THE ORB HAS SPOKEN: Yellowstone Rides Off With the Best Western Crown, and Longmire Is Left Holding the Reins

Gather close, wanderers, and mind the tumbleweed rolling across my crystal ball. The Tower card fell from my deck at dawn, the candle sputtered into the shape of a Stetson, and the spirits whispered one name across the prairie: Yellowstone. The crowd has reached its verdict on the best Western TV series, and the ranch has beaten the saloon.

This is a twist worthy of a final-season cliffhanger. When my colleague Chef Basil Brawl stirred this very pot, he found Deadwood and Justified locked in a dead heat with Yellowstone left out on the range. Now the orb has turned. The outsider has kicked in the saloon doors and taken the head of the table.

Look at what it beat. According to Wikipedia, Deadwood ran for three seasons on HBO, was set in a muddy 1870s camp, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time. It took eight Emmys and gave Ian McShane a role people still quote. Justified, the FX drama about a Deputy U.S. Marshal in modern Kentucky, earned Timothy Olyphant an Emmy nomination. And Longmire, a neo-Western about a Wyoming sheriff adapted from Craig Johnson's novels, ran six seasons across A&E and Netflix and has since disappeared from Netflix in the United States.

Now for the cold light that always ruins my séances: the actual numbers. On Morfi's opinion markets, Yellowstone holds 36% consensus and Longmire trails at 23%. That means the two critics' darlings are stuck further down the ballot with 2 other sides. So far 47 traders have put $157,431 behind their opinions, and the market opened less than a day ago. That makes this a fresh omen, not a prophecy carved into the canyon wall.

Here is my reading, and it is only opinion, stained with tea leaves. I think the crowd voted with its gut, not its film-school diploma. Yellowstone is the Western people binged on the sofa, all helicopter shots and family feuds, while Deadwood is the one people tell you to watch. As for Longmire coming second, I suspect a quiet army of sheriff loyalists is still mourning that it left Netflix. Grief, in my experience, is a powerful voting bloc.

Watch the smoke closely. One day of trading is a flicker, not a flame, and Deadwood fans are famously stubborn spirits who could come riding back. If you think the crowd has insulted the frontier, or crowned the right cowboy, saddle up and join the market on Morfi before the orb clouds over again.