Men's Lifestyle October 29, 2025 0 Comments

Taylor Sheridan’s Shocking Exit from Paramount: Is the TV Empire We Know About to Crumble?

Just like a classic western showdown at high noon, Taylor Sheridan—the creative mastermind behind “Yellowstone”—is saddling up and leaving Paramount’s dusty town behind. But here’s the kicker: instead of riding off into the sunset with his legendary shows, he’s inked a jaw-dropping deal with NBCUniversal that kicks off in 2029. So, what does it mean for the massive “Sheridan-verse” he built? Will all those gritty shows crumble without his touch, or is there still life after the final gunshot? I’ve gotta admit, it feels a bit like watching your favorite action hero swap out his trusted six-shooter for a futuristic laser. Exciting, but also leaves you wondering—can the new frontier live up to the myth? Stick around, because the saga is far from over, and the next chapters might just blow your mind. LEARN MORE.

5 min read

Just like Gary Cooper at the end of High Noon, Taylor Sheridan is packing his bags and riding off to a new town in need of a savior. According to Puck‘s Matthew Belloni, the Yellowstone creator is leaving Paramount to ink a massive new TV and film deal with NBCUniversal. The prolific writer will create new shows for NBCU when the contract begins at the start of the new year in 2029, leaving behind many of the projects that helped establish him as one of the most successful TV creators of the past decade.

What does that mean for the Sheridan-verse at Paramount? His current roster of shows includes Landman, Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, the future Tulsa King spin-off NOLA King with Samuel L. Jackson, and four upcoming Yellowstone spin-offs. (Dutton Ranch, The Madison, 1944, and Y: Marshals.) Will all these shows just end without Sheridan’s involvement? Well, not exactly.

Here’s what we know so far about the future of the Sheridan-verse.

yellowstone season 5 fort worth premiere

Omar Vega//Getty Images

Taylor Sheridan will leave the Yellowstone universe behind.

Why Did Taylor Sheridan Leave Paramount?

Most likely, Sheridan began shopping around for a new contract once news broke that David Ellison would merge Skydance and Paramount Global to became CEO of the new Paramount Skydance Corporation. “Most of the executives he worked with were either fired or marginalized” in the move, according to Puck, including former Paramount Network and MTV Entertainment Studios CEO Chris McCarthy. McCarthy was one of Sheridan’s biggest supporters. He fought for his shows—and most importantly, his budgets—which are reportedly now being “questioned” by the incoming streaming head Cindy Holland, per Puck.

Losing your teammates and receiving less money? Even professional athletes have demanded trades for less. So, NBCUniversal noticed that Sheridan’s contract was up at the end of 2028 and decided to poach him. (The exact price tag that convinced Sheridan to jump ship has yet to be reported, but many sources tally it around $1 billion.)

For what it’s worth, it did look like Paramount tried to keep Sheridan around this fall. In August, Ellison told CNBC that he was proud the TV creator’s “perfect track record” of hits on Paramount. “I have a really good relationship with Taylor and I think he is literally a singular genius and content creator,” Ellison said. “My goal is to have Taylor call Paramount his home for as long as he wants to be telling stories.” In partnership with Paramount, Sheridan and his 101 Studios producing partner David Glasser even built a giant film studio in Fort Worth, Texas where they immediately started filming Landman season 2.

Ellison even flew to Sheridan’s ranch in Texas after the merger, according to The Hollywood Reporter, where “one of the execs in attendance joked that the Paramount brass ‘couldn’t keep up with him’ as the drinks flowed while Sheridan uncorked bottles.” (We’re familiar with this Sheridan-camp tactic from the story of how the 1923 creator courted Harrison Ford.) However, Ellison reportedly didn’t make an offer for a contract extension during these talks. Shocking—especially since Sheridan’s film deal was up in just a couple months before he signed on with NBCU.

Either way, a source from the Paramount camp told The Hollywood Reporter, “[Sheridan] was running the asylum” when it came to their streaming service. “Ellison wants to run the show and he can’t with Sheridan there,” they claimed. New Paramount streaming chief Cindy Howard also brought up criticisms of his over-spending on Lioness season 2—which can’t come cheap when you have Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, and Morgan Freeman all on board. It’s possible that Paramount finally renewed the series for season 3 recently as a bargaining tactic. Still, another source put forth the idea that Sheridan was simply thinking, We don’t need anything questioned [about our budgets] when we have these other suitors [who are willing to pay.]

According to reports, it wasn’t about the money. Or, at least, it was about the fact that Ellison seemed more hellbent on acquiring as much IP as possible right now—such as all of Warner Discovery—when he should have been trying to lock down Sheridan through 2028. Paramount offered lucrative contracts to the Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things)—whose budgets per episode on the Netflix sci-fi/fantasy show far exceeds Sheridan’s by millions—and a $1.5 billion extension for South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The network is also in talks for a new contract with Jon Stewart to continue producing the Daily Show on Comedy Central.

So, Sheridan began taking meetings all around Hollywood with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Warner Discovery, and NBCUniversal. No brainer—the film studio behind Oppenheimer won him over. Unlike having to wait until the end of his TV contract in 2028, Sheridan can begin his film deal with NBCUniversal starting next year.

l r luke grimes as kacey dutton and kelly reilly as beth dutton on episode 512 of paramount networks yellowstone

Emerson Miller//Paramount

The Duttons will continue their stories for Paramount, even without Sheridan.

What Will Happen to the Sheridan-verse?

For fans of Yellowstone and everything else Sheridan created over at Paramount, the good news is that nothing will go away. Paramount owns the rights to every one of his shows at the network, including Landman, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, Lioness, and all the upcoming Yellowstone sequel spin-offs. Even without Sheridan, all his shows can continue at Paramount until the network decides otherwise.

In fact, many Sheridan fans may not have even realized that he’s been loosening his grip on the reins over the past few years. He hasn’t written or directed an episode of Mayor of Kingstown since season 2 in 2023. Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street) writes Tulsa King now, and Spencer Hednut (SEAL Team) is set to be the showrunner for Y: Marshals.

Beginning in 2029, Sheridan will create an entire new fleet of TV series and films for NBCUniversal. I’ve always wondered what Sheridan could do with a massive budget. What if 1923’s finale shootout didn’t end in a flash? What if he was able to finish Yellowstone the way he intended? I can’t speak to how his Paramount shows might decline without him, but it’s exciting that he has a new blank canvas away from the Duttons to work with at NBCU. Now, Sheridan can start fresh.