Deadline TV Editor Nellie Andreeva has a thoughtful piece out now about the potential implications for this week’s huge ratings for the History Channel miniseries about the notorious “Hatfields & McCoys” feud, which sputtered and flared along the West Virginia-Kentucky border the last three decades of the 1800s. 

More than a century later, the miniseries set records, drawing as many as 14 million viewers per episode. The irony, Nellie says, is that just a couple of weeks ago, networks seemed to be cooling on new Western-themed shows. The miniseries’ numbers were so big, even by network standards, that such attitudes are almost sure to change. 

Nellie looks at who’s likely to chase what shows already in hopper. The bet, she says, is that someone will pull the trigger on a new Western show sooner than later.