INTO THE SUNSET

‘Yellowstone’ Creator Walked After Clash With Pro-Trump Boss

Paramount’s new owner seems to have driven his most important showrunner out of the door.

Taylor Sheridan, the creator of the Yellowstone franchise beloved by middle America, is ditching his longtime home at Paramount. And it has everything to do with the company’s new chief executive, David Ellison.

According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, one disagreement was about a request from Ellison to make a series tied to America’s 250th anniversary next year. The Journal, citing unnamed sources, said Sheridan refused to make his shows “overtly political.”

Yellowstone has often been branded as a red-state show or conservative show, because the lead family, the Duttons, mirror conservative values of being against outsiders and changing culture. But Sheridan has criticized commenters who believe the show is conservative, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, that it has a lot of progressive themes. Sheridan told the New York Times in 2019 that he was “apolitical publicly” and wanted to show all sides rather than preach to his audience.

The report, citing unnamed sources, mentions other disputes between Sheridan and the leadership team at Paramount including questions about Sheridan’s budget for his TV series, Lioness, and a rejection of one of Sheridan’s film scripts. Paramount also cast Nicole Kidman, who stars in Lioness, in another legal drama, Discretion, without telling Sheridan, which could affect his shooting schedule.

Paramount has been a hub for Sheridan’s TV shows since the first season of Yellowstone in 2018, and in return the writer has produced several hits including Yellowstone’s spin-offs and Lioness.

Sheridan has signed a new five-year deal with a rival company, NBC Universal, so he can make movies with NBCU from next year and new TV series for their channels starting in 2029, once his current Paramount deal is up. The Journal reported that this deal could be worth $1 billion depending on the success of Sheridan’s new shows.

Ellison’s critics claim that he has attempted to make CBS, Paramount’s network hub, more conservative to appease President Trump, pointing to the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in July and the hiring of anti-woke journalist Bari Weiss as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News in October.

Ayomikun Adekaiyero

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