YouTube has always been a platform for studios to show trailers, teases, featurettes, and other promotional material, but has recently been used to release entire episodes - at least the pilot. The historical drama 1923 now has its full first episode available for free on YouTube, just a week after it premiered on Paramount+ and set viewership records on the streaming platform.

The series follows a family of cattle ranchers, the Duttons, struggling to preserve their way of life as wealthy investors sweep up the land around them. It’s a prequel to Yellowstone, which shows a later generation of modern-day Duttons grappling with politics, deception, and family drama. Another prequel to Yellowstone called 1883 premiered last year, although you don’t need to watch it to understand 1923. All three are created by showrunner Taylor Sheridan.

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The hour-long first episode now has over 360,000 views, 4,500 likes, and a plethora of comments praising the show and thanking Paramount for making it available for free. The description for the video reads:

1923, a Yellowstone origin story, stars Harrison Ford (Jacob Dutton) and Helen Mirren (Cara Dutton), and introduces a new generation of the Dutton family as they explore the early 20th century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition, and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west—and the Duttons who call it home.

Will Pilot Episodes on YouTube Become a Standard?

     Paramount+

Pilot episodes being available on YouTube is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon as most smart TVs allow audiences to tune in to the video-sharing service from the comfort of their couch. Other notable series with pilot episodes on YouTube include House of the Dragon and Halo.

It’s a smart strategy, as hesitant viewers don’t want to buy into a subscription for a show they might not even like. Free trials from some streaming services are occasionally available, but even then, audiences might not want the hassle of having to manage passwords and emails, let alone credit card numbers. YouTube is a platform most people are familiar with, making it easy for viewers to check out new shows before committing to a streaming service.

1923 is written by Taylor Sheridan and distributed by Paramount Global. It stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Jerome Flynn, Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer, Darren Mann, and Isabel May. It began streaming on December 18th, 2022 on Paramount+. New episodes are available every Sunday, and the first season is set to run for eight episodes.

You can watch the first episode below: