How Fox Is Building Its Empire
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Like Lucious Lyon, Toby Byrne is building an empire. He isn’t a hip-hop mogul in the midst of a familial power struggle, but as the ad sales chief for all of Fox Networks Group, he is charged with leading a suddenly emboldened regime.
That was far from the case in October, when Mr. Byrne was appointed to the newly created role. At the time, Fox looked more like a fallen kingdom. The network lagged its broadcast rivals in ratings; many of its freshman series, including the ambitious 24/7 reality show, “Utopia,” were canceled early on; its flagship “American Idol” continued to lose ground; and the network group was grappling with a major managerial shakeup.
But after six months at the helm, Mr. Byrne will have a very different story to tell when he brings the company’s broadcast, cable and digital assets to market as a unified group during this year’s upfront. Much of that is due to “Empire,” Lee Daniels’ sudsy mid-season drama, which broke ratings records by growing its audience every week during its 12-episode run. The show, which follows a hip-hop producer whose ex-wife and three sons vie for the throne of his music business after he is diagnosed with a terminal illness, is not only a ratings blockbuster, but has become part of the cultural zeitgeist.
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