Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison Has Nothing But Praise For Taylor Sheridan Following Merger: “A Singular Genius With A Perfect Track Record”

Nothing but praise for the man that simply can’t miss.

Skydance Media now includes CBS and Paramount under it’s umbrella after an $8 million merger was completed back in July. Now, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison reigns over the entirety of the combined media empire, and in order to make sure that everyone was on the same page with where the company was heading, he recently hosted a meet-and-great for journalists to ask him questions.

In the Hollywood home of the newly established Paramount-Skydance Corporation, Ellison fielded questions and honed in on the movie and TV side of things. That meant that the CEO talked a lot about CBS, its cable channels and Paramount+ (which just locked up the UFC in a $7.7 BILLION deal). And he made it very clear that he wanted to rejuvenate the Paramount side of things and once again make it a place that’s synonymous with the best movies:

At one point, the conversation turned toward Paramount+, and specifically how important and crucial Taylor Sheridan has been to it’s success. Paramount+ features a collection of movies and TV shows to watch, but where the streaming service has really found it’s place is simply being the home of Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ originals, such as:

-The Last Cowboy

-Finestkind

-Mayor of Kingstown

-1883 (Yellowstone spinoff)

-1923 (Yellowstone spinoff)

-Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Yellowstone spinoff)

-Tulsa King

-Lioness

-Landman

That’s all that Taylor Sheridan has done for Paramount+? Sheesh, he needs to step up his game and actually pull his own weight (obviously being sarcastic there).

In reality, you could attribute Paramount+’s success entirely to Taylor Sheridan. He’s managed to create shows that fans of television have no other choice but to seek out. Paramount Skydance CEO realizes just how valuable Sheridan is to his company’s streaming service, and said this about Taylor Sheridan’s future with the Paramount Skydance Corporation:

“He is literally a singular genius with a perfect track record. If we can make this his home as long as he wants to tell stories, we want to do that.”

Yeah… certainly seems like a “back the Brinks truck up and give Sheridan whatever he asks for” scenario.

Things have been going swimmingly ever since Sheridan birthed his flagship series Yellowstone. Its second season averaged 6.3 million viewers – easily making it the top show on cable. But Paramount lost a staggering $50 million on it. That’s just because it costs so much to create Taylor Sheridan shows (1883 and 1923 cost almost $20 million an episode).

In fact, Paramount has likely spent more than $1 billion producing Sheridan’s shows both inside and outside of the Yellowstone universe.

But that return on investment has paid dividends. Bloomberg reported that Sheridan’s shows have generated just shy of $3 billion in sales, and the loyal audience of anything that the show runner does has spent more than $450 million on digital downloads and DVDs alone. The Sheridan universe of shows (feel like we can call it that) has raked in $700 million in profits.

So for David Ellison, it only makes sense to do everything Paramount Skydance can offer to keep Sheridan happy and at home with the newly merged company.The post Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison Has Nothing But Praise For Taylor Sheridan Following Merger: “A Singular Genius With A Perfect Track Record” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.