Reception
In its first year on the air, The Young Riders was plagued by low ratings. In November 1989, it ranked 60th out of 84 programs for its time slot in the Nielsen ratings. In its second season, the series made a dramatic turn around, winning its time slot five out of its first seven weeks, and consistently outperformed its generally highly popular competition China Beach and Twin Peaks. Though still only ranked 57th in the Neilsen Ratings, it was enjoying a consistent popularity over the other network channel offerings and began building a "small, but loyal" following among teens and young adults.
Diane Holloway of the Austin American-Statesman felt it offered a new take on the standard Western, and praised the series for its "beautiful" cinematography. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Ken Tucker heavily criticized the series when it premiered considering it "one of the season's most pretentious bombs" and feeling "everything about is overdone" including the acting. Considering it a rip off of the films Young Guns and The Long Riders, Tucker considered the series failed at period authenticity and thought the riders dressed no different from 1980s young adults. Writing for The Atlanta Journal, Phil Kloer agreed with Tucker, also calling the series a rip off of Young Guns. Kloer considered the pilot to be "not particularly good or bad", and felt the series was doomed to fail quickly. He did, however, praise the series cinematography as being "more like a film than a TV series, very beautiful with lots of soft light". Ron Miller of TV Weekly, however, praised the series when it was released. As it entered its second season, he renewed his praise, noting the more successful series was now "thumbing its nose at all the prognosticators" who had considered it unlikely to succeed.
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