Rupert Murdoch's audacious bid to cement his eldest son's control over one of the world's most influential media empires has failed, a U.S. report said Monday.

The first family of news — commanding a stable that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and a host of British and Australian media — had been the inspiration for the hit TV series "Succession."

Like the fictional version, this real-life fight pitted the children of a powerful patriarch against one another for who should be the face and the voice of the empire after the old man dies.