Yellowstone TV Show Trivia
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50 free Yellowstone TV Show trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Yellowstone TV Show trivia questions with answers. This Yellowstone show trivia quiz is about the Paramount Network drama, not the national park (we have a separate quiz for Old Faithful). It covers all five seasons of the Dutton family saga: John Dutton and his children Beth, Kayce and Jamie, Rip Wheeler and the bunkhouse crew, Chief Rainwater and the Broken Rock reservation, and the parade of enemies from Dan Jenkins and the Beck brothers to Market Equities. It also digs into how the show got made: Taylor Sheridan's 'Godfather in Montana' pitch that HBO turned down, the real Chief Joseph Ranch that plays the Dutton home, the move from Utah to Montana, Kevin Costner's exit, the ratings climb, and the prequels 1883 and 1923 with Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who watched; the rest will test the fans who know which ranch hand carries the brand. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series, its characters and cast, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Yellowstone was created by John Linson and which writer, who also directed several episodes?
Taylor Sheridan
Taylor Sheridan began writing the show in 2013 because he had tired of acting after years of small television roles.
Q 02Yellowstone premiered in 2018 on Paramount Network, a channel known by what name until that January?
Spike
Spike was relaunched as Paramount Network in January 2018 as its owner pushed into original scripted series, and Yellowstone premiered there five months later.
Q 03Yellowstone's creator originally pitched the show as which crime classic 'in Montana'?
The Godfather
The Godfather in Montana was the pitch for a script first written as a movie, before the tale of a ranching dynasty grew into a series.
Q 04Which network turned Yellowstone down before Paramount Network picked it up?
HBO
HBO developed the show and then passed; its creator says an executive there told him the story 'feels so Middle America' and would be a step backward.
Q 05How does John Dutton die at the start of Yellowstone's final episodes?
Hired killers
Hired killers stage his death as a suicide, a twist written after the show's star left midway through the fifth season.
Q 06Who plays ranch patriarch John Dutton III in Yellowstone?
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner left midway through the fifth season to focus on Horizon, the western film saga he was co-writing, directing and starring in.
Q 07The actor who plays John Dutton in Yellowstone won which award for the role in 2023?
A Golden Globe
A Golden Globe went to him in January 2023, but he missed the ceremony: flooding had closed the freeway near his Santa Barbara home, so Regina Hall accepted for him.
Q 08Which English actress plays Beth Dutton, John's sharp-tongued only daughter, in Yellowstone?
Kelly Reilly
Kelly Reilly plays Beth as a financier who turns boardroom tactics on the ranch's enemies, short-selling one rival's company to ruin him.
Q 09Cole Hauser plays which loyal ranch foreman, raised by John Dutton and eventually married to Beth?
Rip Wheeler
Rip Wheeler was taken in by the Duttons as a teenage runaway after he killed his father, who had murdered his mother and brother.
Q 10In Yellowstone, what was Kayce Dutton's military role before he came home to Montana?
Navy SEAL
Navy SEAL Kayce comes home not to the family ranch but to his wife's reservation, where he breaks horses for a living and keeps his distance from his father.
Q 11Wes Bentley plays Jamie Dutton, the lawyer-politician who differs from his siblings in what way?
He is adopted
He is adopted: the Duttons raised Jamie from infancy, and he spends the series trying, and failing, to win his father's approval.
Q 12In Yellowstone, who plays Garrett Randall, the ex-convict who turns Jamie against the Duttons?
Will Patton
Will Patton's Randall served time for murder, and once he reappears he steadily pulls Jamie away from John and the ranch.
Q 13Which of John Dutton's sons is killed in a gunfight early in Yellowstone's first season?
Lee
Lee, the eldest, dies in a clash over cattle that strayed onto reservation land, leaving the ranch without its expected heir.
Q 21Jimmy leaves the Yellowstone in season 4 to work at which famous Texas outfit?
The 6666
The 6666 is a real working ranch in the Texas Panhandle, and the show's creator headed the group of buyers that purchased it.
Q 22Which musician plays Walker, the ex-convict ranch hand, on Yellowstone?
Ryan Bingham
Ryan Bingham, who shared an Oscar for a Crazy Heart song, gets to sing on screen: Walker is a musician, and the show uses Bingham's own songs.
Q 23On Yellowstone, Forrie J. Smith plays which longest-serving ranch hand, at John's side for decades?
Lloyd Pierce
Lloyd Pierce is played by a former rodeo cowboy and film stuntman; in season four his feud with a rival in the bunkhouse boils over when Lloyd stabs him.
Q 14In Yellowstone, Kayce's wife Monica grew up on which neighbouring reservation?
Broken Rock
Broken Rock is a fictional reservation whose leaders want the Duttons' land back, which leaves Monica torn between her own people and her in-laws.
Q 15Gil Birmingham plays which tribal chief, alternately John Dutton's rival and ally?
Thomas Rainwater
Thomas Rainwater, who also runs casinos, wants to reclaim the land under the ranch for his people, so he and John clash until outsiders threaten them both.
Q 16In Yellowstone, what is the name of Kayce and Monica's son?
Tate
Tate is the child John sees as the ranch's real future, which leaves the boy caught between his father's loyalty to the ranch and his mother's distrust of it.
Q 17In Yellowstone, what is Dan Jenkins, an early adversary of John Dutton?
A billionaire land developer
A billionaire land developer from California, Jenkins plans a casino close to the ranch, then ends up siding with John against a common enemy.
Q 18Which actor plays Malcolm Beck, one of the villainous Beck brothers in Yellowstone's second season?
Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough's Malcolm Beck runs a casino with his brother, and their threats push John, the tribal chief and a developer into an unlikely alliance.
Q 19In Yellowstone, which corporation, fronted by Roarke Morris and later Sarah Atwood, tries to seize the ranch?
Market Equities
Market Equities wants the valley for an airport and a ski resort, and Beth fights back by attacking its share price.
Q 20On Yellowstone, Jefferson White plays which bumbling ranch hand and amateur bronc rider?
Jimmy Hurdstrom
Jimmy Hurdstrom keeps getting badly hurt riding broncs, so in season four John sends him away to work on a ranch in Texas.
Q 24On Yellowstone, Jennifer Landon plays Teeter, the tough-talking ranch hand who dates which colleague?
Colby Mayfield
Colby Mayfield and Teeter's on-off romance survives her being fired from the ranch and later rehired.
Q 25On Yellowstone, Finn Little plays Carter, a troubled orphan taken in by which Dutton?
Beth
Beth meets the boy outside a hospital where his father is dying, and brings him home to work on the ranch.
Q 26On Yellowstone, Wendy Moniz plays which Montana politician, John Dutton's ally and on-off love interest?
Lynelle Perry
Lynelle Perry repeatedly uses her office to get John out of legal trouble, and makes it plain that she is tired of doing so.
Q 27At the start of Yellowstone's fifth season, John Dutton is sworn in to which political office?
Governor of Montana
Governor of Montana is a job he takes only to protect the ranch, using the office against the developers who want his land.
Q 28Which actor plays the young John Dutton in Yellowstone's 1990s flashbacks?
Josh Lucas
Josh Lucas plays the 1990s John in flashbacks built around the 1997 death of his wife Evelyn, the loss that scars his daughter for life.
Q 29Which real property near Darby, Montana, stands in for the Dutton home in Yellowstone?
Chief Joseph Ranch
Chief Joseph Ranch is named for the Nez Perce leader whose people are believed to have crossed the land in 1877, and it now takes paying guests.
Q 30Before production moved fully to the show's home state in 2020, much of Yellowstone was filmed in which state?
Utah
Utah hosted much of the first three seasons, and when the production left for Montana in 2020 the state's film commissioner publicly mourned the loss.