‘The Madison’ and 5 other shows that shocked fans by killing a major character early on

Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched the first episode of “The Madison” on Paramount+. 

Death becomes them. 

Taylor Sheridan’s new show “The Madison” is the latest show to pull a “gotcha” on the audience. 

Kurt Russell was on the posters, and it seemed like he was the star of the show … but his character, Preston, died in the pilot. 

The six episode family drama — which is now streaming on Paramount+ and has been renewed for Season 2 — follows Stacy (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her adult daughters as they grieve the death of her husband, Preston (Russell), and his brother, Paul (Matthew Fox), after the two men die in a plane crash.

Here are other shows that featured similar moments.

“Big Sky”

“Big Sky,” from “Big Little Lies” creator David E. Kelley, aired for three seasons on ABC from 2020 to 2023.

The thriller series followed private detectives Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe) and his girlfriend Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) as they worked with his ex-wife, Jenny Hoyt  (Katheryn Winnick) to solve a kidnapping case. 

“Big Sky” set it up to look like those three actors were the stars, but in a twist, Cody got axed in the pilot. State trooper Rick Legarski (John Carroll Lynch) fatally shot him. 

Phillippe told The Post in May, “They put me all over the key art and the billboards, and then I died in the first episode. So I had a lot of people that were very angry with me about that.” 

The “Cruel Intentions” star quipped, “Now, I have to assure anyone when I’m in a project that I’m going to be in more than one episode.”

“Yellowstone” 

The hit cowboy drama (also created by Sheridan) aired on Paramount from from 2018 to 2024. The story followed the Dutton family, including patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his adult children, Kayce, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Jamie (Wes Bentley). 

In the pilot, it seemed like his oldest son, Lee (Dave Annable) would also be a main character, until Lee got fatally shot during an attempt to recover cattle. Ironically, his killer was Robert Long (Jeremiah Bitsui), the brother of Kayce’s wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), who just got axed herself on the CBS spinoff show, “Marshals.” 

“The Beauty” 

Ryan Murphy’s body horror sci-fi series aired on FX and Hulu in January. The story followed FBI agents Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) and Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters), who were investigating a sexually transmitted virus that transformed people into supermodels – only to kill them in gruesome ways, later. 

The cast also included Jeremy Pope, Ashton Kutcher, Anthony Ramos, Isabella Rossellini, Ben Platt, and Bella Hadid. 

In a twist, Hall’s character contracted the virus herself in the second episode, and transformed into a “supermodel” persona, played by actress Jessica Alexander.

So, it wasn’t a death, but it was a bait-and-switch. Hall seemed like she would be the star, but only appeared in two episodes. 

“Lost”

The hit sci-fi phenomenon aired on ABC from 2004 to 2010, following a group of plane crash survivors on a mysterious island, including Jack (Matthew Fox), Boone (Ian Somerhalder), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Kate (Evangeline Lily), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim).

Many of them died along the way, but the first big casualty was Boone, who was axed in Season 1. 

He died of internal injuries after falling from an aircraft in a tree, in the episode “Do No Harm.” No one on “Lost” was safe, but Boone was the first to set the tone. 

“Game of Thrones” 

Ned Stark (Sean Bean) is one of the most iconic examples of a show pulling the rug out from under audiences.

In the HBO fantasy phenomenon, which aired from 2011 to 2019, Ned Stark appeared to be the main character. And although the show launched cast members like Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Emilia Clarke, and Jason Momoa, they were all unknowns at the time Season 1 aired.

Bean was the only big star, since he was in the “Lord of The Rings” franchise, and his face was on all the posters for Season 1. To viewers who didn’t know the plot of George R.R. Martin’s books, that made it all the more stunning when the vile King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) gave the order for Ned to get his head chopped off in the Season 1 episode “Baelor.”

Ned lost his head, and cemented his place in TV character death history.