SIMONE DEL ROSARIO: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch lost in court trying to change the family trust to make sure his vision for Fox News and other properties stays intact.

It’s the latest step in what’s become a real-life succession drama for the family that inspired the hit HBO drama, “Succession.”

But it wasn’t until this Nevada judge’s ruling that we learned how big of a role “Succession” played in this real-life court case.

The 93-year-old Murdoch wants to change the family trust to take power away from three of his four adult children to ensure his eldest son, Lachlan, will succeed him after he dies.

Nearly two decades ago, Murdoch had set up a trust to ensure that power over his companies would be split evenly.

But in the years that followed, Murdoch has increasingly prioritized making sure Fox News maintains its conservative viewpoint.

Murdoch’s son James and daughter Elisabeth are both known to share less conservative views than their brother and father. 

Rupert Murdoch has spent nearly his entire life building a media empire of newspapers and TV stations presenting news from a right-leaning perspective, first in Australia, then in the UK and U.S.

Murdoch’s move to change the family trust is one he argues is in the company’s financial interests.

It is the latest and possibly most important development yet in a years-long drama that has tied together business and family.

And in this recent defeat, life imitated art.

The judge wrote that Murdoch’s children tookaction after seeing an episode of the show “Succession.”

In the episode, the billionaire media mogul character, the family patriarch, died. In the immediate aftermath, three of his adult children, vying to lead the company, were caught off guard and quickly had to plan their next steps.

KENDALL ROY: We are highly liable to misinterpretation. So what we do today will always be what we did the day our father died.

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO: The New York Times reported testimony in the hearings showed Murdoch’s children James, Elisabeth, and his oldest daughter Prudence, met to discuss their public relations response to their father’s inevitable death.

The judge’s ruling against Rupert Murdoch is not the final word in this case. The judge serves as a commissioner, sending his recommended ruling to a district judge. That ruling is *also* open to appeal.

And there are other routes Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch could take, including making a deal to buy the ownership stakes from Murdoch’s other children.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Simone Del Rosario.

For more real-life “Succession” tales, search HBO SUCCESSION for this story at SAN.com or the Straight Arrow News app.