run the show

Idioms  

1. Take charge, assume control, as in Ever since Bill retired from the business, his daughter's been running the show. The word show here simply means “kind of undertaking.” [First half of 1900s] A similar usage is run one's own show, meaning “exert control over one's own activities” or “act independently.” For example, The high school drama club didn't ask permission to perform that play—they want to run their own show. [Mid-1900s]

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Example Sentences

“Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Owens wrote in a message obtained by the Times.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 22, 2025

Crusaders point guards Dash Lamebull-Ingram and Alex Elston run the show.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 18, 2023

But she figured the organization wanted to become a more progressive funder; after all, they’d hired her — an activist attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund — to run the show.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 14, 2023

After its Birmingham run, the show will move to Plymouth Theatre Royal from 12-14 October and London’s Sadler’s Wells from 18-21 October.

From BBC • Sep. 26, 2023

The tools in NHS wanted her to run the show, but you weren’t allowed to be the leader of more than two things, and she was already tennis captain and junior class president.

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin

Related Words

• administer
• conduct
• dominate
• govern
• guide
• handle
• maintain
• operate
• oversee
• regulate
• run
• supervise
• take care of
• take over
• train
• use