On a day when it was announced that the new blood that has infused Paramount won’t be asking at least 1000 of their employees to continue showing up to work past Halloween we also learned the identities of two of them. We kind of expected CBS EVENING NEWS co-anchor John Dickerson to be on such a list; after all, reputation and pedigree aside he and de facto local anchor Maurice Dubois continued to languish in third place by an even larger margin than did their predecessor, and his eponymous prime time slot on CBS NEWS 24/7 has even less viewership than what he and Dubois are delivering on CBS Atlanta Channel 69. And if you’re not capable of performing at least as well as that juggernaut, TTFN.
But when news broke early yesterday of a slightly more consequential parting of ways there was a palpable sense of surprise and loss. Here’s how ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’s
Longtime Paramount producer Taylor Sheridan is getting ready to bring his cowboy agenda to NBCUniversal after securing a massive five-year overall deal for film, TV, and streaming, Entertainment Weekly has learned. The man behind Yellowstone, 1923, and pretty much everything on Paramount+ won’t be making the full leap to the new network until Jan. 1, 2029, after his TV deal with Paramount is up at the end of 2028, but the film deal is ready to launch into effect next year.
That’s the what; as to the why, that’s where the more connected and speculative journos took over. ESQUIRE’s Josh Rosenberg was decent enough to provide those of us not able to afford certain pricey paywalls a significant start:
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.
Sorry, Josh, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’s ever-reliable Joe Flint would beg to differ:
That five-year deal could be worth as much as $1 billion, depending on the success of Sheridan’s projects, according to people familiar with the agreement.
When you’re talking even about the possibility of a single person receiving anything that ends with -illion that doesn’t begin with an m, that’s more to enough to inflame the passions of just about anyone capable of producing something under a byline. And THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER took the bait to provide their readers with both sides of that emotionally charged conflagration:
(T)wo veteran…staffers – one of whom wrote an authoritative Taylor Sheridan cover story after traveling to his 6666 Ranch in Panhandle, Texas – sat down to hash this all out.
Steven Zeitchik: So I kind of eye-rolled that this was a major loss given how expensive Sheridan is. Like, within the optics of Hollywood you never want talent to walk out the door, and as someone who wrote the definitive profile on Sheridan you know firsthand how valuable that talent is. But this is going to save Paramount a lot of money and they will still have all the shows that brought them 80 million Paramount+ subscribers. And will continue cranking out more new ones in the next two years while even keeping a lot of them going after he leaves.
James Hibberd: I agree that Paramount+ already has a lot of Sheridan content that could be spun-off into other shows; there’s an argument of “how much Sheridan stuff does Paramount+ actually need?” But if I were them I would worry about him focusing on his new home once he gets there. Sheridan tends be pretty hands-on (too hands-on, some current and former showrunners would say). But how much is he going to care about, say, Dutton Ranch season three and Tulsa King season five if he’s busy spinning up new content for NBC? Like assuming, “We don’t need the chef if we got his recipes” might not be right.
The modern-day Siskel and Ebert went back and forth for quite a while on this, most def worth a full read. But in the spirit of Rosenberg’s public service approach allow me to highlight a Hibberd observation that to me puts that massive dollar figure into some sort of plausible context:
As one of our editors pointed out, there’s no reason Sheridan can’t be the next Dick Wolf. His formula – as much as he has one – isn’t too far from edgy and soapy versions of what CBS and NBC have done for decades their long-running procedural dramas.
Dick Wolf just happens to program exactly half of NBC’s original prime time nights this fall–Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays are respectively NBA hoops and both NCAA and NFL football. The ONE CHICAGO and LAW AND ORDER franchises are 35 years in the making and collectively have supplied thousands of hours of ever-bingeable content to Peacock and dozens of zombie cable and broadcast networks. Per PARADE’s Jessica Sager in a profile she did on Wolf this past summer:
The LAW AND ORDER franchise reportedly generates around $1 billion a year for NBCUniversal and its cable partners. Additionally, Wolf recently sold streaming rights for $300-$400 million.
I’ll conservatively put half the L&O number on ONE CHICAGO considering it’s been around about half as long. Then throw a few more zeroes on the 40 other shows that Wolf has created and produced–most notably the FBI franchise that until this fall occupied a third complete night of broadcast network prime time. Total it all up, you’re looking at about $50 billion for the Dick-verse.
And all of that with pretty much a turnkey approach because, let’s face it, a track record like that is superior to any of anyone else who’s populated 30 Rock or Universal City in the last 40 decades.
Alas, Wolf will turn 79 in two months, and even all of those bucks won’t buy him immortality. Someone has to pick up the slack, and there’s no better bet out there to do so that Sheridan. Which makes Rosenberg’s revelation of second-guessing on Holland’s part all the more stunning. With all due respect to what she built with originals at Netflix, it’s not like those franchises have propped up the platform’s sustainability.
In contrast, Universal knows first hand what sort of traction and engagement YELLOWSTONE’s back end brought to–and continues to bring–to the ever-struggling Peacock. The thought that in, say, a decade of so there could be a –pardon the pun–mountains of Sheridan series joining it–let alone the Wolf-verse–is enough to excite even the most sanguine and short-sighted executives and investors.
And if all one has to do to get that opportunity is throw money at someone and let them go off and create, well, have at it, Donna Langley and company.
Sheridan’s already providing a new home for those in his orbit, as Pierre further noted:
Per Deadline, Sheridan’s close collaborator and producing partner David Glasser is also making the jump to NBCUniversal with his 101 Studios. Glasser signed a first-look film and TV deal with the studio that will begin early next year, after his company fulfills its current obligations to Paramount.
Go get ’em, guys. There’s about another 997 other soon-to-be free agents that would love to join you.
Until next time…