That scenario is indeed rooted in reality, mirroring a corporate structure used by Mr. Redstone, whose National Amusements company is the privately held parent of CBS and Viacom. In 2008, Mr. Redstone came under pressure from shareholders when they discovered that National Amusements had taken out loans linked to the value of CBS and Viacom stocks. During her time as a reporter at The Journal, Ms. Marr, one of the show's consultants, covered this unusual debt arrangement, which serves the series as a kind of MacGuffin.