Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan to ride off with NBCUniversal in 2029

Paramount western series Yellowstone stars Kevin Costner

NBCUniversal has poached Taylor Sheridan from Paramount Skydance, striking a five-year overall deal for film, TV and streaming beginning in 2029.

Taylor Sheridan

Paramount Skydance CEO Ellison recently called Sheridan “a singular genius with a perfect track record,” but the creator has chosen to move to NBCUniversal once his current deal with Paramount comes to an end, according to US reports.

The five-year overall deal for film, TV and streaming with Peacock owner NBCUniversal, first reported by Puck, will begin on January 1, 2029.

Sheridan, who was behind hits for Paramount such as Yellowstone, will see out the remainder of his current multi-year pact with the CBS owner, which was agreed in 2021.

Since then, Sheridan has delivered Yellowstone spin-off Y: 1883, as well as Mayor of Kingstown, Landman, Lioness and Tulsa King, while there are three other Yellowstone spin-offs in the works: Beth & Rip and The Madison for Paramount+, and Y: Marshals for CBS.

The NBCUniversal deal has taken Hollywood by surprise, given how central Sheridan has been to Paramount’s recent scripted strategy, with the company’s execs talking up the importance of “the Taylor Sheridan universe” to streamer Paramount+.

Chris McCarthy, the former president of MTV Entertainment, who described Sheridan as a “visionary creative whose work has reinvented genres and amassed fan bases around the globe” when extending his deal in 2021, was one of numerous execs to leave Paramount following the completion of its protracted merger with David Ellison’s Skydance.

The restructured studio is rapidly asserting itself in the market, landing a seven-year US$7.7bn UFC rights deal in the US and an expansive overall agreement with Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers.

Most significantly, Ellison is aggressively pursuing an acquisition of Paramount’s fellow US media giant Warner Bros Discovery, with three separate bids so far rebuffed.