We continue to offer a free 2-week trial of WrapPRO. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time.Greetings!Hollywood is in for yet another seismic shift with the news that the hitmaker Taylor Sheridan is planning to leave Paramount for NBCUniversal when his TV contract runs out in 2028. With its streaming service Peacock still in last place among the majors, this represents a massive coup for NBCUniversal which badly needs more hits. But for Paramount, it begs the question of how it could have lost such a valuable talent. The company just spent $7.7 billion to stream UFC matches, and paid the "South Park" creators $1.5 billion for their new deal. Our editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman offered one reason — or a billion, to be more precise — in her scoop that the NBCUniversal deal is worth over $1 billion. Sheridan has a movie deal that starts in 2026 and will run for eight years, while the TV deal starts at the end of 2028. But it wasn't just about the money. As Adam Chitwood, Kayla Cobb and Lucas Manfredi note in their upcoming analysis for tomorrow, Paramount's Cindy Holland, chair of the company's streaming division, began annoying Sheridan by sending him notes (writers never love that), pushing back on budgets and even passing on a new series. Sheridan is a unique talent in the entertainment world, a singular force driving nearly a dozen shows, including the just-concluded "Yellowstone," which had been a massive hit for Paramount. Spinoffs from "Yellowstone" and other shows like "Tulsa King" and "Landman" have largely propped up Paramount+, which otherwise lacks notable IP relative to other streaming players like Netflix or HBO Max. When David Ellison took the reins of Paramount in August, one of his early comments was about Sheridan: a "singular genius with a perfect track record" and that he could "call Paramount his home for as long as he wants to be telling stories." Two months later, Sheridan is ready to pack up and leave. Before you read on — a small boast: TheWrap nabbed 17 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award nominations, including for best website and online journalists of the year. I obviously have a high opinion of the work we do here — as I'm sure you do as well, if you're a regular reader — but it's always nice when the time, resources and energy we put into each PRO story is recognized. Congrats to our nominees! Roger Cheng 
As Waxman writes, NBCUniversal's deal with Sheridan didn't come out of nowhere... 
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