The series premiere of “Marshals” on CBS averaged 9.52 million viewers on Sunday, March 1, becoming the most-watched new scripted series debut without a football lead-in since 2018, according to Live+Same Day Big Data + Panel data from Nielsen. Only CBS’ “FBI” premiere on September 25, 2018, performed better (10.09 million vs. 9.52 million).
The premiere episode emerged as the most-watched program across all of television during the week of February 23 – March 1, 2026, and was the No. 1 new series premiere of the 2025-2026 broadcast season. The show held 99% retention by half-hour breakdown, indicating viewers liked what they saw throughout the hour.
For the week, “Marshals” tied ABC’s premiere of “Scrubs” for second place with a 0.7 rating among Adults 18-49, the key sales demographic used to sell ads for primetime television. The CBS drama also tied “Scrubs” for second place among Adults 25-54 (1.0 rating), though “Marshals” had the edge among viewers in the demo (1.243 million vs. 1.215 million).
Produced by Paramount Television Studios and 101 Studios, “Marshals” is the first series to debut from the popular “Yellowstone” universe and stars Luke Grimes, who reprises his role as Kayce Dutton, following the conclusion of the original series that ran for five seasons on Paramount Network.
Leaving the Yellowstone Ranch behind him, Dutton joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana. His teammates, including Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green), Belle Skinner (Arielle Kebbel), Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos) and Miles Kittle (Tatanka Means), must balance the high psychological cost of serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence with their duty to their families, which for Dutton includes his son Tate (Brecken Merrill) and his confidantes Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) and Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) from the Broken Rock reservation.
“Marshals” airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
Executive producers include Taylor Sheridan, David Glasser, John Linson, Art Linson, Spencer Hudnut, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Michael Freidman, Luke Grimes, Greg Yaitanes