Taylor Sheridan's Western Action Thriller Officially Sets A Career-Long Rotten Tomatoes Record

Published Nov 3, 2026, 10:31 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. Even though Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone spinoff is officially the biggest show on TV in 2026, the series also boasts the regrettable distinction of being the writer/director’s worst-received series to date. The popularity of Taylor Sheridan’s movies and TV shows might lead viewers to assume that all the prolific writer/director’s efforts have been well received by critics and fans, but this isn’t necessarily true. When Sheridan first rose to prominence in the mid 2010s, he was lauded by critics for the sharp screenplays to hit thrillers like Sicario, Wind River, and Hell or High Water. However, even early seasons of Sheridan’s career-defining hit Yellowstone were criticized for their melodrama and outlandish silliness. Some critics suggested that, although the show presented itself as a prestige crime drama in the vein of The Sopranos, Yellowstone was really more like a grittier Dallas or Dynasty, with all the credulity-stretching storylines and goofiness that description implies. As Sheridan’s successful series spawned spinoffs and the writer/director had more and more projects green lit, the reviews remained mixed. The prison drama Mayor of Kingstown was particularly unpopular among critics, who dubbed the Jeremy Renner vehicle too bleak to be escapist fun, but too thoughtless to work as a dark, serious crime drama. However, it was Sheridan’s successful Yellowstone spinoff Marshals that managed to earn his worst reviews yet. Marshals Has The Lowest Rotten Tomatoes Rating Of Any Taylor Sheridan Show CBS Even though CBS's other spinoff NCIS: New York put up a good fight with its successful premiere, Marshals season 2 is officially the biggest premiere of the Fall TV season so far. Across all platforms, Marshals season 2, episode 1 managed to gain a whopping 15.1 million viewers, an astounding figure that marks Kayce Dutton’s procedural spinoff out as one of the year’s biggest hits by a stretch. However, these Nielsen ratings might come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying close attention to the critical performance of Sheridan’s many shows. Not only is Marshals the worst critical failure of Sheridan’s small-screen career, but it’s not even a particularly close race. Marshals has a mere 48% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while the next lowest are The Madison and Mayor of Kingstown with 63% and 64%, respectively. For a frame of reference, fans and reviewers have plenty of issues with Sheridan’s oil business melodrama Landman, and that show still managed an average Rotten Tomatoes critical rating of 80%. Yellowstone’s prequels 1883 and 1923 have superb ratings of 89% and 94% respectively, although the latter struggled to impress audience members with a rating of only 55%. Yellowstone itself has a critical rating of 83% despite the misgivings of reviewers mentioned earlier, while Dutton Ranch has a whopping 90% critical rating and an audience rating to match. Why Marshals Failed On Rotten Tomatoes Despite Its Ratings Success CBS Interestingly, the critical failure of Marshals can’t be blamed on a disconnect between viewers and reviewers, something that has historically been used to explain away the Yellowstone franchise’s lack of awards attention. In fact, Marshals has an even worse audience rating of only 28%. This can likely be attributed to the fact that, although the show is part of the official Yellowstone fictional universe, hence the huge ratings, Marshals doesn’t feel like it. Thanks to its episodic procedural format, its TV-14 rating, Monica’s death before the series began, and SEAL Team show runner Spencer Hudnut taking over showrunner duties from Sheridan for the series, Marshals feels much closer to a conventional police procedural like NCIS, CSI, FBI, or Law & Order than Yellowstone. Clearly, although the superb ratings of Marshals season 2 prove this hasn’t hurt the show’s commercial appeal, the Yellowstone spinoff’s critical reception shows that the behind-the-scenes changes came at a cost. 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