, just with better scenery. Some said it was too enamored of Dutton lore to let Kayce stand on its own; others argued it loses the spark that Yellowstone turned into a blazing fire.
None of it has slowed Marshals down, though. The series premiere drew 9.5 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience for a scripted broadcast series premiere in more than seven years. Episode two pulled 17.2 million viewers after seven days of multi-platform viewing and retained 83% of its premiere audience. These are the kind of numbers that make networks renew things before a season even ends, and CBS did exactly that. Marshals was greenlit for a second season in March 2026, weeks after its debut.
And now the show has climbed all the way to the top. According to FlixPatrol data, Marshals became the #2 TV show on Paramount+ worldwide, just one step behind South Park. The show hit number one earlier this week in 11 countries, including Canada, Argentina, and multiple Central and South American markets. For context, Yellowstone sits at #4 on the same platform. Tulsa King is #5, and The Madison is #6. A show that critics labeled a disappointment is currently beating all of them.
What Marshals Is Actually About (& Who It’s For)
The most common criticism of Marshals is that it does not feel like a Yellowstone show. That’s true, but it’s also beside the point. Showrunner Spencer Hudnut created the series, and Sheridan, serving as an executive producer, had limited involvement in the writing. That’s not the usual setup for a franchise where Sheridan’s personal voice and ideas have been the defining element. What Marshals lacks in Sheridan’s slow-burning tension, it replaces with propulsive, fast-paced, action-forward storytelling.
