All language subtitles for Dynasty.The.Murdochs.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH-HI

[soft drumbeat playing]

[McKay Coppins] I met with James
a few times

throughout the fall in 2024

when the trial was going on.

Everybody was speculating
about what would happen, who would win.

And there's this interesting moment
that happened.

[suspenseful music playing]

James, Liz, and Prudence

met at James's country house
in Connecticut.

I think all of them were sort of grappling
with the fact that this whole process

might have driven a permanent wedge
into the family,

and they might not come back from this.

And they wondered
if there might be an opportunity

to patch things up
with their father and brother.

And so James and his sisters
wrote this letter to Rupert

that basically proposed a détente.

"We can pause the litigation,

get the lawyers out of the room,

get the probate commissioner
out of the room,

and just talk about this like a family."

"We feel like maybe you don't realize
how much pain this has caused us,

but we could work something out

if we just try to approach it
in good faith."

A couple of days go by,
and they get a letter back from Rupert

that says, "I've reread
all of your testimony from the trial."

"I'm more convinced than ever

that I was right."

"If you wanna talk to me,
talk to my lawyers."

And that's it.

[music peaks, subsides]

[music ends]

[soft, suspenseful music playing]

[Jim Rutenberg] For months,
the Murdoch family have been

in Reno, Nevada

in this pitched fight
to win control of the empire.

As Rupert sees it, Lachlan is the only one
that will carry on what Rupert built.

If Liz, James, and Prue win this case,

his entire life's work will be over.

[music intensifies]

[reporter 1] Bill Barr,
any comment on the way in?

How are you involved in today's case?

[Jim] He's hired the former
attorney general of the United States

Bill Barr,

this gigantic figure
in conservative politics,

in Trump-world politics.

[Jonathan Mahler] He and Rupert
have become quite close in recent years.

In fact, at Rupert's 90th birthday party,

Bill Barr played bagpipes.

Rupert has brought him in
as his new managing director on the trust.

That made something that would
have seemed totally implausible,

the idea that Rupert should be able
to change an inviolable trust,

that made it at least plausible.

Barr is basically the hired gun

to make the case that this is about
the financial value of these companies

and protecting all the beneficiaries.

Barr wants to prove
that it's bad for companies

when succession is unresolved.

So he orders an analysis, a report,

of what's happened to other companies that
have been tied up in succession fights.

It turns out that in some of the companies
that were studied for this report,

succession struggles
actually were good for shareholders,

and shareholders made a lot of money.

So Barr sees this.
It's not what he wants to hear.

It doesn't help their argument.
He puts it in a drawer.

In his testimony, it comes out

that he had not shared this report
with the other managing directors.

He never spoke
to James's managing director about it.

He never spoke
to Liz's managing director about it.

Barr hid that,

and the commissioner found that
as a sign of bad faith.

He should've shared
that what they were doing

is not for the benefit
of all the beneficiaries.

And at the end of the day,

if this is about treating all the siblings
equally and fairly,

why were the other children
in the dark about all of this?

Reading faces coming out of the building,
it's pretty somber.

[Jonathan] Those decisions
to lock in Lachlan's leadership

and to preserve Rupert's legacy…

- [camera clicks]
- [music ends abruptly]

…those were clearly
going to cause some problems for him.

[ominous music playing]

[reporter 2] Hacking the phones
of murder victims.

[reporter 3] Heinous and despicable.

[reporter 4] Relatives of dead servicemen.

[reporter 5] Inappropriate payments
to police.

[reporter 6] Horrifying.

What does this say
about the future of journalism?

The phone-hacking spectacle
was so damaging for the Murdoch brand.

I was appalled
to find out what had happened.

[reporter 7] Pressure is building
on his son James to step down.

[Richard Cooke] James is the bagman
in the phone-hacking scandal.

James, fairly or unfairly,
had been tarnished.

[intriguing music playing]

[Sarah Ellison] Meanwhile,
Lachlan has left the family company

and is in Australia,

licking his wounds,
surfing, rock climbing.

[Richard] He is running
non-Murdoch media companies.

[reporter 8] Lachlan Murdoch appointed
the acting CEO of Network Ten.

He's also made
a lot of really bad decisions.

[woman 1] Network Ten needs yet another
multimillion-dollar cash injection.

The Ten network posted a $13 million loss.

But he never felt he was out of the race
to take over from Rupert.

[reporter 9] The wolves are circling
around James Murdoch,

whose handling of the crisis
has been heavily criticized.

[McKay]
After the phone-hacking scandal broke,

James left Europe in disgrace

and started a new job
in the New York headquarters,

where he spends a couple of years
working under his dad.

So James feels like
he's still the only game in town

when it comes to succession.

[Paul] Then, in 2015,

Lachlan flies in from Australia.

[tense music playing]

[McKay] Almost immediately,

James is asked to meet with Lachlan

at a restaurant in Manhattan.

He sits down, and he is told
that Lachlan is gonna run the company

and that James
is now going to report to him.

[music ends]

James is just stunned.

[contemplative music playing]

[Jim] He storms off

and sends word, that's it, he's out.

[McKay] As word gets out
within the company

that James might have resigned
and Lachlan is coming back,

several of the executives make known
their concern about the situation.

If they lose James,

they're losing the only Murdoch son
who knows how the company works.

He's been working in the trenches
for the last decade

while Lachlan has been in Australia
kind of doing his own thing.

[Jim] So Rupert comes up with a plan

to try to woo James back.

Rupert decides that he's going to put
both of his sons in charge of the company.

James was named CEO,

and Lachlan was named
executive chairman of the company,

a title that Rupert also maintained.

[Jim] James has devoted his whole life
to this company.

You don't just walk away from that.

But I think
there's a way deeper emotional tie here.

Walking away from the company, he knows,

will mean walking away from his family.

So James agrees.

[Sarah] Now you have
the two sons anointed together.

[Matthew] They were given this perch,

and it was essentially Rupert saying,
"Okay, what are you gonna do?"

[vibrant music playing]

[Matthew] James and Lachlan were
the ultimate nepo babies.

These guys were young.

They were 40 years old,
and they were being put into these jobs

running one of the five
traditional Hollywood studios.

At the time,
I was an editor at the Hollywood Reporter.

In my interview with them,

they wanted everyone to know
that they have taste, they have vision,

and that they were in charge
of the Hollywood studio now.

They had been coached
by their communications person.

So they were putting on
their best CEO face.

But it was very clear that there was
something below the surface

that they were not telling me.

[McKay] There was an endless tug-of-war
between the two of them.

James sensed that Lachlan thought

that he could run
a big, complicated media company

just by being around his dad.

And James really resented that.

James would look for opportunities
to one-up his older brother.

Lachlan was dyslexic

and struggled with some speech issues.

James would challenge him
in these board meetings

and pick apart his logic

and witheringly argue
against his various ideas.

Lachlan would sort of become flustered
and not know what to say.

And when Rupert was in the room,
he never stepped in to stop it.

[Paddy] He wants to know
whether they have got the fight in them,

to see who can stand up to the pressure.

The media business
is a brutal, competitive industry,

and Rupert was playing to win.

[intriguing music playing]

[Paddy] Rupert is by now in his eighties.

He remains this dynamic figure

trotting the world,
meeting prime ministers and presidents.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you Rupert Murdoch.

[applause]

Oh, thank you, Jeb.

[man 1] Rupert Murdoch delivered
the keynote address this morning

at an education conference.

We need to tear down an education system
designed for the 19th century.

[Paul] Murdoch uses this big media empire

to push the world
in the way that he wants it to go.

Resist corporate domination
of public education.

[reporter 10]
Members of Occupy Wall Street

repeatedly interrupt Murdoch's speech.

It's okay. A little controversy
makes everything more interesting.

- [laughter and cheering]
- Uh…

By 2015, Rupert's been able
to push a populist, nativist agenda.

Microaggressions and "the patriarchy."

[man 2] Abortion without limits.

Endless chain of migrant caravans.

[David Shuster] By the end of Obama,

Fox News had a huge influence
over the dialogue

and the commentary
and the issues of our time.

[Sarah] Rupert was a real kingmaker
among politicians.

For decades,
every candidate goes to kiss the ring.

And then Rupert gets a call.

It's Ivanka Trump.

She wants to arrange a meeting
with her husband, Jared Kushner,

her father, Donald Trump, and Rupert.

Rupert, he had known Trump for years.

I mean, they went back to 1980s New York.

[Sarah] They did both share this vision

of knocking down the Establishment
in order to make their own way,

but they were at different levels
of wealth, at different levels of respect.

Donald Trump was like
a feature of the tabloids,

and Rupert Murdoch owned the tabloids.

Rupert didn't take Donald Trump seriously.

But he agreed to have lunch with him.

They sit down.

The first course has just been served,

and Trump says
he's gonna run for president.

You know, Rupert,
who one has to assume is pretty stunned,

does not look up from his soup and says,

"You're gonna have to be ready
to get wrapped up pretty badly."

And "wrapped up" is an Australianism
for, you know, getting beat up.

So he's basically warning Trump
that, "You're gonna take a beating."

[woman 2] Welcome to the first debate
of the 2016 presidential campaign.

I'm Megyn Kelly.

[audience cheering]

[Sarah] The very first
Republican primary debate

was hosted by Fox News.

[David] It was
one of the first cattle calls

of all the Republican
presidential candidates

on stage in front of this big audience.

[Megyn] Center of the stage tonight,
businessman Donald Trump.

[audience cheering]

[mouths] Thank you.

[Richard] Murdoch didn't like Trump.
He didn't like him as a candidate.

He called him a fucking idiot.

I think Rupert wanted Trump gone.

[Megyn] Mr. Trump, you've called
women you don't like

fat pigs, dogs, slobs,
and disgusting animals.

Your Twitter account has several
disparaging comments about women's looks.

[Sarah] The tenor of her question
was aggressive.

It could flatten him,
and it could take him out.

- [Megyn] Your Twitter account--
- Only Rosie O'Donnell.

- [cheering and applause]
- [Megyn] No, it wasn't.

[audience cheering]

[Sarah] In that moment,
Trump successfully brushes it off.

It was Trump who had
the better understanding of the public.

That you could say things
which were unacceptable and walk it off.

We have to make our country great again,
and I will do that. Thank you.

[cheering and applause]

[Sarah] Donald Trump became his own
megawatt star on that debate stage.

Trump is a ratings bonanza.

But he sensed
that Fox News tried to get rid of him.

[Donald Trump] You could see
there was blood coming out of her eyes.

Blood coming out of her wherever.

[David] Trump started
openly criticizing Fox.

That had never happened to Rupert before.

[Matthew] When Rupert decided to tweet,

he very pointedly told Donald Trump
to get out of the race.

[Richard] It was civil war
in the Republican Party.

Murdoch went full-court press,
favoring people who weren't Trump.

[Kara] Rupert is a conservative.

He wants conservative politicians
to be in power.

But he found Trump worrying and dangerous.

I don't think
he likes this Republican Party.

He liked the other one before
with the Mitch McConnells and that gang.

[Richard] In the past,
Republican candidates had no real power

unless they were operating
in line with Rupert's wishes.

And Trump would not.

[Trump] Fox is playing a game.
What's wrong over there?

Something's wrong.

I'm gonna be making a decision with Fox,
but probably I won't be doing the debate.

[cheering and applause]

The next debate
is also hosted by Fox News.

Before we get to the issues,

let's address the elephant
not in the room tonight.

Donald Trump does not participate
in this next debate.

[cheering and applause]

[Paul] But he sets up his own rival event.

We're told we have more cameras
than they do by quite a bit,

so that's sort of interesting.

The Kelly File starts in a moment. Guess
who's gonna be there? Senator Ted Cruz.

The ratings tank.
Trump took the viewers with him.

[crowd chanting] Trump! Trump! Trump!

[Sarah] Fox's audience turned against Fox
and towards Donald Trump.

Normally, Murdoch was able to say
and tell politicians what to do,

when to stand up, when to sit down.

But he had never been so clearly
smacked down as in that moment.

[intriguing music playing]

[camera clicking]

Trump is gonna win, and the world is
gonna be a happy place. Have a good time.

[reporter 11] Mr. Trump, can you clarify…

[Sarah] Rupert Murdoch always goes
in the winning direction,

and he sees which way the wind is blowing.

Donald Trump had become the dominant force
in conservative politics.

[Kara] Rupert will do what it takes
for his business interests,

including holding his nose
and backing Donald Trump.

[Jonathan] It was amazing to see Rupert,

you know, in the back of a golf cart,
with Trump behind the wheel.

That is the moment
where Rupert has come around to Trump.

Trump realizes that he needs Fox News.
They need each other.

[David Folkenflik] This moment
will change the fate of American media

and American politics

for the decades that followed.

[church bell ringing]

[Jonathan] Around this time,
Rupert marries Jerry Hall.

[reporter 12] Rupert Murdoch says
he is the happiest man in the world

after he married
former supermodel Jerry Hall.

[reporter 13] Jerry was previously
in a relationship

with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger.

[Jim] James and Lachlan, Prue, and Liz
all go to the wedding.

They like Jerry Hall.

- [man 3] Morning.
- [photographer] This way, please.

[Jim] It's maybe the last thing

they really come together
to do as a family.

- [reporter 14] How was the ceremony?
- Beautiful.

[Jim] For the first time in decades,
Rupert tries to have a life with his wife.

He's in love.

So he lets his sons
run this media empire without him.

It was an opportunity for both of them

to assert themselves
as the heads of the company,

the new Murdochs
everyone has to contend with.

[laid-back music playing]

[Sarah] And it coincides
with the Sun Valley Conference,

which happens every July.

[reporter 15] It is a busy time
in Sun Valley.

Top media, tech, and business moguls
converged in scenic Idaho

for a meeting of the minds.

[Sarah] The masters of the universe
get together

and figure out what the world
is going to see, hear, and read.

And this year, for the first time,

James and Lachlan go on their own.

[reporter 16] Hey, Lachlan.

- Hey.
- [reporter 16] Good morning.

- Morning, James.
- Morning.

[McKay] It's supposed to be
James and Lachlan's coming-out party

as the new faces
of the Murdoch media empire.

But pretty quickly,
things go off the rails.

A media and political bombshell.

Swelling controversy at Fox News.

[woman 3] Former anchor Gretchen Carlson
alleges she was fired

after turning down sexual advances

from Fox News chairman
and CEO Roger Ailes.

We were in a car,
and he took my head and my neck,

and he shoved my face into his crotch.

[McKay] At this moment,
Rupert Murdoch is on a plane.

- He's unreachable by phone.
- [Jim] They have a crisis.

But maybe the one thing James and Lachlan
agree on is that Roger Ailes is bad news.

[Sarah] They both had been wronged
by Roger Ailes.

He had mocked James.

He had undercut Lachlan.

[Matthew] And they saw an opening

when the Me Too movement
started to gather steam

to essentially take Roger Ailes out.

[Sarah] Very quickly,

they announce an investigation
of the claims in the lawsuit.

It's clear what the right thing to do is.

You have to actually get
to the bottom of it, do it super fast.

And put out a release about it
before Rupert could contradict them.

We hired an independent law firm to go in
and investigate all the allegations.

And then other women
started to come out of the woodwork.

[woman 4] Megyn Kelly
reportedly told investigators

that he had made
similar sexual advances towards her.

[reporter 17] Ailes repeatedly
called Roginsky into his office.

Laurie Luhn says she was sexually harassed
and intimidated by Ailes.

[Alisyn Camerota] Roger would talk
about women's bodies.

He would ask if I was naughty.

I mean, there were all sorts
of just kind of gross,

really inappropriate things
that he would say.

I had gone to him
to ask for more opportunity.

I had wanted to anchor.

And he said, "Well, you're not ready yet,
so I would have to work with you."

He said, "It might have to happen
on the weekends."

"It might have to happen at a hotel."

In that moment,

I had sort of an out-of-body experience
of, "Oh, is my career over?"

And then by the time I moved to New York,

I was married and pregnant with twins,

and he didn't say
things like that anymore.

[Sarah] Rupert loved Ailes
because Ailes was a programming genius.

So he turned a blind eye to
some of the things that Ailes was doing.

[reporter 18] Can you comment
about the situation with Ailes?

No comment.

[David Shuster] I had figured
Ailes would survive this.

Fox News is making so much money,

all they're gonna do
is they're gonna pay off the women.

As more and more people stepped forward,

I got the sense that Murdoch
didn't like this kind of attention,

didn't want his, you know,
profitable news channel

to have this sort of reputation.

[Sarah] So he makes a fateful decision

that will change
the entire dynamic of the company.

[announcer] Breaking news.

A media bombshell,
and it's not inappropriate

that I'm sitting
at the Republican National Convention.

Roger Ailes, the chairman, CEO,
and mastermind of Fox News Channel,

he's now officially out.

Ailes was out right as
the Republican Convention was going on.

It was really a revenge moment
for James and Lachlan.

I humbly and gratefully accept

your nomination for the presidency
of the United States.

[David] Once Ailes was gone,

there was an internal debate
over the direction that Fox News goes.

[Matthew] The feeling within the company
was that Roger Ailes was Fox News,

and that without him,
it might not even be able to survive

and certainly would not thrive.

[James] What we need to do
is make careful decisions

that we're exploiting the product that
we have in as robust a way as possible,

and we're also gonna get
the widest possible audience.

[Matthew] James was
much more liberal leaning.

He wanted Fox
to appeal to a younger audience.

[McKay] And he sees this moment

as an opportunity to steer the network
toward less right-wing politics

and a more fact-based approach
to journalism.

Lachlan, meanwhile,
is adamantly opposed to this idea.

[Sarah] Lachlan's political stripe
was very conservative,

as was Rupert's.

And Lachlan wants
what's good for business.

[woman 5] Ready? Fox and the man!

[Matthew] They have the number one
cable network, $2 billion in profit.

Fox is killing it.

[cheering]

[McKay] The brothers argue ferociously,

and Rupert finally
settles the matter by saying

that he himself
will step in as acting CEO.

[Matthew] Rupert is tremendously proud
of Fox News,

and he thinks that it has given a voice

to people that have not had a voice
traditionally in media.

So he was not going to change
the trajectory of Fox News.

[Sarah] And in fact,
he yanks it further to the right,

and Fox News becomes the cornerstone

of his influence politically
in the United States.

We have a moral obligation
to admit the world's poor, they tell us,

even if it makes our own country poorer
and dirtier and more divided.

[McKay] Under Rupert's supervision,

Fox News becomes
even more reckless and unhinged.

He really let the talent run wild.

Got the liberal crybaby snowflakes.

Refugees pouring in now, infecting Europe.

There are no guardrails.
There's no accountability.

Legal immigrants, isn't that worse?

The government checked you guys out
and let you in?

[Matthew] What matters were the ratings.

And Rupert knows that the Fox audience
cares about opinion.

It was good business
because that's what they wanted to hear.

This is the battle royal that goes on
inside Fox and with the Murdochs,

which is,
are we just about the bottom line

and keeping the audience happy,

or do we have some conscience
about what we're peddling?

Let's talk about Fox News.
Is Fox News fair and balanced?

Look, I mean,
I think the leadership at Fox News

makes decisions around how they hire
and what they do.

I try not to get too much into that.
I'm the chief executive, but…

James feels no ability
to shape the coverage,

to tell them to be more responsible.

Slaves that worked there were well fed

and had decent lodgings
provided by the government.

[Richard] Privately, James seems to become
more and more ethically uncomfortable

with what the role requires.

[siren wailing]

For James, the breaking point
comes with Charlottesville.

I think there's blame on both sides,
and I have no doubt about it,

and you don't have doubt about it either.

You also had people
that were very fine people on both sides.

[McKay] James watches
as Donald Trump holds a press conference,

and he watches Fox News's coverage
of all of it.

President Trump told some truths.

Yes, there are a lot of truths here.

There was both sides causing violence.

This line, to me, is so important.

He said, "We are all Americans first."

And sees how Fox News
is breathlessly defending Trump.

"We condemn all violence."
That's what President Trump said.

And all lives matter.

If you don't agree with that,
you're a racist.

It really just eats at James.

As he's trying to decide
what to do about all of this,

his wife, Kathryn,
asks him a clarifying question.

If you're not gonna stand up to Nazis,

who are you gonna stand up to?

[man 4] Last night,
20th Century Fox CEO James Murdoch

slammed the president's response.

An email from Murdoch said, "There are
no good Nazis, Klansmen, or terrorists."

[McKay] James puts out his own statement
without clearing it with anyone.

It is a stinging rebuke and repudiation
of Fox News.

[McKay] That statement
drives a further wedge

between him and Rupert.

James really believes
that his vision for the company

is better for the bottom line.

And that it's much too risky and reckless

to continue running these news outlets
the way that they've been run.

And he thinks that his father and brother,
whatever their politics, should see that.

And yet, by the end of 2017,

James's proposed initiatives
are going nowhere.

[Paul] The market was changing.

[James] We're moving
to a video-entertainment business

that is 100% consumed over IP networks.

[Matthew] Streaming is the next frontier.

Digital giants like Amazon and Netflix

are pushing another revolution
in viewing habits

by investing billions in programs.

[Matthew] Fox did not have the heft
to go up against

Netflix, Amazon, Apple,
all of these well-funded companies.

So James wants to try yet again
to buy the rest of BSkyB.

[reporter 19] That's an $11 billion deal.

[Sarah] He believes that if he's able
to bring BSkyB into the fold,

they could survive
in this brave new world.

And just as they are ready
to try to negotiate that,

another major scandal comes out.

[reporters shout] Bill!

[reporter 20]
Bill O'Reilly faces questions

about harassment allegations.

[reporter 21]
O'Reilly paid a $32 million settlement

to Lis Wiehl, a former Fox News analyst.

[reporter 22] Wendy Walsh,
a former Fox contributor,

claims O'Reilly harassed her.

Bill O'Reilly has been sexually harassing
people who work for him for years,

and the Murdochs secretly paid off
some of those women

even after James and Lachlan promised
they were going to clean up the company.

[reporter 23] The star of cable news
was forced out yesterday

from his top-rated show.

[reporter 24] Together, O'Reilly and Ailes
were paid $65 million to leave.

The women who accused them so far,
$33 million.

[Sarah] Fox had made a big show

of how they are going to have
a cleaned-up culture,

but this scandal just reminds everyone

of the dirty underbelly
of the Murdoch empire.

[McKay] The Fox News controversies

very much get in the way
of their broader ambitions.

[reporter 25] At risk, its attempt
to buy Europe's pay TV giant Sky.

[Paul] Ofcom,
the communications regulator,

decides "Are these people
fit and proper persons

to hold a TV license?"

[man 5]

[Matthew] Regulators in the UK
were outraged.

[Paul] It would've been a terrific deal,

and it probably would have sealed
James's succession if it had gone through,

but it doesn't.

[dynamic music playing]

[Matthew] They had tried to grow.

They'd gone after BSkyB
and failed to do that.

[Sarah] And so
without telling his children,

Rupert calls Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.

Bob Iger, over the past 20 years,
had been a grower.

Well, I think Star Wars
has had a great impact on Disney.

[Matthew] He had successfully
bought Lucasfilm,

Pixar, Marvel

to position Disney for the streaming wars.

Rupert and Iger went to the winery
that Rupert owns in Bel Air.

They had some glasses of Pinot, I am told.

[Sarah] And Rupert proposes
doing something

that, for longtime Murdoch watchers,
seems absolutely unthinkable.

[Paddy] Rupert presents the defining deal
of his life,

selling the bulk of the film
and television assets of 21st Century Fox

to Disney for 50-odd billion.

[Matthew] Fox had Avatar,

The X-Men, FX, Nat Geo.

All these would be additive for Disney.

[McKay] One night at Gramercy Tavern
in New York,

Rupert, Lachlan, and James
were all eating together

and discussing the Disney deal.

James was very supportive of the deal.

He was sick of being associated
with Fox News.

He felt like all of the changes
he wanted to make

to modernize and reform the companies

fell on deaf ears.

And he also saw this
as a way to set himself up

as potentially the next CEO
after Iger left.

But Lachlan was extremely upset.

[Jim] Lachlan likes having
a big Hollywood studio.

He didn't come back
to run a shaved-down company.

[McKay] He started ranting and raving,

and saying it was completely unfair

that Rupert and James were
pursuing this sale over his objections,

and finally gave them an ultimatum.

And said to his dad,

"If you go through with this deal,
you will not have a son."

And then he turned to James and said,
"And you won't have a brother."

Then he stormed out of the restaurant.

And in recounting that at the trial,

James said Lachlan's prophecy was right,

that a brother and son
would be lost over this deal,

and called this
the Oracle of Delphi moment.

[horn blares]

Rupert's facing one of the biggest
decisions in his career.

[soft, pensive music playing]

[Jonathan] Things are still up in the air
when Rupert and his then wife, Jerry Hall,

are on vacation in the Caribbean

on Lachlan's yacht, the Sarissa.

You know,
Lachlan's yacht is custom designed.

It has a climbing wall.

The cabin turns into a nighttime sky
with the constellations and the galaxy.

And it's also a racing boat,
so it's built to move quickly.

And one night,
Rupert gets up to go to the bathroom.

He trips, and he can't get up.

[Paddy] He had suffered a broken back.
He had to be evacuated by helicopter

and hospitalized.

[Jim] It becomes apparent
that to fix his back

will be to risk his life.

That the procedure they have to do
could kill him.

[Jonathan] Jerry calls Rupert's children

and says, "Your father is severely injured
and may die."

"You probably need to get to his bedside

and make whatever peace you can
or want to with him."

[Paddy] They rush to his bedside.

[Jim] The family is operating
as if this might be it.

This is also
setting in motion the possibility

that the four children are gonna
have to fight it out for control.

There was this awareness among everybody

that, um, you know,
that day could be coming soon.

I mean, it could be coming now.

[man 6] You have said you'd like to have
a member of the family succeed you.

They've got to prove themselves too.

[Paddy] There wasn't a clear plan
what would happen if Rupert was to die.

[Rupert] I hope to be able to leave them

a great opportunity,
like my father left me.

All the signs are they want it very much.

In the background
is always the trust, succession,

who's gonna prevail.

So there's a lot riding
on Rupert's recovery.

Of course, he's Rupert.

He does. He even joked,
"They can't kill me. Stronger than ever."

Rupert Murdoch is laid up in bed
and working from home.

[Matthew] Rupert recovered,
and he ended up selling to Disney.

How did you get Rupert
to sell some of the crown jewels?

A year ago, I didn't see this one coming.
Nor did I see it coming six months ago.

[Matthew] The 20th Century Fox
film studio,

the television studios they own,

and the cable networks went to Disney.

Getting the price he did was a great deal.

Each of the siblings
got about $2 billion in cash.

[Jim] Lachlan is happy.

He will say that he previously
really just opposed the deal

on the basis of price.

And it allowed Rupert and Lachlan to keep
the asset that they really care about,

which is Fox News.

But ultimately, it was
very devastating for James.

Fox announcing its leadership
for the new Fox.

Lachlan Murdoch will serve
as chairman and CEO of the company.

Rupert Murdoch will serve as cochairman.

Rupert made it clear
there was no role for James at Fox.

And in the end,
there was no role for James at Disney.

[man 7] There's been speculation

that you were agitating
for a place for him on the Disney board.

No, no, no, no. Uh…

There's no conditions like that.

[McKay] Rupert was convinced
that James was angling

to get himself a job at Disney
out of these negotiations.

It infuriated him.

And Rupert actually called Iger himself

and said, "Don't give my son a job."

And I think
that this was born out of Rupert's concern

that James was not negotiating entirely
out of the interest of the company

but was thinking about himself.

Lachlan's prophecy that a brother and son
would be lost over this deal was right,

but it wouldn't be Lachlan. It was James.

The sale of Fox to Disney effectively
made you a very wealthy free agent.

You think there's a future
in which you'd go back to Fox?

[laughs] I don't think so. I think
they're off doing their own thing there.

My brother and my father run that,
and I'm not worried about it.

- You don't communicate with them about it?
- Um, about business, no.

[Paddy] James leaves
the News Corporation board.

[Matthew] And the relationship
with the rest of the family suffers.

Rupert sees attitudes in James that
he sensed as weakness in other people.

[Matthew] He sees Lachlan now

as the last remaining steward
of the family business.

And he wants Lachlan
to have control when he's gone.

[man 8] Breaking news.

Rupert Murdoch is to step back
from the global media empire

that he built over seven decades.

Rupert Murdoch is retiring.

[Paddy] When Rupert finally retired
in 2023,

I was surprised

because it had always been said about
Rupert, he would be carried out in a box.

He would never retire.

Uh, but now in retrospect, it's clear
that by making his announcement,

he was trying to underline
as heavily as he could

that Lachlan was the one
he wanted to take over the whole thing.

[reporter 26] His son Lachlan
will become sole chairman

of both Fox and News Corporation,

with the billionaire now taking on
the honorary title of chairman emeritus.

[Jonathan] This is real life Succession.

Now Lachlan is the one
who is the heir apparent.

[woman 6] What most people are thinking
when they think of succession

is who's the next CEO going to be?

In a family-owned business,
you often assume

that a family member will be the next CEO.

They'll have ultimate control. In fact,
the real power lies in ownership.

[tense music playing]

[McKay] Rupert had come to believe

that James and his sisters
are going to link arms

and take control of the family empire,

boot Lachlan from the corner office,

defang Rupert's
conservative media outlets,

and, you know, turn Fox News into MSNBC.

[reporter 27] Anybody have any comment
this morning?

[Jim] So what Rupert's thinking is,
if he doesn't win this trial,

and if he doesn't get the trust
built around Lachlan,

it's like he never existed.

[Jonathan] There is billions of dollars
at stake, and there is pride at stake,

and there is a father's affection
and respect at stake.

And so when James and Lachlan
take the stand,

their history of betrayal, of bitterness,
of backstabbing is front and center.

[reporter 28]
Are you confident of victory?

[reporter 29] Any comment at all?

[Jonathan] What becomes clear
over the course of Lachlan's testimony

is he feels a great sense of betrayal
by his brother.

For years, he has felt that James
had been seeding stories in the media

about how James was planning
to one day push him out.

You know, he says on the stand
at one point,

"Thousands of stories."

"There have been thousands
of stories about this."

And that James has never come out
and said, "I support your leadership."

And he says,
"It would've been the right thing to do."

"It would've been the decent thing to do."

The fact that it didn't happen,
it fuels Lachlan's paranoia.

[Jim] On the stand,
James steadfastly denied all of that.

Again and again, he said,
"No, I wasn't planning."

"No, there was no plotting."

[McKay] James would say
that this was a fevered conspiracy theory

that Lachlan and Rupert had cooked up

to rationalize the aggressive moves
that they would take

to make Lachlan the successor
and ensure Rupert's legacy.

At some point at the trial,

he was asked about the years
of internal Murdoch family communications.

Texts and emails.

All this stuff
that had come out in discovery.

The communication showed that they see him

as just this pious, nagging liberal

who was throwing his politics
in everybody's face.

And when James is reading
these texts from his dad

to his sisters and his brother,

he became emotional
and actually started to cry on the stand.

This is his dad and his brother,
who he's loved and he thought loved him.

It laid bare just how far apart
he and his father were

in terms of their visions for the company,
how they saw the world,

what they believed
the Murdoch name should mean,

and just how calculating and manipulative
his father could be.

[reporter 30] Now the decision
about who will run News Corp

will rest with a judge.

[tense music playing]

I don't think anyone had any idea
who was gonna win this case.

So we are constantly working our sources.

[Jim] We're vaguely picking up
that each side feels pretty good.

But this is Rupert Murdoch.

He's one of the richest men on earth,

one of the savviest men on earth.

We just had a sense
that maybe Rupert would pull this out

because he's Rupert.

So we're waiting.

And then, in December,

we find out the judge has ruled.

[music ends]

[reporter 31] Our top story,

Rupert Murdoch has just lost his bid
to alter a family trust.

Rupert and Lachlan
lost on every single count.

- [reporter 32] How'd it go, Lachlan?
- [reporter 33] Any comment, Mr. Murdoch?

[Jim] It was kinda shocking,

not only that Rupert lost

but that the judge
found this whole thing so unseemly.

[reporter 34] The plan was deemed
basically a charade.

[reporter 35] The judge said Rupert
and Lachlan Murdoch acted in bad faith.

It's just a complete repudiation
of everything they said in court.

Basically that this was a ruse

meant to carry on Rupert's legacy
through his son.

[Jonathan] For James and Liz and Prue,
this is vindication.

This was about as resounding
and validating a victory

as you could have.

[McKay] Shortly after the trial was over,

Rupert and Lachlan were together

on the ancestral Murdoch ranch
in rural Australia,

talking about how their scheme
had fallen apart

and plotting their next move.

[Jim] We knew there was an appeal
coming from Rupert and Lachlan,

but the commissioner's ruling
was so definitive

that we couldn't see
how they could pull something off.

[soft, suspenseful music playing]

[Jonathan] Typically,
what happens in these cases

is the state judge would rubber-stamp
the commissioner's decision

and reject the appeal.

And so when the judge calls
for oral arguments,

James, Liz, and Prue do not go.

They don't take this seriously,
but Lachlan and Rupert are there.

Lachlan's lawyer argues that Lachlan
has been running the company.

It's doing very well financially.

And it's best for the heirs,
for everyone's financial interest,

to lock in Lachlan's control.

And the way that the judge is responding,

it becomes clear
that they were open to the argument

that Rupert had a right
to change the trust,

that the door is open, at least a crack.

[tense music playing]

[Jim] That can only mean one thing
if you're James, Liz, and Prue.

Maybe your victory
is not going to be a lasting one.

And now this coup to disenfranchise them
and take away their power

might actually happen.

[Jonathan] That changes the dynamic.

It was time to talk about a price.

[Jim] Rupert had always said to Lachlan,

"Bet on yourself. Buy your siblings out."

But Lachlan always seemed hesitant.
He never put up the big money.

And so Project Family Harmony,
which Lachlan initiated,

was a way for Lachlan to get it for free.

To get control of the company
without buying his siblings out.

[Jonathan] But if Rupert and Lachlan
were serious

about keeping control of Fox News…

[Jim] James and his sisters
are gonna need top dollar.

[Jonathan] Talks were ongoing.

And by the beginning of September,
they had an agreement in place.

[Jim] The price was finally right.
It looks like things are good.

But for these two brothers,

the acrimony is so high
that it threatened to scuttle everything.

And that's because Lachlan,

who's still furious about
this commissioner's ruling in December,

he wants an agreement

that the commissioner's ruling
has been vacated.

[Jonathan] James wanted this ruling
to live on

as proof that he had beaten his brother.

For James and Lachlan,

you know, the jockeying to be the winner,

this is what has defined
their entire lives.

[Jim] In the end, cooler heads prevail.

They find compromise language, like,
"Okay, we're moving on from that case."

[Jonathan] It's all silly,
but I guess it was like a point of pride.

That's how this family interacts. I mean,
it's like… It's nuts, but it's true.

[reporter 36] The battle for control
of the Murdoch news empire has been won.

Rupert Murdoch's family has reached a deal

which will see the eldest son, Lachlan,
take complete power

when the 94-year-old media mogul dies.

[reporter 37] Three of Lachlan's siblings
will receive huge payouts for their shares

and will step away from their roles
at both News Corp and Fox.

The three siblings
are gonna be fully out of the trust.

They are gonna get,
between them, $3.3 billion.

[Jonathan] A lot of people were stunned.

[Jim] There was a view,
certainly among liberal critics,

that James, Prue, and Liz sold out.

That they took the money and ran.

[Jonathan] They thought
that James would never sell out.

That he was planning to keep his shares

so that he could topple Lachlan
and transform Fox News.

I think it was always
in James's financial interest

to encourage that perception.

But I think, at the end of the day,

what he really wanted was to get
as much money as he could squeeze

out of his father and brother.

[reporter 38] A new trust
will be formed for Lachlan

and his two younger sisters,
Grace and Chloe,

that will hold controlling stakes
in Fox and News Corp,

with Lachlan controlling the votes.

[reporter 39] The two youngest children
become beneficiaries of the trust,

but with no voting power.

[Jonathan] For Lachlan to get control,

he needed to have
Grace and Chloe's shares.

[Jim] Wendi helped Rupert
to persuade the girls to just come along.

"You will still get your dividends.
Give Lachlan all the voting power."

But when the new trust expires in 2050,
Lachlan will be in his seventies,

and Grace and Chloe
will be fully-formed adults

who may want
more control over the company.

Who knows?

This is the Murdochs.

[contemplative piano music playing]

The succession battle is over,
and both sides are claiming victory.

But I think you have to say
that Lachlan and Rupert won.

Because Lachlan is gonna be
in control of this empire until 2050.

James and his sisters,
they got more money, yes.

But it's hard to see this as a victory
when you already have billions of dollars

and you just added another billion.

Whereas Lachlan actually got something
here that he didn't have,

which was control of this company.

[Jim] But for all this talk of winning,
they all lost.

They've got their billions,
but they've lost their family.

And that is what being a Murdoch
really cost them.

[man 9] How would you describe your dad?

[James] Well, I think the shows
make him look dark and sinister.

And really, he's a really nice person,
a fun person.

Sometimes, eh?

[man 10] Tell me about some of the things
that you would disagree with him about

and how you deal with it.

We don't have long enough.

[man 11] How important is it
for News Corporation

to stay in family hands?

To whom?

"How important to whom?" is the question.

[Lachlan] What he's done with his children

is throw them in the deep end,
give them great challenges,

and expect them to achieve, uh,
in those challenges.

[music fades]

[man 12] Is there a personal price
that you're bound to have to pay?

[Rupert] I think so, yes.

This is an all-consuming life.

And, um…

you know,
that's really all I can say about it.

[jazzy instrumental music playing]

[music continues]