Keryn Redstone, one of media mogul Sumner Redstone’s granddaughters, said she will side with the Viacom board against her aunt Shari Redstone in the battle over his media empire.

She said Shari Redstone was able to “effectively kidnap, brainwash and take advantage of [her] grandfather due to his debilitated state of mind and frail health” so her aunt could control his assets.

The Viacom board has accused Shari Redstone of having an “undue influence” over Sumner Redstone as he moves toward replacing Viacom’s directors and management, including CEO Philippe Dauman.

A suit by Dauman and another Viacom director, George Abrams, charging that a move to remove them as trustees of Sumner Redstone’s trust, which holds a controlling interest in the company that owns 80% of the voting rights for Viacom and CBS, will be heard next week in a Massachusetts court.

Related:The Philippe Phactor [subscription required]

On Wednesday, Keryn Redstone rejoined the fray, issuing a statement that said that Sumner Redstone’s health has deteriorated and that he has been incompetent since October.

“The last time that I saw my grandfather was on Valentine’s Day for fifteen minutes," she said. "As he sat there lifeless and flanked by his nurses and caretakers, he seemed unaware of his surroundings. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life."

Keryn Redstone also said Shari Redstone orchestrated the removal of Manuela Herzer as her grandfather’s companion and overseer of his health care, and has kept the Viacom board from communicating with him.

‘Because I was in the house, I know that my grandfather has been incompetent since last October," she said. "This is why Shari is keeping me away, because I will not lie or conceal the truth about my grandfather’s condition. I love my grandfather and I cry myself to sleep every night knowing that I might never see him again."

Keryn Redstone has hired the same lawyers who represented Herzer in her unsuccessful suit to have Sumner Redstone declared incompetent to make health care and financial decisions.

“I do not intend to let Shari get away with this outrage,” she added. “I will soon be announcing legal steps to join with the Viacom directors in our common cause to liberate my grandfather from Shari’s clutches and protect my fellow trust beneficiaries and myself from her machinations.”

Read the full text of Keryn Redstone's statement at broadcastingcable.com.

It hasn’t been a good week to be Philippe Dauman.

The Viacom executive chairman and CEO is a regular target of irate shareholders who blame him for the content company’s precipitous fall over the past few years. Now, he’s even taking shots from his onetime friend and mentor, and Viacom’s largest shareholder, Sumner Redstone.

Redstone’s moves to oust Dauman and longtime Viacom board member George Abrams from the trust that will manage Redstone’s controlling stake in Viacom after his death or incapacitation has fueled mounting speculation that Dauman is being forced out.

While Dauman works hard to repair his reputation, signs point to a showdown with Redstone’s daughter and Viacom nonexecutive vice chair of the board Shari Redstone, who has been gaining influence in the trust. Lawsuits have traded back and forth: Dauman to block Redstone’s moves, Shari Redstone to have her father’s wishes upheld.

As the palace intrigue roils on, it might be time to take a closer look at Dauman’s performance by comparing his often-criticized pay package with the rise or fall of Viacom’s market capitalization over the past five years.

Related:Viacom Board Prepared to Fight

There has been much talk of Viacom’s mismanagement and how executives were more interested in cashing massive compensation checks while ignoring trends in the TV business. That is all a matter of perception, though: Few current pay TV executives could have anticipated the rise of OTT players and skinny bundles five years ago, and most didn’t.

At the same time, whether or not its youth-oriented channels make it a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the TV business, one unmistakable fact is that under Dauman and his top lieutenant, chief operating officer Tom Dooley, Viacom has faltered in the past few years.

A quick look at the stock price is evidence of that. Viacom shares are down about 25% since May 2011, shedding about $19 billion in market cap. At the same time, Dauman has received nearly $200 million in total compensation over that span and Dooley received $154 million in salary, stock-and-option awards and incentive compensation.

Since 2014, when Viacom stock was trading in the $80 range, the falloff is more dramatic. Since March 10, 2014, when Viacom shares closed at $88.90 each, the stock is down more than 50% to $39.95 on May 24, subtracting about $20 billion in market cap. Dauman and Dooley reaped a combined $145.8 million in total compensation over that period.

Dauman and Dooley aren’t the only media executives who have been criticized over their pay packages — and they aren’t even the highest paid. That distinction belongs to Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav, who has received $324.1 million in total compensation in the past five years, skewed mostly because of one-time awards in 2014 that inflated his total pay to $156 million that year. Viacom’s sister company CBS was second, with chairman and CEO Les Moonves receiving $313 million in total compensation in the past five years.

But while Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger received $199 million in total compensation between 2011 and 2015, for instance, Disney’s market cap soared 144.6% from $41.1 billion to $100.5 billion. CBS is up 105.6% to $54.2 billion from $26.4 billion in 2011; 21st Century Fox is up 69.6% to $28.9 billion from $17.1 billion in 2011; and Discovery is up 23% to $26.8 billion from $21.8 billion in 2011. Viacom’s market cap has fallen from about $35 billion in 2011 to $16.7 billion as of May 25.

Whatever the outcome, some analysts believe Dauman’s days are numbered. In a research note last week, Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan charted out several scenarios that ultimately end with Dauman’s ouster.

In a piece titled “Jersey Shore Has Nothing on This,” Eagan noted board changes at Viacom and National Amusements (the vehicle that holds Redstone’s Viacom stock). “We expect that Sumner and Shari Redstone will attempt to make changes in Viacom executive management, chiefly replacing CEO and chairman Phillippe Dauman,” Eagan wrote. “Although Mr. Dauman has the support of the Viacom board, we expect changes in that board.”

As expected, Viacom executive chairman and CEO Philippe Dauman and board member George Abrams have filed suit in Massachusetts Probate and Family Court to try to block a move by their former boss Sumner Redstone to remove them from the  trust that would manage the company in the event of Redstone’s death or incapacitation.

The suit brings to a head moves over the weekend by Redstone, angered over Dauman’s attempts to sell a minority stake in Paramount Pictures and the overall decline of the media company he helped build. In the suit, Dauman and Abrams are seeking immediate judicial relief and a court ruling to invalidate their removal from the trust.

The two men said in a statement that Redstone’s daughter, National Amusements and Viacom director Shari Redstone is unduly influencing her father, who they claim they have been denied access to.

“Shari Redstone is attempting to illegally hijack her father’s well-established estate plan by removing professional managers and reportedly installing her daughter, an employee and a friend who are firmly under her control,” Dauman said in a statement. “We all continue to have great respect and affection for Mr. Redstone, but he is clearly being manipulated by his daughter, Shari.  After years of estrangement, she has inserted herself into his home, taken over his life, and isolated him from anyone not under her control, including long-time business colleagues.  In fact, she has recently and repeatedly arranged to deny requests for Viacom Board members to meet with her father.  Her singular goal is to assume complete control of his businesses, despite Mr. Redstone’s long-term desire for a professionally managed Trust and an independent Board of Directors.  Shari’s actions amount to an unlawful corporate takeover, and if effectuated, could have far-reaching consequences for thousands of shareholders and employees of Viacom.”

In a separate statement, Abrams said Redstone’s moves are out of character, reflect a “diminished capacity,”  and contradict what have been his wishes for more than 25 years.

“My sole purpose in joining in this law suit is to allow  a court to determine whether Sumner Redstone, in his current diminished capacity, has been subject to undue influence in his recent actions in changing his Trustees and in changing  other documents,” Abrams said in the statement. “ For over 25 years Sumner has discussed his will and various Trusts with me and I was instrumental in setting up this Trust at the time of his divorce.  He has impressed on me his wishes that the Trust be managed in a professional manner and that the children of the son and his daughter be treated fairly and equally despite some internal family conflicts.  He also discussed at length with me his feelings about Viacom and CBS and the future of both companies.  The changes purportedly being made would alter his previously and repeatedly expressed wishes.  As a result of some of the information which has recently  been received, I believe a court test on the question of undue influence is necessary.”