Unscripted

James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams tell the story of the fight over Sumner Redstone's media holdings as he failed in old age: his daughter Shari against Viacom directors, and then against CBS chief executive Les Moonves, who tried to strip her of power while burying the sexual misconduct allegations that would end his career.

Stewart won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading, is the author of Den of Thieves, Blood Sport and Blind Eye, and teaches at Columbia Journalism School. Abrams was part of the New York Times team that won the 2018 Pulitzer for public service for its reporting on sexual harassment. Their access shows: private calls, texts and emails anchor the narrative.

Critics loved it. The New York Times Book Review made it an Editors' Choice, and The Economist named it a book of the year. The caveats are about tone. Edward Kosner in the Wall Street Journal felt the soap-opera stretch drags, Matthew Belloni in the Washington Post warned that much of its appeal is prurient, and Kirkus noted that the book cannot settle how much the elderly Redstone understood of the deals done in his name.

Read it if you sit on boards, advise on family-controlled companies or invest in them, and want a detailed record of how succession can go wrong.

1. Know who holds the votes. The fight turned on who would speak for Redstone's controlling stake, a reminder to map the real control structure of any family-run company you own or advise.
2. Founder decline is a governance risk. Boards spent years acting on the wishes of a chairman whose capacity was openly in doubt, and investors bore the cost of that uncertainty.
3. Directors pick sides. Board members at both CBS and Viacom aligned with management or the family rather than acting as neutral fiduciaries, and the courts became the referee.
4. Misconduct is a financial liability. The authors argue that the culture tolerated powerful men's misconduct as long as profits and the stock price rose, until the allegations cost Moonves his job.
5. Deals outlive dynasties. The CBS-Viacom recombination solved the family's control problem without solving the business problem of competing with Netflix and Amazon.

Reviewers describe a book in two movements: a family drama around a declining patriarch, then a corporate war over two public companies.

1. The patriarch. Redstone builds National Amusements from his father's drive-in theaters into control of Viacom, Paramount and CBS, ruling as a feared boss and a difficult father.
2. The household. In his nineties Redstone lives with companions Manuela Herzer and Sydney Holland, who between them extract roughly $150 million before they are pushed out and Herzer sues over his competence.
3. Shari's campaign. Often estranged from her father, Shari Redstone moves to regain his trust, takes on Viacom directors who had long heard him disparage her and helps derail a plan to sell a stake in Paramount to a Chinese conglomerate.
4. Moonves. CBS's chief executive maneuvers with board allies to dilute the family's control while allegations of predatory conduct surface. He becomes the first CEO of a major public company forced out over sexual misconduct.
5. Aftermath. Shari wins a string of lawsuits, CBS and Viacom are recombined into what is now Paramount, and the company is left chasing Netflix and Amazon in streaming.