How the Yellowstone Phenomenon Took Over America

BUCK: I was just telling you off air and I say this to everybody now as well: I feel like we’ve reached the point with this Yellowstone show where now, just as a cultural marker, just to understand… Everyone I know is saying, “Oh, my favorite show is Yellowstone. My favorite show is Yellowstone.” I watched, I think, four or five episodes of it. I liked it but then I just kind of faded. But now it’s turned into what The Walking Dead was 10 years ago for a while, if you remember, what Game of Thrones for a lot of people became, where it just was so dominant as a piece of culture that people were talking about that I guess I gotta get into Yellowstone now.

CLAY: Yeah, to put that into context for you, there was a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about how Yellowstone grew out of small markets. It’s basically a red state show that conquered the blue states, and what’s interesting about this is, it was the highest-rated TV program, other than a sporting event, in four years, going all the way back, Buck, to The Walking Dead.

The most-watched show on standard cable programming was the season 4 finale of Yellowstone. I loved it, I’m caught up, and Kevin Costner is an incredible actor. He’s kind of the focal point of this program, and I’d encourage everybody out there to watch it. It’s a good show. I would describe it as Dallas meets The Sopranos in Montana. Does that make sense? It’s kind of a melodramatic… It’s not as good as The Sopranos.

BUCK: I think it was the second season of the show or it just happened, and I remember people out there telling me that real estate prices have jumped in Montana, in Bozeman and some of these other places. That’s a city, obviously, but in some of the places. What’s the place they film a lot of it? It is in Montana. It’s a very beautiful area. I forget what it’s called.

CLAY: It’s set in Bozeman in the valley there, but they actually film it, I believe, in Wyoming, if I’m not mistaken, and also film part of it in Utah. It’s all over the place. Outside of Park City probably like an hour and a half I was in a valley there and I can’t remember the exact name of the place. I’d never done it before but we went on the dog sled with all the little dogs.

BUCK: Yeah, mush, mush, there they go. Yeah.

CLAY: We did that with the boys.

BUCK: That’s what I feel like doing radio podcasts and TV every day for five hours a day. I’m like a sled dog.

CLAY: (laughing) They said, “Hey, does this look familiar to you at all?” and I said, “It kind of looks like some of the exterior shots from Yellowstone.” They’re like, “Boom! They shot up here in Utah Valley and in Wyoming and then they take shots in Montana as well.” That’s where I’m going for the summer vacation. I’m going up to Montana — I’ve never been — partly because of Yellowstone.

BUCK: I will say it was good up there with the mask freedom and stuff when I was there, but it wasn’t great. It wasn’t Florida great. I’m just saying. Montana is a little red. It’s not that red as a state, actually. It’s closer —

CLAY: They’ve got a lot of California influence.

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: That’s what they would complain about is that a lot of the Californians have decided to bail in. It’s not Texas. It’s not Florida. It’s not Tennessee. By the way, did you see the Zillow list? We were talking about this too. All pretty much red states where everybody’s moving to — all the top communities where the property values are skyrocketing — Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Georgia (I’m counting Georgia as a red state) and some North Carolina, which also I will count as a red state.

BUCK: Yeah, so Montana, just by way of the Pew — I looked up the Pew data ’cause I was curious about this — you’re at 49% Republican, 30% Democrat. But 21%, according to the Pew here, are up in the air, go either way. So it’s red but it’s not deep red. It’s not quite as hard-core, especially when you get in some of the cities. I was like, “Bozeman has people wearing masks in the coffee shop?”

CLAY: That’s not ideal. I hate to hear that, because that’s where I’m going for the summer. If they have a vaccine mandate, Buck, I can’t go to it! My wife said in Park City — she just came back from the Salt Lake area — they have vaccine cards you have to show at a freaking ski lodge to be able to go in and get a drink.

BUCK: So just think about this. When I’m forced in New York to show a vaccine card to a restaurant that I go to — and it is enforced here, everybody, especially in Manhattan and they are serious about it and they will call the police on you. This is a real thing. I’m basically telling them, “Hey, I did what I was told like a good little boy by Dr. Evil a.k.a. Dr. Fauci, but this doesn’t mean anything really because I could still very well have covid.

“There’s not a much different chance of me having it than if I hadn’t gotten this shot and I could still make you sick. But I have to show you the card to show that I’m compliant and I’m a good little boy.” I absolutely hate it, which is why I’m telling you, man” Governor Ron DeSantis’ Florida! It’s a long tail here. It’s not right away. A lot of people in New York, New Jersey, California too to some extent are just gonna say — in the next two years even — “I’m out! I’m going to Florida. I’m going to Texas. I’m done.”

CLAY: Without federalism, Buck, we would be Canada — and scarily, we might be freaking Australia because the amount of acquiescence that we have seen in those two countries… If we hadn’t had the laboratories of the free states that have proven none of these mandates, none of these masks, none of this social distancing, keeping kids out of schools. None of it make sense in fact it’s actually counterproductive I really do believe we’d have been screwed. Those founders were pretty smart guys.

BUCK: No. I’m gonna give you some of my Yellowstone review next week, Clay, so we can dive into it. After your Hamilton debacle, I don’t know.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: We’re gonna have to fix this stuff.