Taylor Sheridan Is Leaving Paramount Town
This town wasn’t big enough for two sheriffs. Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan is leaving Paramount when his current deal is over in favor of NBCUniversal, per an October 26 Puck report. Sheridan has separate TV and movie deals with Paramount, meaning he’ll have something of a staggered start with NBCU: He can begin making movies for them in 2026, then he can get to TV shows in 2029. The news comes just a few months into David Ellison’s new regime, after the Skydance merger was confirmed on July 8. In the months since, he’s up two Duffer brothers but down the network’s single most prolific content creator. Sheridan not only created the megasmash Yellowstone and its spinoff 1923, but also hits like Lioness, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and Landman. “He is literally a singular genius with a perfect track record,” Ellison said in August when asked about Sheridan. “If we can make this his home as long as he wants to tell stories, we want to do that.” Now, that track record heads away.
One of the reported reasons for the split include Ellison’s recent layoffs hitting executives that Sheridan liked working with at Paramount, per Puck. Then there’s the reported fact that Ellison thought Sheridan’s budgets needed to come down, with Lioness and 1923 costing up to $20 million per episode.
Sheridan’s deal with NBCU begins January 1, 2029. He’ll be joined by his close producing partner David Glasser and his 101 Studios, who also made a first-look deal with NBCU, which begins in early 2026. In the meantime, Sheridan has multiple shows still slated to come out for Paramount, including Yellowstone spinoffs Y: Marshals on CBS, the Michelle Pfeiffer–starring The Madison, and The Dutton Ranch. Does this mean that Kevin Costner will come back and do a Sheridan-less Yellowstone project once his nemesis, Sheridan, is gone?
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