Designated Survivor Preview

My fellow Americans….

Imagine if you will that you are a lowly cabinet member of the United States government. You were appointed to this position – not elected – and have been serving your government faithfully for a number of years. But on the night of the State of the Union address, you are assigned the “position” of Designated Survivor.

What does that mean? The designated survivor is an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the President and the country’s other top leaders are gathered at a single location. This is intended to maintain continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that kills the President and many officials in the presidential line of succession. Were such an event to occur, killing both the President and Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line, possibly the designated survivor, would become the Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act.

Welcome to the world of Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland of 24 fame), the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who is selected as the designated survivor during the current State of the Union address. While he and his wife Alex (Natascha McElhone from Californication), an EEOC attorney, are in an off-site location watching the address, tragedy strikes. The United States Capitol is rocked by an explosion that seemingly takes the lives of the President, Vice President and the members of the cabinet, leaving Kirkman as the highest ranking official, wherein he become the new, albeit reluctant, President of the United States of America.

While I don’t want to spoil the rest of the reveals in the pilot episode of the new ABC drama, what fun is it to give away everything?, I think that ABC has a good show on their hands that will provide just the right amount of humor, intrigue and political ponderings. And, viewers will get to see a very different side of Kiefer Sutherland – there are no signs of Jack Bauer in this character at all – and what I hope will be three dimensional female characters – not just in Kirkman’s wife but also in Emily Rhodes (Italia Ricci from Chasing Life and Supergirl), who is Kirkman’s personal Chief of Staff and Hannah Wells (Maggie Q from Nikita and The Divergent franchise), who is an FBI agent assigned to investigate the bombing.

Other members of the cast will include:

Adan Canto (The Following, Blood & Oil and Second Chance) as Aaron Shore, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff;

LaMonica Garrett (The Last Ship and Sons of Anarchy), as Mike Ritter, a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the Kirkman family following the bombing;

Kal Penn (House and Harold and Kumar franchise), as Seth Wright, a White House speechwriter who has doubts about Kirkman’s abilities to lead the country; and,

Tanner Buchanan (The Fosters) and Mckenna Grace (The Young & the Restless and Independence Day: Resurgence) as Leo and Penny Kirkman, the teenage son and young daughter (respectively) of Tom and Alex Kirkman.

Here is a trailer for the show:

Designated Survivor will debut on ABC on Wednesday, September 21 at 10/9c.