‘Yellowstone’ Lands First Major Awards Recognition With SAG Nod, ‘Squid Game’ Makes Splash, Broadcast Shut Out

deadline.com:

Yellowstone’s breakthrough continues. A week after Taylor Sheridan’s series starring Kevin Costner wrapped its ratings record-breaking fourth season, Paramount Network’s Western this morning landed a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.That is the top drama category at the SAG Awards, equivalent to Outstanding Drama Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Yellowstone will compete against another ratings phenom, Netflix’s global mega hit Squid Game, which made a strong SAG Awards debut with four nominations — including mentions for stars Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Ho-Yeon — second only to awards juggernauts, HBO’s Succession and Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso (five each).HBO/HBO Max topped the list of networks by a relatively wide margin with 14 TV nominations, followed by a close pack of three streamers, Netflix (10), Apple TV+ (9) and Hulu (8).A lot has been written about Yellowstone being a show embraced by middle America that does not appeal to “elites” enough to get awards.

But the cowboy soap opera, which indeed initially caught on in smaller markets, mostly in the middle of the country where it is set, transcended its base this past season to hit it big in major cities and become a ratings powerhouse.

Since Yellowstone is not available on Paramount+ due to a peculiar previous streaming deal, new viewers flocked onto NBCU’s Peacock to catch up on previous seasons and join in for Season 4 on Paramount Network.Season 4 set new records multiple times with viewership levels not seen since the heyday of The Walking Dead, most recently with the finale, which drew 9.3 million total viewers in Live+Same Day (cume of 11 million on premiere night) to become the most watched telecast on cable in