SEAL Team's Spiritual Sequel Is TV's Most-Watched Show

Published Nov 6, 2026, 9:00 AM EST Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While the David Boreanaz vehicle SEAL Team might have wrapped up in 2024 after seven seasons, Taylor Sheridan’s biggest TV hit is a perfect replacement for the procedural series. Although there are a lot of actors who are small-screen staples, few have managed an unbroken network TV run quite as consistent and impressive as Buffy the Vampire Slayer supporting star David Boreanaz has since 1997. Boreanaz’s role as Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer led to a spinoff show, Angel, and the actor starred in the murder mystery series Bones for 12 seasons after Angel’s five-season run came to a close. Once Bones ended, Boreanaz played Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Jason Hayes in CBS’s SEAL Team from 2017 until 2024. Although Boreanaz has since gone on to star in a reboot of The Rockford Files, Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has provided viewers with the perfect SEAL Team replacement since the procedural series ended. Although Yellowstone’s John Dutton might be dead and buried, the legacy of Sheridan’s five-season Neo-Western lives on in the sequel shows Dutton Ranch and Marshals. While the former is a campy drama that focuses on Beth and Rip’s power struggles at a new ranch, the latter turns Kayce’s post-Yellowstone life into a police procedural. Marshals follows Kayce’s decision to join the US Marshals after Monica’s death, and turns the Yellowstone franchise into an unlikely SEAL Team substitute in the process. Why Marshals Is SEAL Team's Best Replacement Series CBS Even though SEAL Team was a conventional military police procedural influenced by the NCIS franchise and JAG, Marshals has a lot in common with the earlier CBS show. For one thing, SEAL Team show runner Spencer Hudnut is also the showrunner of Marshals, taking over from Yellowstone’s original creator Sheridan. Since Sheridan currently has a staggering 11 seasons of TV to oversee, this behind-the-scenes switch-up makes sense for the CBS show. Since Yellowstone became a breakout success in 2018, Sheridan has parlayed the show’s popularity into a sprawling franchise consisting of Dutton Ranch, Marshals, the original series, the prequel shows 1883 and 1923, and the upcoming prequel 1944. Meanwhile, he has also written the prison drama Mayor of Kingstown, the crime comedy Tulsa King and its spinoff Frisco King, the family drama The Madison, and the spy series Lioness. Thus, hiring Hudnut as the showrunner for Marshals was a natural evolution for the Yellowstone franchise. However, this also means that the format of the CBS procedural has more in common with SEAL Team’s setup than Yellowstone’s original storytelling style. Essentially a darker, R-rated spin on campy Western melodramas of the 80s like Dynasty and Dallas, Yellowstone was a soapy series that focused on the Dutton family’s power struggles and their internal squabbles. In contrast, much like SEAL Team, Marshals centers on a group of law enforcement officers who work together closely in life-or-death situations. Both shows also center on complex antiheroes with military roots, thanks to Kayce’s background as a veteran. Although Marshals does continue Yellowstone’s story, its execution is far closer in style and tone to SEAL Team than the original show. Marshals Is Yellowstone's Take On Military Procedural CBS The fact that Kayce plays the role of a law enforcement officer, when the Dutton family spent the entirety of Yellowstone’s story actively fighting and flouting the law, already makes for a major story departure. However, Marshals is still very much a Yellowstone series despite its similarities to SEAL Team, and the CBS hit offers a distinctly Yellowstone-flavored spin on the police procedural setup. For example, where a show in the NCIS franchise or SEAL Team would be more likely to focus on its entire ensemble and their dynamics, most episodes of Marshals still single out Kayce as their primary focus. His strained relationship with Tate often earns more Marshals screen time than his colleagues, meaning this Yellowstone spinoff still owes as much to its predecessor as it does to SEAL Team. Release Date 2026 - 2026-00-00 Network CBS Showrunner Spencer Hudnut Directors Christopher Chulack, Greg Yaitanes, Gonzalo Amat, John Erick Dowdle, Guy Ferland, Ruben Garcia, Darren Grant Writers Spencer Hudnut, Maggie Schroeder, Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr., Jim Adler, Dana Greenblatt, Tom Mularz Creator(s) Spencer Hudnut