What’s worse than a favorite show being cancelled? The show being cancelled twice. That’s precisely what has happened to Designated Survivor fans. Designated Survivor was about Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland, 24) the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who is named the designated survivor the night of the State of the Union address. After a terrorist attack kills everyone in front of him in the presidential line of succession, Kirkman becomes the President of the United States of America. The show ran for two seasons on ABC and was cancelled in May, 2018. The show was then picked up by Netflix who premiered a 10-episode season three in June. News of Netflix’s cancellation broke on July 24th, 2019.
Watch the season three trailer below.
Netflix said in a statement,
We are proud to have offered fans a third season of Designated Survivor, and will continue to carry all three seasons for years to come. We’re especially thankful to star and executive producer Kiefer Sutherland, who brought passion, dedication and an unforgettable performance as President Kirkman. We’re also grateful to showrunner/executive producer Neal Baer for his guiding vision and steady hand, creator/executive producer David Guggenheim and EPs Mark Gordon, Suzan Bymel, Simon Kinberg, Aditya Sood and Peter Noah along with the cast and crew who crafted a compelling and satisfying final season.
According to Digital Spy, Sutherland indicated that viewing numbers were not the main factor in the cancellation decision. Sutherland said, “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. So I think doing a season four would be very complicated and difficult… I think it’s time for all of us to go and find something new to do.” Netflix and studio Entertainment One made one-year deals with the cast for season three. Actors such as Kal Penn (How I Met Your Mother), who played Seth Wright the White House Communications director, already have jobs lined up for the Fall season. Netflix has not commented on whether or not contract or scheduling conflicts were a factor in their decision.