May 25th, 2023, Christien Pheby
HBO’s Succession ends on Sunday after four seasons of business, betrayal, and boar on the floor. Ahead of the series finale, we asked the show’s American viewers who they think is most likely to take over from Logan Roy as the head of the show's fictional media conglomerate Waystar Royco.
A YouGov Self-Serve poll conducted shortly after the penultimate episode can reveal that the most popular option was Logan’s number one boy, Kendall, with sister Shiv coming in a distant second (10%).
Connor Roy ranked third, with the presidential candidate and collector of Napoleon memorabilia earning 9% of the vote. Milk-hating slime puppy Roman Roy won fourth place with 7%, while Cousin Greg rounds out the top five.
Are fans ready for Succession to end?
Ask fans if they’re excited for the finale and 86% say they are, with just 11% saying the opposite. Looking at YouGov Signal data, it’s not too surprising: overall, Succession has a global appetite score of 95.36, beating out Yellowstone, You, Friends, and Better Call Saul.
But is the show ending before its time? Half of fans do say it's the right moment for Succession to end, but nearly two in five say it’s concluding too soon. Just 5% think it should have ended earlier.
And while series creator Jesse Armstrong has downplayed the possibility of a spinoff, there is appetite for it among fans. Seven in ten (70%) say they would be interested, with just a fifth (21%) saying they would not.
As for the characters they’d be most willing to follow, Shiv (12%) and Greg (11%) top the poll. Kendall Roy (9%) and Roman Roy (9%) come in joint-third. Given that the former is arguably the main character of Succession proper, this hypothetical series might not qualify as a spinoff per se. But then again, Bosch: Legacy, which follows the titular Bosch from Bosch, is described as a spinoff and is currently airing on Amazon Freevee. We don't make the rules!
Finally, the Conheads are not going to love this: the oft-forgotten eldest son only ranks fifth, although he does beat Willa (3%), Tom (3%), Marcia (3%), Frank (3%), and Gerri (3%).
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Methodology
YouGov polled 2,000 US adults who watch HBO or HBO Max online on 22 May 2023.The survey was carried out through YouGov Self-Serve. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, political affiliation, and ethnicity. The margin of error is 2% for the overall sample. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Self-serve.
Image: Macall B. Polay/HBO