Maybe the smart Murdoch move was just to take the money
I have some mixed feelings about the Murdoch succession family drama coming to an end today.
If you missed the details, the family trust is being split into two - James, Prudence, and Elizabeth will share one trust, which is made of shares that they’ll sell and pocket US$1.1 billion each. Meanwhile Lachlan Murdoch takes continued control of Fox Corporation and News Corp. It shores up big bear Rupert’s legacy and stops the business being sold by the trio of siblings who aren’t into what Fox is peddling.
My immediate thought was that the siblings have taken cash over doing the right thing. But, the more the decision has sat with me, the more that starts to feel naive.
While I’m convinced that no on-air talent is bigger than Fox News (there’s a reason why when most leave Fox News that their audience is greatly diminished - Tucker has probably carried more audience than most, but even his influence isn’t what it was), I’m not convinced that Fox News has the stranglehold on its audience in the same way.
The impact felt on Fox after it called the election for Biden in 2020 was notable and then there’s the influence Trump has over the MAGA viewers tuning in to Fox News. I’m not saying Fox lacks strength, but there are multiple points of weakness that can see its fortunes change very quickly.
All of this was no doubt weighing on the mind of the trio of Murdoch’s.
Taking the money and heading off felt like a far surer bet than sticking around in the event that they can create influence on Fox News which could just as easily see audiences hemorrhage anyway with a shift of editorial direction.
News Desk
The full list of winners for night 2 of the Creative Emmy Awards can be found at THR. Noteworthy is the first Emmy win for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with Jim Hoskinson winning for directing.
17.3 million people worldwide watched the Los Angeles Chargers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Why is that noteworthy? It’s the first time YouTube has had an exclusive NFL game on the platform. Around 16m of those viewers were in the US. Read: THR
Jimmy Kimmel says there likely won’t be another Live In Front of a Studio Audience special. That was the series of recreations of classic Norman Lear-produced sitcoms from the 70s and 80s. Read: Variety
Jay Harrington & Patrick St. Esprit will guest star in the pilot for spin-off SWAT: Exiles. Read: Deadline
Leanne has been renewed for a second season by Netflix. Read: TV Line
Irish Blood, starring Alicia Silverstone, has been renewed for a second season at Acorn TV. Read: THR
The new team at Paramount are pretty keen to juice up the languishing cable TV assets like MTV and Comedy Central. There’s crazy talk of investing in a digital presence for them, recognising that getting the kids to sign-up for cable TV might be a bit of a challenge. Read: WSJ
60 years of Star Trek is just the beginning.
A Star Trek: The Next Generation-themed LEGO set is in the works, but it likely won’t be hitting the shelves until next year - timed for what will be a year-long 60th anniversary celebration. Read: Polygon
The news was more or less made official by this cryptic LEGO instagram post:
And speaking of Star Trek…
Today saw the debut of new YouTube Star Trek kids show Scouts. It is aimed at the pre-school set.
My daughter, squarely in the demo for this, is obsessed with a Little Golden Book adaptation of The Trouble With Tribbles. But, there’s no way she’s ever going to want to watch more than one episode of this…
60 years, you say…
Worth keeping in mind if that if 2026 is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series, that is going to make 2026 a pretty big year for TV anniversaries.
Star Trek debuted on Sept 8, 1966. It was the same year that also saw the first episodes of:
Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward (Jan 12)
Ultraman debuted on TBS in Japan.
The Green Hornet (Sept 9)
Dark Shadows (June 27)
The Australian version of Play School (July 18)
That Girl (Sept 8)
The Time Tunnel (Sept 9)
The Monkees (Sept 12)
The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. (Sept 13)
Mission: Impossible (Sept 17)
1966 was the year that the US networks all made the switch in their prime time schedules to color, which is why there is so many big and bold superhero/sci-fi/spy shows in the schedule - they were the shows network execs thought would really pop.
And now for something completely different…
ABW doesn’t wade much into politics, but it seemed important to recognise that media outlets are publishing the “bawdy” cartoon Donald Trump supposedly drew on the birthday card for one Jeffrey Epstein.
Here’s is the image as ABW understands it:
Trailer Park
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third (and probably final) film in the series. It debuts on Netflix Dec 12.
RFDS returns in October on Seven.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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