- Marshals debuted on CBS to an audience of 9.5 million viewers.
- The Yellowstone spinoff brought back Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton.
- Many fans had complaints abut the sound quality.
The new Yellowstone spinoff Marshals is finally here, and the first episode brought in more than 9.5 million viewers, making the CBS drama the most-watched new series premiere of the 2025-2026 season.
While millions tuned in to see Luke Grimes step back into the role of Kayce Dutton, a lot of fans shared one complaint about the show: the sound quality. When I shared a story about the new show on the Country Living Facebook page, more than 1,600 people commented—and many agreed that the dialogue was mumbled and hard to hear. Here’s a sampling:
- “Glad we weren’t the only ones who thought the dialog was mumbled”
- “We had our sound bar turned all the way up!!!”
- “omg! I kept asking “what did he say?” And asked if it was my ears!”
- “we turned on our closed caption. Lol”
- “Ok I thought my hearing went I had turn it up and I got dialogue boost on too lord turn up his mic?”
- “I finally put the subtitles on! I am glad to know I'm not the only one who can't understand all the mumbling going on.”
I watched the show live on CBS and felt the same way—I assumed it was my TV until I saw a lot of people taking to social media to air their complaints. The next day, I rewatched the episode on Paramount+, and, in my experience, the sound seemed much clearer on the streaming service.
CBS has not responded to a request for comment, but I’m hopeful that the sound will be improved when the show returns with its second episode on Sunday night.
Katie Bowlby is Digital Director at Country Living, where she covers pop culture news including country music, Yellowstone, and all things HGTV, plus gift guides and product reviews. She has been with Country Living for more than 11 years. Before that, she worked for Southern Living. The Indiana University grad also stitches up the cross-stitch pattern for every issue of the magazine.
