Designated Survivor survived being cancelled twice, before its conclusion with the open-ended third season on Netflix in 2019, which was allegedly due to ratings and contractual issues.
Political thriller-drama series, Designated Survivor followed the life of a low-level politician who became the president of the United States after a terrorist attack.
The series premiered in 2016, with actor Kiefer Sutherland in the leading role of President Tom Kirkman.
Throughout its three-season run, the series was cancelled two times. It was first cancelled by its original commissioning network, ABC, just after two seasons.
After Netflix purchased the rights to the series, the streaming platform also cancelled it after greenlighting it for a third season.
A look back on Designated Survivor’s tenure on ABC
Designated Survivor premiered on ABC in 2016, and remained on the network for two seasons, with the production company behind the show being eOne.
The show was created by David Guggenheim, and it told the story of a low-level politician who was thrust into the position of the president of the United States, as a result of high-ranking officials being killed during a terrorist attack.
Kiefer Sutherland’s portrayal of President Tom Kirkman depicted him attempting to acclimatise to his new role, finding the terrorists behind the attack, while protecting his family.
The first season was a hit, drawing an average of 12.1 million viewers. However, the second saw a sharp decline, with an average of 8.6 million viewers.
Why was Designated Survivor cancelled on ABC?
Designated Survivor’s cancellation took place during ABC’s annual review meeting, where the network decides on which shows it wishes to renew for the 2018/2019 roster.
Consequently, the political thriller series was a part of the shows that were cancelled, and it was initially believed that the matter of the ratings decline was the cause of the cancellation.
However, upon further research, reports began to nuance other possible reasons for the show’s cancellation. First was the matter of the changing showrunners and how each changed the direction of the show.
In the two seasons that Designated Survivor was on ABC, it had four showrunners, with a fifth appointed to take over the third season.
Secondly, Kiefer Sutherland called for the shooting location to be moved from Toronto to Los Angeles, which would impact the production cost of making the show.
How did Netflix save Designated Survivor?
Not long after it was confirmed that Designated Survivor had been cancelled by ABC, news of eOne attempting to find a new home for the show circulated.
The touted contender to pick up the show was Netflix. However, the conclusion of the deal was considered precarious, as Hulu had the local viewing rights for the show.
Yet, Netflix had the global distribution rights, which further supported the platform being the one to pick the show up for a third season. In 2018, it was confirmed that Netflix had picked the show up for a 10-episode season three, which aired in 2019.
How did Designated Survivor perform on Netflix?
When Netflix aired the third season of Designated Survivor on its paid-subscription video on demand platform, the series immediately shot up and trended globally.
As a result, it was regarded as one of the most viewed series in 2019. However, the numbers were never released.
The fact that the show proved to bring in numbers to the platform made it all the more surprising when it was cancelled by Netflix following the third season, without a provided reason.
Even more so, when you consider that the cast were also optimistic that the show would continue to have more seasons on Netflix.
Why did Netflix cancel Designated Survivor?
Seeing that the viewership ratings could not possibly be the reason why Netflix cancelled the political thriller series, lead actor, Kiefer Sutherland was continually asked about the reason.
Sutherland eventually alluded to contractual matters being the reason the show was cancelled, when he stated, “I don’t think (season 4) is going to happen. We had an amazing experience with Netflix and a kind of freedom that was wonderful. But the reality is, because the contracts were so complicated and different from network television to Netflix, they didn’t book a lot of the actors who were on the show and they took other jobs. I don’t blame them for a second for that.”
Conclusion
Designated Survivor had a total of three seasons from 2016 until 2019. The first two seasons aired on ABC, and the last season of the show aired on Netflix.
The gap between season two, which aired in 2017, and season three, which aired in 2019, was due to the show being cancelled by ABC.
ABC is believed to have cancelled the show due to low ratings, a continual change in showrunners and the request to change shooting locations.
After picking the show up for a third season, Netflix is believed to have cancelled the show due to conflicting contractual matters with the cast.