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As HBO’s award-winning drama sequence Succession returns for its fourth and remaining season on Sunday, chances are you’ll not understand that the present was impressed by households behind a few of the greatest media empires.
The sequence follows ageing patriarch Logan Roy, a mogul on the helm of the world’s largest media and leisure conglomerate, and his 4 grownup kids, who’re combating for management over his empire as his well being declines.
In an interview with HBO, Succession showrunner Jesse Armstrong stated he and the writers considered media moguls and their households similar to Rupert Murdoch, William Hearst, and Robert and Rebekah Mercer of Breitbart, amongst others whereas engaged on the present.
This is a take a look at the billionaire media households who had been the inspiration behind this Emmy Award-winning sequence.
Key Takeaways
- HBO’s hit present Succession is again for its fourth and remaining season.
- Succession showrunner Jesse Armstrong stated he and the writers considered media moguls and households, together with the Murdochs and Hearsts, whereas engaged on the present.
- The sequence follows ageing media mogul Logan Roy and his 4 grownup kids, who’re combating for management over his empire as his well being declines.
Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch is co-chairman of Fox Company and govt chairman of Information Corp, father or mother of The Wall Avenue Journal, HarperCollins, and the New York Publish. As of 2023, Rupert Murdoch has a web value of $17.3 billion, in response to Forbes.
Initially from Australia, Murdoch inherited a sequence of newspapers on the age of twenty-two after his father died. Murdoch ultimately expanded into the UK and the USA, buying newspapers together with the San Antonio Information, New York Journal, and the Chicago Solar-Occasions. In 2007, Murdoch purchased the Wall Avenue Journal’s father or mother firm, Dow Jones for $6 billion from the Bancroft household, which had owned the corporate for a century.
Like Succession patriarch Roy, Murdoch, 92, nonetheless runs his empire, the place he has helmed Information Corp. since 2013. In March 2019, Murdoch bought most of twenty first Century Fox’s TV and film property to Disney for $71.3 billion.
Succession’s Waystar Royco owns a conservative-leaning tv community, ATN, just like Fox Information, in addition to numerous tabloids. The present’s fictional media conglomerate additionally owns a web site known as Vaulter, just like Vice. Considered one of Murdoch’s sons, James Murdoch, is a board member of Vice Media and has owned a minority stake within the firm since 2019.
Murdoch’s eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, is the chief chair and CEO of Fox, operating the corporate’s information, sports activities, and leisure divisions. Murdoch has six kids and has been married 4 occasions (and lately obtained engaged), whereas Succession’s Logan Roy has 4 kids and has been married 3 times.
The Hearst Household
Named one in every of America’s richest households by Forbes in 2020, legacy media’s Hearst household has a web value of $21 billion. Hearst Corp., based by William Randolph Hearst in 1887, owns magazines and newspapers similar to Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hearst additionally owns 33 tv stations, stakes in a number of main networks similar to Lifetime, ESPN, and A&E, and nearly 260 magazines world wide. William Hearst’s 5 sons adopted of their father’s footsteps. Hearst’s grandson, William R. Hearst III, is now chair of Hearst.
The Sulzbergers
Very like the Roys in Succession, the Sulzbergers additionally saved their publishing legacy within the household. Arther G. Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Occasions Co., is the sixth member of the Ochs-Sulzberger household to function the writer of the New York Occasions. In season two of Succession, patriarch Logan Roy needed to amass a media firm managed by the Pierce household, which Self-importance Truthful stated was impressed by the Sulzbergers.
The Mercer Household
Millionaire hedge-fund supervisor and political donor Robert Mercer has an estimated web value of $125 million, in response to Forbes. He and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer, have invested tens of millions of {dollars} into the conservative web site Breitbart Information. The Mercer household is understood for his or her affect in media and politics—Robert Mercer spent $25 million on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
The Redstones
Sumner Redstone—one other legacy media household just like the Roys of Succession—managed ViacomCBS, which he acquired in 1987. The late media mogul had a web value of $2.6 billion as of April 2020 earlier than his demise in August of that 12 months, in response to Forbes.
He additionally owned a non-public theater chain, Nationwide Amusements, which he inherited from his father. Sumner’s Viacom purchased CBS in 1999 for $37.3 billion—one of many largest media offers on the time—and it grew to become ViacomCBS in December 2019. Redstone’s daughter, Shari, is the non-executive chair of ViacomCBS.
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