Dutton Ranch has brought jaw-dropping ratings to Paramount since its premiere on the 2026 TV schedule, thanks in large part to Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, who star as Yellowstone fan favorites Beth and Rip. The spinoff takes the couple down to Texas, where they’ve got new faces to contend with, as well as some new critters. Rattlesnakes have apparently been an issue on the Dutton Ranch set, and even as someone who lives in Texas, I am horrified at just how many the crew caught during filming.
If you live in the more rural areas of Texas like Fort Worth, as I do, you simply can’t avoid encountering snakes. Thankfully, my experiences have only involved small, nonthreatening one so far; however, the Dutton Ranch crew, who filmed in areas around Fort Worth, wasn’t so lucky. Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly visited The Kelly Clarkson Show, where Hauser told the host:
Eight months, 3,400 rattlesnakes we caught.
Abso. Lutely. Not. I think I’d be pulling some kind of, “I cannot work under these conditions,” and sitting my butt in a trailer. Now, Kelly Clarkson is one of many celebrities from Texas, so maybe there’s a chance she’d have been OK in such circumstances. Kelly Reilly, not so much.
But if you think a few thousand snakes are going to keep Beth Dutton from finishing a job, you don’t know Beth Dutton. Kelly Reilly gave her perspective of what it was like filming those outdoor scenes, saying:
We had snake wranglers, like literally six of them at any point, and I’m in these stiletto heels, running through fields, and I’m just praying, ‘Please let them have got all the snakes in this vicinity.’
She also clarified that the snakes were not harmed when they were caught — just moved very far away from where the actors were working.
Cole Hauser had a particularly harrowing experience one night, as he told the audience:
I don’t want to give it away, but there might be a train station this year, but that particular location we were at, we actually were going to go film there at night and got turned away. … Yeah, [director Christina Alexandra Voros] had found 40 or 50 rattlesnakes.
What’s more frightening — the train station or 50 rattlesnakes? I hope I never have to make that choice.
Dutton Ranch, which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, seems to be a hit so far, with its premiere grabbing 12.9 million viewers in its first seven days in release, according to Paramount. Cole Hauser showed his appreciation for fans who remained interested in Beth and Rip’s story, as they meet new characters in a new land. Annette Bening and Ed Harris co-star in Dutton Ranch’s first season, along with Juan Pablo Raba as a very Jamie Dutton-like Joaquin.
Join the actors down on the Texas farm for all of the Dutton Ranch fun, with new episodes at 8 p.m. ET each Friday on Paramount Network and streaming on Paramount+. Just be sure to watch out for snakes.
