‘Yellowstone’ Creator Taylor Sheridan Will Make 20 Shows for Paramount’s Rival, Report Claims

NBCUniversal is paying big bucks to poach Taylor Sheridan.

A new report from Deadline says the Yellowstone creator will receive a billion dollars from NBC if he follows through on his plan to create 20 shows for NBC and its streaming service Peacock—an unprecedented deal for any TV creator.

NBC pulled Sheridan away from Paramount in an extremely surprising move two days ago when an article revealed the TV juggernaut had jumped ship to one of the company’s biggest rivals.

According to the Deadline report, it seems that Paramount iced Sheridan out and was slow in renewing his contract—a curious move, given that in August, Paramount’s new CEO David Ellison told CNBC that Sheridan was a “singular genius” and that his “goal is to have Taylor call Paramount his home for as long as he wants to be telling stories.”

Reportedly, Sheridan has a great relationship with Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav, on account of a pair of James Dean-worn cowboy boots that Zaslav brought him in anticipation of F.A.S.T., a film written by Sheridan and directed by Ben Richardson.

The upcoming drama stars Jason Clarke, Sam Claflin, LaKeith Stanfield, and Brendan Sklenar, who Sheridan discovered while creating the Yellowstone spinoff 1923 for Paramount.

The Deadline report says that Sheridan is “going to do what he wants” at Paramount, NBC, or anywhere, as his attitude is that “he is 12 for 12 in terms of creating shows that have become hits and established the Paramount Network and Paramount+ streamer as hitmaking enterprises. That includes Yellowstone, the prequel series and sequel series, Landman, Lioness and the rest.”

It remains to be seen if Sheridan will follow through on his promise to NBC.