The parallels between the fictional Roy family from the mega hit television series Succession and the Murdochs are plain.
But there is another media dynasty whose family squabbles make Succession look mild in comparison.
Sumner Redstone was once one of the most powerful and wealthy men in American entertainment and media.
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At his peak he owned Viacom, Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and publisher Simon & Schuster as well as a successful theatre chain.
But a divorce, boardroom manoeuvring, issues with naming a successor and the aging media mogul's philandering led to his empire's decline.
New York Times reporter Rachel Abrams along with her colleague James Stewart have weaved through court files, interviews and news stories to write the book Unscripted: The Epic Battle For a Hollywood Media Empire.
Their investigation started after a tip-off from a close source about the conduct of Les Moonves, CEO at CBS.
“She was a very young attorney at one of the law firms that CBS had hired to look into Moonves.
“And she basically gave us information from a treasure trove of confidential material from the law firm. This was an unprecedented look into corporate behaviour, corporate governance, and how executives behave when they don't think anyone is watching,” Abrams told Kathryn Ryan.
The Redstone story is a classic case of hubris as one of the most important media figures of the 20th century is brought low, she says.
The book begins with a character called George Pilgrim, she says.
“George Pilgrim was having a secret affair with one of the two women who had moved into Sumner Redstone’s mansion and were slowly taking over his life.”
The women were preying on an old billionaire much as he had preyed on women in the past, she says.
“These two women had moved in and they siphoned off tens of millions of dollars, In one afternoon, they each got $45 million wired to them.
“And they got very close to actually taking over the media empire, getting their name on the trust, and becoming basically being able to control the companies that the Redstone family was overseeing.”
It was Pilgrim’s affair with one of the women that brought the matter to the attention of Redstone’s daughter, Shari, she says
“Shari wants to get these women out of her father's life and take her place as the heir to the Redstone media empire.”
She decides to get more involved in the business, Abrams says.
“But when she became too assertive for his [Redstone’s] liking, when she disagreed with him, he was furious, he would call her unspeakable names in emails that other people at the company would be CC’d on.”
Meanwhile over at CBS part of the Redstone empire, clouds are gathering around CEO Les Moonves, she says.
“Shari Redstone wanted to unite Viacom and CBS. Viacom was really struggling while CBS under Moonves had turned around from being the least watched the cable of the networks to the most consistently watched broadcast network.
“Moonves, while he might have publicly played along with Shari's ideas, privately he really resented what he saw as the boss's daughter meddling and coming up with ideas that would basically dilute his power.”
He also didn’t want to be saddled with a failing media empire, she says.
“So, he, along with some of his loyalists on the board of directors at CBS, start plotting a move, a lawsuit that would effectively strip the Redstone family of control of the company.
“This was an extraordinary move for a number of reasons; can you imagine the chutzpah that it takes to sue the owners and family behind the company, because you don't like their ideas?”
While this is going down, two women file police complaints about Moonves, she says.
“He's hearing this, and he's seeking counsel from an attorney, and yet he's going forward with this lawsuit.
“And one enduring question behind some of our reporting was, if he knew that this stuff was perhaps threatening to come public at a time when many executives, powerful people in the industry are losing their jobs over accusations of misconduct, why on earth would he go forward with a lawsuit and make himself vulnerable and a target for those accusations to come forward?”
They never got a good answer to that question, she says.
“One could only assume that it must have taken quite a bit of hubris and denial for him to think that well, that stuff isn't gonna bite me, it might be enough to bring down all these other people, but it's not going to harm me.”
The book is populated by deeply unpleasant people, she says.
“I've been jokingly describing this book as King Lear meets Weekend at Bernie's, because it's just so ridiculous.
“There's so many grifters and users and enablers and, and, men who with their outdated attitudes should have disqualified them from being on the board of a publicly traded company.”
Sumner Redstone died in 2020 at the age of 97, while Les Moonves stepped down from CBS in 2018.
