Michelle Pfeiffer is heading to Montana.
The Oscar nominee will executive produce and star in “The Madison,” a new Taylor Sheridan-penned series set in the “Yellowstone” universe, Paramount announced Thursday.
Set in present day, “The Madison” is the “Yellowstone” sequel that has been promised since it was announced the upcoming second half of season five would air in November. Those final episodes will conclude the series and be without its original star Kevin Costner.
The mothership series, about the Dutton family — who for generations has owned a massive, enviable piece of land in Montana — has been a benchmark for the Paramount streamer. The 2022 premiere episode of season five was watched by 12.1 million people.
Another “Yellowstone” prequel is also planned called “1944.”
Pfeiffer’s show follows a family of New Yorkers, now in the Madison River valley of central Montana, and deals with themes of grief and human connection.
Her last TV show was in 2022 playing Betty Ford in Showtime’s “The First Lady.”
A release date for “The Madison” has not been announced.
Emmy Awards ratings up more than 50%, reversing record lows
The Emmys telecast on ABC reached nearly 7 million viewers, a jump of more than 50%from the record low of the last ceremony in January and the biggest audience since 2021, according to numbers released Monday by the network.
Sunday night's 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, in which "Shogun," "Hacks" and "Baby Reindeer" won top awards, was back in its traditional mid-September spot after the rare January ceremony that was delayed four months by Hollywood's strikes.
That show, which aired on Fox, reached a record low audience of 4.3 million viewers.
ABC said Monday that the Sunday night show hosted by Eugene and Dan Levy reached 6.87 million viewers, a jump of 54% despite competition from NFL football.
The height-of-the-pandemic Emmys in 2020 on ABC, with no in-person audience and remote nominees, set a new low at the time with 6.1 million viewers. The show bounced back the following year with 7.4 million for CBS with help from an NFL game lead-in.
But NBC's 2022 telecast dropped to 5.9 million, followed by the further decline in January of this year.
The Emmys telecast rotates annually between the four broadcast networks.
The last time the Emmys reached more than 10 million viewers was 2018, when it drew in 10.2 million. The show had 21.8 million viewers in 2000, a level it's unlikely ever to reach again.
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