Sydney's Secret Affair With George Pilgrim

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Sumner was executive chairman of CBS and Viacom when he died. He relied on round the clock nursing for his declining health. His ex-girlfriends Sydney and Manuela moved into his mansion to take over his life. They cut Sumner off from his family, blocked Sherry's calls,. whispered in his ear that Sherry was a greedy liar. When they told him to amend his will by writing them in and cutting his own daughter out, he did it.

So "Succession" is back.

The Emmy Award-winning series returned to HBO for its fourth and final season last Sunday. The show, if you haven't seen it, centers on Logan Roy, the aging CEO of a media conglomerate called Waystar Royco, and his three gigantically entitled, dazzlingly profane children, each of whom believe they are the rightful heir to daddy's throne.

Like many viewers, we always assumed that Logan's character was based on Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp mogul who famously dangled the keys to his kingdom in front of his kids. But Jesse Armstrong, the creator of "Succession," has said that Murdoch was one of several tyrannical tycoons who inspired the show. Another? Sumner Redstone, the billionaire owner of CBS and Viacom. Like Logan, he refused to pass the torch to his children. Then, in a stranger-than-fiction twist, he got tangled up in a love triangle — in his 90s! — and nearly lost control of the empire he had worked his whole life to build.

Today on the show, our producer, Caleb, sits down with New York Times reporter Rachel Abrams, co-author of the recent bestseller "Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy," to talk about the empire Sumner Redstone built, the scandals that nearly brought it down, and how his daughter, Shari, managed to win the game of succession.