Sylvester Stallone is still punching above his weight. The movie star made the jump to TV just last month with the western-mobster dramedy Tulsa King on Paramount+. The series aired its third episode earlier this week, and, following massive viewership numbers, it's already been renewed for a second season. Looks like The Italian Stallion will return to Oklahoma after all.
The latest series from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan topped Nielson's 2022 TV Ratings with its Nov. 13 premiere on the Paramount Network. Tulsa King clocked in at 3.7 million viewers, making it the biggest cable series debut of the year. The show bested HBO's buzzy Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon, by nearly a million viewers. Subsequent episodes streamed exclusively on Paramount+, generating a record number of new sign-ups for the streamer.
"Tulsa King scored as the No. 1 new series of the year, topping all others including the Game of Thrones sequel House of the Dragon, with its preview on Paramount Network," said Chris McCarthy, President and CEO of Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios. "And on Paramount+, it shattered records, driving us to our biggest new sign-up day in history - which is why we instantly greenlit season two."
Tulsa King follows Sylvester Stallone's Dwight Manfredi, a New York mafia capo who's just been released from prison after a 25-year sentence. Dwight is sent southward to establish his mob family's base in Tulsa, where he builds a small-time criminal network from a group of unlikely allies (Garrett Hedlund, Jay Will, and Martin Starr among them). It's a culture clash with plenty of humor and a lot of heart, and it's proved to be the perfect landing place for Stallone to make his leading-man comeback at this stage in his career.
The new season order is yet another feather in creator Taylor Sheridan's increasingly adorned cap. Sheridan's flagship show, the Kevin Costner-led Yellowstone, currently on its fifth season, is the No. 1 series across broadcast and cable. And the broader Yellowstone universe continues to expand. The latest spinoff series, 1923, stars Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford as ancestral Duttons. It premieres Dec. 18 on Paramount+.
Sheridan's other brainchild, the Jeremy Renner starrer, Mayor Kingstown, returns Jan. 15 for its second season on Paramount+.
Sheridan's overall production deal with Paramount shows no signs of slowing: "Tulsa King, together with Mayor of Kingstown, 1883 and the upcoming 1923, undeniably confirm the success of our strategy to franchise Yellowstone and use it to supercharge streaming growth - none of which would be possible without the creative mastermind of Taylor Sheridan," said McCarthy.
Talk about a lot of irons in the fire. The Tulsa King news proves yet again that if Sheridan's name is on it, the people will come. (And they'll stay to watch Sylvester Stallone be the baddest man in town.)
New episodes of Tulsa King stream Sundays exclusively on Paramount+.
READ MORE: 'Yellowstone' Creator Taylor Sheridan Once Turned Away a Future Oscar Winner
