Taylor Sheridan made a rare public appearance for the first time in nearly four years to promote his latest show, The Madison.
Sheridan, 55, took the stage at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on Monday, March 9, following the red carpet premiere for the new Paramount+ series. Before a screening of the first episode, Sheridan reflected on his newest project.
“I can’t stand these things,” he quipped about the public event. “So for me to be at one means I’m really proud of the project, which I am. Everyone in here’s either probably involved in this industry or followed it for a while and knows just how hard it is to get anything made in this business. Even bad ones are hard to make. And I don’t think we made a bad one.
Sheridan also introduced the stars of the show — Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell — to the crowd.
“It’s pretty arrogant for a bunch of people to stand up here and congratulate themselves before you’ve seen the thing that they’re congratulating themselves for,” he continued at the NYC event. “But we think it’s worth it. We’ll take the risk.”
He continued: “I don’t make anything. I write things down and then I bring together a cast and a crew and I ask them to go make it. And trucking cameras across rivers and up mountains. So I have a chance here to do what I don’t get to do often, which is call them out and thank them personally for their sacrifice and their commitment.”
In addition to Pfeiffer, 67, and Russell, 74, the upcoming series stars Patrick J. Adams, Elle Chapman, Matthew Fox, Beau Garrett, Amiah Miller, Ben Schnetzer and Kevin Zegers. Rebecca Spence, Alaina Pollack and Danielle Vasinova make up the rest of the cast.
According to the official synopsis, The Madison follows the Clyburn family from New York City, who “relocate to the Madison River valley of southwest Montana for emotional recovery following a tragedy that shattered the family.”
Russell recently discussed his collaboration with Sheridan in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, hinting the series was already renewed and filmed a second season.
“I really like what The Madison is. It’s a smart show,” he said in January. “Taylor’s excellent, and Michelle is great, and she’s really great in this show. Talking about awards — I think they’re going to be looking Michelle’s way. They’re all really good, but it is [Sheridan’s] writing that is so compelling.”
Russell continued: “I think that it’s a very different show for Taylor in that it’s a very female-gaze-oriented show. And I think it’s extremely well written, it was fun to play. It was really fun to do. I just had a good time.”
After getting his start as an actor, Sheridan started writing scripts for movies. He began his TV empire with Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024.
Sheridan then created prequels 1883 and 1923, as well as the spinoffs The Dutton Ranch and Marshals. Sheridan has also worked on original shows Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Lioness and Tulsa King.
News broke in October 2025 that Sheridan, 55, closed a major with NBCUniversal. The five-year overall deal for film, TV and streaming will begin January 1, 2029, after Sheridan’s TV deal with Paramount — which goes through 2028 — officially ends.
Paramount will retain the rights to Yellowstone and the other franchises Sheridan created under his deal with the company, so he is expected to create brand new IP for NBCUniversal. Sheridan’s move came after Paramount’s recent merger with Skydance.
Sheridan previously opened up about not wanting to “compromise” on his storytelling vision, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, “I spent the first 37 years of my life compromising. When I quit acting, I decided that I am going to tell my stories my way, period. If you don’t want me to tell them, fine. Give them back and I’ll find someone who does — or I won’t, and then I’ll read them in some freaking dinner theater. But I won’t compromise. There is no compromising.”
Sheridan praised Paramount in the past for supporting his vision.
“Because Paramount trusts me and gives me the time to go shoot 10 to 14 days for a television episode, we can treat it like a movie, and it looks like a movie,” he told Deadline in January 2022. “We can take the time to rehearse it and light it and build these set pieces. And if I call them and say, ‘I need two helicopters in one day,’ they just go, ‘Alright.’”
He added: “At the end of the day, to go to some of these locations where most people have never been, where you’re opening up a new world, and all of these places or characters in the story, to me, it’s fascinating.”
Since Yellowstone became a hit show, Sheridan has largely remained out of the spotlight. He previously attended a red carpet premiere for 1923 in late 2022 but has rarely been photographed since.
The Madison premieres on Paramount+ Saturday, March 14.
