Yellowstone marathon airing on Paramount Network over the July 4th weekend

As Yellowstone fans anxiously await the second half of the fifth and final season, Paramount Network has announced a series marathon set to air over the July 4th weekend. What? Did you have other plans?

The Yellowstone marathon will kick off on Friday at 8 pm ET/PT and will continue at 11 am ET/PT on Saturday and Sunday, and 12 pm ET/PT on Monday and Tuesday. That’s a lot of Yellowstone. The acclaimed series follows the Dutton family, who own the largest ranch in Montana. The first half of the fifth season concluded earlier this year with the second half expected to return this November, which will mark the end of the series… sort of.

When it was announced that Kevin Costner would be exiting the series, Paramount quickly announced a sequel series which would continue the story of the Duttons with Matthew McConaughey tapped to star. “Yellowstone has been the cornerstone on which we have launched an entire universe of global hits, from 1883 to Tulsa King, and I am confident our Yellowstone sequel will be another big hit, thanks to the brilliant creative mind of Taylor Sheridan and our incredible casts who bring these shows to life,” Paramount Network president, Chris McCarthy, said in a statement at the time.

Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan recently opened up about the unfortunate drama regarding Kevin Costner’s exit. “My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered. His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” Sheridan explained. “But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”

While Taylor Sheridan is “disappointed” by the exit of his leading man, he is looking forward to working with Matthew McConaughey. “He seems like a natural fit,” Sheridan said. “We had a few conversations over the years, and spitballed a few ideas. Then he started watching Yellowstone and responded to it. He was like, ‘I want to do that.’ And by ‘that’ he meant diving into a raw world clashing up against the modern world. And then I said, ‘Buddy, that we can do.’“