How many episodes is The Westies? The season 1 count and release schedule
MGM+'s new Hell's Kitchen crime drama just kicked off, with J.K. Simmons ruling 1980s New York as Irish gang boss Eamon Sweeney. If you're settling in for the season, here's exactly how much show you're getting — and when.
The episode count
Season 1 of The Westies runs 8 episodes, each between 45 and 55 minutes. The series premiered on Sunday, July 12, 2026, with a double episode at 9 p.m. ET/PT, then shifts to one new episode every Sunday.
The full release schedule
- Episodes 1 & 2 — July 12. The double premiere sets up the Westies' fragile truce with the Italian Mafia — and the reckless kidnapping that starts unraveling it.
- Episode 3 — July 19.
- Episode 4 — July 26.
- Episode 5 — August 2.
- Episode 6 — August 9.
- Episode 7 — August 16.
- Episode 8 — August 23. The season finale.
Six weeks of gangland Sundays.
Where to watch
The Westies streams on MGM+ — via the MGM+ app or the MGM+ add-on through providers like Prime Video Channels and DIRECTV. New episodes land at 9 p.m. ET each Sunday.
What's it actually about?
The real Westies were an Irish-American gang that terrorized Hell's Kitchen in the 1970s and '80s, feared even by the Five Families. The show drops into the early 1980s, when construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center promises a fortune to whoever controls the surrounding turf. Simmons' old-school boss clashes with a younger generation — led by Tom Brittney's Jimmy Roarke — that wants into the cocaine trade.
Co-creator Chris Brancato (Narcos, Godfather of Harlem) explained the fault line in a 2026 Deadline interview:
"The older Westies are against it, for fear that it might land people in jail or cause them to rat on others."
The cast also features Titus Welliver as an NYPD officer, Jessica Frances Dukes as an FBI agent, Sarah Bolger, Allen Leech, and Hamish Allan-Headley as a young John Gotti. And despite the Manhattan setting, almost none of it was shot there — production built its 1980s Hell's Kitchen on an enormous outdoor set in Toronto, with additional filming in Hamilton, Ontario.