Succession decided to take a direct page out of the Murdoch playbook in its latest episode.
The acclaimed HBO drama is said to be loosely based on the business magnate whose empire includes The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and Fox News in the US and The Sun and The Times in the UK.
In its fourth season’s latest episode, “Rehearsal”, the irascible patriarch and media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) climbs atop paper boxes to address his staff at ATN – a fictional equivalent to Fox News.
He proceeds to give a rousing speech to his employees, yelling that he couldn’t care less about growth statistics as long as “we’re killing the opposition”.
“Our rivals should be checking in, out the back of their chauffeured cars because they can’t believe what we did,” Logan shouts.
Following the episode’s premiere, journalist Bill Grueskin shared a side-by-side comparison of Logan’s staff address and a real-life image from 2007 of Rupert Murdoch doing the same.
“Rupert Murdoch stands atop paper boxes to address [Wall Street Journal] staff,” Grueskin wrote in the tweet’s caption.
Former WSJ journalist David Gaffin, responded in the comments, writing: “I remember it well. Recognised it immediately.”
The current season marks the show’s last. In promotional interviews ahead of its recent debut, Cox joked that he suffers from “Logan Roy disease”.
“My wife’s nearly divorcing me because of it,” the 76-year-old Scottish actor joked.
At the season four premiere, Cox could be heard in the background of his co-star’s red carpet interview, screaming at photographers.
Kieren Culkin later revealed the unusual way he told production assistants to calm down Cox on set.
Read The Independent’s five-star recap of season four episode two here.
Succession airs Sundays at 9pm EST on HBO Max in the US and Mondays on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
