Like a lone cowboy riding his horse into the sunset, it seems as if Taylor Sheridan is living his dream. The creator and writer of the biggest show on TV, Yellowstone, which is something like a red-state Succession in how it follows the power struggles of a wealthy ranch-owning family in Montana, has become Hollywood’s small-screen western auteur. Yellowstone’s huge success has created a boomtime for boomer icons, with Sylvester Stallone, Helen Mirren, and Harrison Ford all signing up to work with Sheridan on other shows.
The cable network series has become so popular—the premiere episode of the most recent season garnered 12.1 million viewers—that it has spawned two spinoffs (flashbacks, as their titles indicate: 1883 and 1923) as well as wholly unconnected shows that serve as star vehicles for other movie stars drawn to TV. They’re part of a nearly $200 million deal ViacomCBS made with Sheridan to produce more shows over the next couple of years. His series of franchises dominate the most-watched list across both broadcast and streaming shows, but it wasn’t long ago that Sheridan was making his home on the range—literally.
