Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan is deepening his ties to ViacomCBS with a big new overall deal.
Sheridan has signed a multiyear pact with the company's newly formed Entertainment & Youth Brands. The deal also includes a fourth-season renewal for Yellowstone, the flagship series at Paramount Network.
The deal will cover multiple projects across the portfolio of ViacomCBS Entertainment & Youth Brands, headed by Chris McCarthy. The group includes Paramount Network, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Pop TV, CMT, TV Land, Logo and Smithsonian Channel. All series that grow out of the deal will be executive produced by David Glasser and 101 Studios (which is behind Yellowstone); Keith Cox, president of Entertainment & Youth Studios, will oversee for ViacomCBS.
An overall deal with Sheridan had been in the works at Viacom for some time, dating back from well before the merger with CBS in late 2019 to when Kevin Kay was in charge of Paramount Network. Kay departed Viacom in late 2018, following the breakout first season of Yellowstone.
In addition to Yellowstone, which he co-created with John Linson, Sheridan is behind family/prison drama Mayor of Kingstown (along with co-creator Hugh Dillon), which Paramount Network ordered to series in January. He also created unscripted series The Last Cowboy for the cabler.
Yellowstone is among the most-watched series on cable, averaging 5 million viewers (including delayed viewing) for its second season and posting substantial gains in Paramount Network's core demographics of adults 18-49 and 25-54. The Kevin Costner-led drama's third season is due in the summer, with a fourth run likely to follow in 2021.
ViacomCBS, meanwhile, is also planning to expand its CBS All Access streaming platform by including content from the company's cable properties (aside from Showtime, which offers its own streaming product). The expanded All Access would serve as a subscription option aimed at a broad audience, while Showtime retains its premium status and Pluto TV remains free and ad-supported.
