Taylor Sheridan Has Officially Made 5 Of The Best Western Series In TV History, According To IMDb

Published Oct 12, 2026, 6:45 PM EDT

Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers.

Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism.

Taylor Sheridan was already one of the most successful and acclaimed screenwriters in Western history, but he's added another feather to his cap by officially creating five of the best Western shows of all time, according to IMDb. It's no secret that Taylor Sheridan is one of the greatest Western writers in TV history. The list of Sheridan's best shows includes some of the best Westerns of the 21st century, like Yellowstone and its spinoffs and Landman.

For years now, the quality of Taylor Sheridan's shows has mostly been reflected in their success. Sheridan now has 10 scripted shows under his belt with more on the way. He's Paramount+'s golden boy, and for good reason. Sheridan's shows routinely break Paramount+'s viewership records, records which are usually held by other Taylor Sheridan shows. For example, Dutton Ranch became Paramount+'s most-viewed premiere back in May, replacing The Madison from just a few months prior.

While he's always been successful, Sheridan's shows haven't always gotten the critical acclaim they may deserve. Other shows, like Deadwood and Gunsmoke, are commonly thought of as the best Western series ever, and Sheridan himself has never won a major award despite being nominated over a dozen times. Now, there's a new metric to gauge Taylor Sheridan's success by, as IMDb just put five of his shows in the list of the best Western shows of all time.

Taylor Sheridan Accounts For 5 Of IMDb’s Top 20 TV Westerns

Image via MovieStillsDB

Based on IMDb scores, which are an average of user-submitted ratings out of 10, Taylor Sheridan has created five of the top 20 most popular Western shows in history. He also currently holds the top two spots; Yellowstone earned an average rating of 8.7, while 1883 has 8.6. While several other shows are tied with an average of 8.6, like Justified and Deadwood, Sheridan's 1883 leads the pack due to having a higher number of ratings, which is used to differentiate between shows that earned the same score.

IMDb's 20 Highest-Rated Western Shows
Title	Rating
Yellowstone	8.7
1883	8.6
Justified	8.6
Deadwood	8.6
Lonesome Dove	8.6
Have Gun – Will Travel	8.4
1923	8.3
Hell On Wheels	8.3
Longmire	8.3
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	8.3
The Rifleman	8.3
Landman	8.2
Godless	8.2
Dutton Ranch	8.2
Zorro	8.2
How the West Was Won	8.2
Gunsmoke	8.1
The Wild Wild West	8.1
Lawman	8.1
American Primeval	8.0

After that, Sheridan rounds out the top 20 with 1923 at 8.3, Landman at 8.2, and Dutton Ranch also at 8.2, but with fewer total votes. Sheridan's success is mostly based on his massive popularity, as IMDb's ranking is based on audience scores rather than the opinions of critics. For example, Sheridan has just two shows in the top 20 of Screen Rant's ranking of the best Western shows ever, and he doesn't even break into the top five. Several other Westerns also have higher average Rotten Tomatoes scores than Sheridan's shows do, like Justified, which sits at 97% approval compared to Yellowstone's 83%.

While Sheridan's Westerns aren't universally loved by critics, they're almost universally adored by viewers. Sheridan has tapped into a massive market of Western fans, which helps him secure thousands of reviews on IMDb, and those fans are more likely to give his shows high ratings like 10s or 9s, which easily pulls his average scores upwards. Shows that don't have as dedicated of a fanbase, like American Primeval, are more likely to get a number of average ratings, and they likely won't get as many ratings in general.

The most important reason that Sheridan's shows have earned such acclaim from audiences, however, is that they're just that good. Sheridan's shows do benefit from their recency and the relative lack of competition they've gotten from other Western shows, but the fact of the matter is they wouldn't be half as popular as they are if they weren't incredibly compelling, well-written, and well-acted shows. It's best not to overcomplicate this; Sheridan is a fantastic writer who makes tremendous shows, and IMDb's ranking reflects the fact that audiences appreciate good Western storytelling.

Several All-Time Great Westerns Are Not Even In The Top 20

It's not surprising that Taylor Sheridan has claimed so much real estate at the top of IMDb's list of the best Western shows ever, but it is surprising that some other shows didn't make the cut. Some of the greatest Westerns in TV history don't even crack the top 20 of IMDb's list. Absolute classics like Bonanza, Rawhide, and Maverick are nowhere to be seen, while more modern hits like Dark Winds and Wynona Earp are also missing. Even one of Sheridan's Westerns, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, didn't make it to the top.

Many of those absences, especially for older shows, can be attributed to time. As previously mentioned, IMDb's ranking is based on audience scores, and while Bonanza is an all-time great Western show, it's also been off the air for more than half a century. IMDb, as an internet archive, heavily favors more recent television. There probably aren't a lot of people who were old enough to watch Rawhide live that are going to rate it on IMDb, and the average IMDb user is likely too young to have seen it.

On top of the fact that IMDb's user base is likely too young to have seen classics like The High Chaparral is the fact that television has drastically changed in recent decades. Back in the 1950s and 60s, TV was very episodic. Each week brought a new, mostly unconnected story so that viewers could still know what was going on if they missed a week or if they were watching a rerun. Modern shows like Yellowstone are more serialized, a format that modern audiences resonate with more and that allows shows to tell a better overall story.

As for the more modern Western shows omitted from IMDb's list, their absence can likely be explained by calling the ranking what it is: a popularity contest. Shows like Dark Winds, Outer Range, and The English, while great, weren't terribly popular with viewers. For example, Dark Winds season 4 got about 100 audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, while Yellowstone season 5 got over 1,000. Less popular shows have a smaller pool of reviews, meaning one negative review can drag them down 10 times further than mega hits like Yellowstone.

Sheridan Could Have Even More Westerns In The Top 10 Soon

Via MovieStillsDB

As impressive as Taylor Sheridan's performance on IMDb is already, his achievement may get even more impressive in coming months. Sheridan currently has three shows in IMDb's top 10 most popular Westerns — Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923 — but he could soon have two more. Both Landman and Dutton Ranch are just barely outside the top 10, at spots 12 and 14 respectively, and they're only behind by one tenth of a point. Number 10, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., sits at 8.3, while Sheridan's shows are both at 8.2.

Taylor Sheridan's Upcoming Shows
Title	Release Date/Window
Tulsa King season 4	October 16, 2026
Mayor of Kingstown season 5	Late 2026/Early 2027
Landman season 3	Early 2027
Dutton Ranch season 2	Mid-2027
Frisco King	2027
The Madison season 2	2027
Lioness season 4	TBD
1944	TBD

Both Landman and Dutton Ranch are also returning with new seasons soon, meaning they'll get another round of votes that could easily increase their average scores. There's also plenty of reason to believe those new seasons will be good enough to increase their rankings. Landman season 3 has promised a "reset" for Tommy that should shake the show up, while Dutton Ranch season 2 has a new showrunner and Taylor Sheridan himself is taking a more hands-on approach to the show's writing.

There's even a chance that Taylor Sheridan could put a new show into IMDb's top 10 list. Sheridan currently has nine upcoming shows in varying stages of production. Returning Westerns, like The Madison or Marshals, could broach the list with the help of a great new season. There's also another Yellowstone spinoff, aptly titled 1944, in development that could join the other prequels 1883 and 1923 at the top of the list. In short, Taylor Sheridan's meteoric rise to Western success may just be starting.