David Ellison was in an upbeat mood.

Paramount’s new owner was on a private jet with his top executive team — including president Jeff Shell, and Paramount Pictures co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein — and had just sat down with the man who is the centerpiece of Paramount’s TV content strategy: Taylor Sheridan .

The studio brass had flown to Texas to court Sheridan on his sprawling ranch shortly after the merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global was finalized in August. Their objective was clear: Make Taylor Sheridan feel like he’s in good hands with this new leadership group. They thought the meeting went well. A source who spoke with one of the execs in attendance joked that the Paramount brass “couldn’t keep up with him” as the drinks flowed while Sheridan uncorke

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