Taylor Sheridan's Biggest Streaming Rival Finally Usurps The King Of Paramount+

Published Sep 18, 2026, 12:34 PM EDT

Jeff Dodge (he/him), a published author and graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena. Fun Fact: he’s been to every single Idol Live! Tour.

One of Taylor Sheridan's hit Paramount+ shows is days away from its season 3 finale, but another popular series just surpassed it on the streaming charts. Sheridan has become a powerhouse over the past decade, creating shows like Yellowstone, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown, 1923, Tulsa King, Lioness, Landman and The Madison. The TV creator will be moving to NBCUniversal in a couple of years, but for now, he's still churning out hit after hit for Paramount.

While Sheridan is best known for his Westerns, he's also created thrillers like Lioness, which stars Zoe Saldaña as a senior CIA officer named Joe McNamara who leads the agency's Lioness program, which leans on female operatives to help infiltrate terrorist groups. Saldaña's co-stars include Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Kelly.

South Park Has Knocked Taylor Sheridan Off His #1 Paramount+ Throne

Lioness has been a hit for Paramount+, with its 2023 series premiere breaking records for the streamer and its two most recent seasons garnering positive reviews from critics. Lioness season 3, which is currently airing, has an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The series even earned an Emmy nomination this year for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Drama Programming.

Despite all of its success, Lioness was just usurped by South Park on Paramount+'s U.S. Top 10 streaming chart. The long-running animated series is currently in the top spot, followed by Lioness at No. 2 (it was previously at No. 1 for the past four days). The rest of the Top 10 consists of Everybody Loves Raymond, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Big Brother, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Challenge and Frasier. Lioness is still at No. 1 in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

South Park Has One Key Advantage For Its Streaming Fight

What's working in South Park's favor right now is that its 29th season just premiered on Comedy Central on September 16, so there's still a lot of buzz surrounding the comedy, whereas Lioness has already aired most of its current season, with just one more episode left to be released. South Park is also benefiting from the fact that the series continues to go viral and make headlines for its political storylines, particularly its jokes against the Trump Administration.

After recently winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, the show celebrated the honor by releasing a poster making fun of Donald Trump for never having won an Emmy during his time hosting The Apprentice. South Park was also jokingly renamed to South America, similar to Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario to the Gulf of America and Lake America. Both South Park and Taylor Sheridan's Lioness are still big hits for Paramount, with their current success on the streaming charts as proof.

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  Joe McNamara

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  Laysla De Oliveira

  Cruz Manuelos

Young Marine Joe McNamara is recruited into a covert CIA program intent on infiltrating a terrorist network.