With ‘Yellowstone’ on ice, another Taylor Sheridan action drama debuts on Paramount+

While the future of “Yellowstone” is up in the air, a new Taylor Sheridan creation has hit the small screen.

“Special Ops: Lioness” premiered on Paramount+ in late July and is halfway through its first season. Sheridan wrote and produced the eight episode first season that stars Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman, Laysla De Oliveira and Morgan Freeman.

“Joe (Saldana) attempts to balance her personal and professional life as the tip of the spear in the CIA’s war on terror. She enlists Cruz (De Oliveira), a female special operations Marine, as an undercover operative in the Lioness Program,” the plot synopsis reads on IMDB.

“Special Ops” is loosely based on the real-life “Lioness” program used by the CIA, according to Military.com.

During the Iraq war, insurgents would exploit women and use them for smuggling and other terrorist activities. Muslim tradition doesn’t allow men to touch a woman who isn’t related to them, therefore only American female service members were able to search them.

To combat this, the Lioness program was created to attach female Marines to combat units to search Iraqi women and children, according to the U.S. Marines.

“Special Ops: Lioness” is the latest television show created by Sheridan for Paramount+.

Sheridan’s other TV shows include two “Yellowstone” spinoff shows “1883” and “1923”, along with “Tulsa King” and “Mayor of Kingstown.” Another show in the works is “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” based on the titular real-life U.S. marshal that filmed in and around North Texas earlier this year.

When will there be new episodes of “Yellowstone”?

Many fans have been eager to see the second half of the show’s fifth season, but it’s not coming back anytime soon.

It’s been a tumultuous time for “Yellowstone” ever since the mid-season 5 finale aired in January and a trailer promised the back half of the season was to air sometime this summer.

News broke in February that Kevin Costner wanted to leave the show, and Paramount confirmed in May that season 5 would be the show’s last. The Writer’s Guild of America strike further halted production on the remaining episodes.

Another blow to “Yellowstone” and Hollywood as a whole, was the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) going on strike in mid-July. With writers and actors on strike, most productions were forced to shut down.

It’s unclear when the actors and writers strikes will end, but “Yellowstone” is heading back to television this fall with old episodes rather than new ones.

CBS announced its fall programming lineup in mid-July with “Yellowstone” making its broadcast debut this fall on Sundays after NFL games. The premiere date is set for Sept. 17 and the show will start from season 1 episode 1 and continue week-to-week.

The decision to air old episodes of “Yellowstone” and more reality shows is an expected one. Studios are looking to fill their television schedules with nothing new to produce while actors and writers are on strike, according to Variety.