No UK Broadcaster yet as far as I know, but the show looks like it will be well enough done, and with a huge enough star (Kiefer Sutherland) that I think it has a good chance of doing well in the US and eventually making its way out the rest of the world.

https://youtu.be/q1ug912Iaik

Really looking forward to this as seems like the new show with the most potential. However, as we have seen in recent years it takes a lot more than a great idea, good cast and spectacular pilot to produce a series with enough legs to last a few seasons. Last year Quantico started with a cracking pilot but soon got bogged down in its conspiracy that most people lost interest in who did it and why.

ABC are clearly wanting this to succeed as they advertised it about 10 times during the emmys.

Too true.

I shall have a pip of this but w/o having much expectation that it will offer anything new. I suspect there will be lots of darstardly Muslim Arabs, lone wolves and rogue states; US military badass and kickass might (w the odd killing of innocent poor civilians in some backwater village aka poor ME/African countries); lots of scenes in the White House Situation Room where the president, staring a large 100 inch screen with the map of whatever made up country on it, has zero seconds to abort a nuclear fallout; lots of political shannigans over who rightfully should be POTUS (Sutherland's authority will be sorely tested and people will begin to question his abilities, especially a few members of Congress who will josling for power themselves. But have no fear this is after all a kind of Jack Bauer-cum-Josiah Barlett character of noble politics and personality, who will no doubt have his moments of uncertainity and doubt but will have his "strong independent" wife with her own "strong independent" career to steady him and give him wise counsel); lots of talk about black ops and classified information; blacksite operatives the POTUS does not know about but will be furious when he does; NSA covert illegal-ish spying etc, etc.

ETA: I forgot to add: the additional need for mystery and suspense - i.e. to find out who killed the real POTUS and cabinet members.

Or I could be completely and utterly wrong in all of this. The only thing I can't guess is which political party Sutherland's character will represent. My guess.... he's a Republican who really acts as a Democrat.




Oh dear, *signs*, it's an ABC creation. Advertising the show that much has a desparate sniff of the need to make this a hit about it.

And I bet that one of the President's inner circle is a mole. If 24 and Homeland taught us anything there is *always* a mole at the highest level of government.

Darn it! I knew I'd missed one! How could I have missed the Mole???! Lol.

I actually expect to get some kind of twist with who the bombers are. I suppose we may see some Muslim cliches, but if its a deep conspiracy plot I think they may wind up being red herrings.

As for what party President Kiefer is? I suspect they will somehow dodge admitting which he is and mostly get away with it based upon all of Congress being wiped out too. So he will only be dealing with a few other politicians (from what I've heard, informally the opposing party keeps a Designated Survivor as well, but if its something like a State of the Union address we could also learn about some Congessman or Senator who was home sick or something like that).

I do suspect that there will be all kind of West Wing type hand-wringing and antics. The actual character sounds very little like Jack Bauer so I think they will steer away hard from any comparisons there.

Pilot is being advertised as having a TVPG not 14 rating, meaning I guess it'll be more West Wing than 24.

(US tv has a rating system, most shows of this ilk are 14, meaning they have violence roughly equivalent to the UK 15 film rating, but Designated Survivor has the lower PG rating suggesting UK PG/12 type content.)

Can he still get Chloe to check the schematics of the building ?

No. Dammit

Hee, hee!

Sounds like it might be a rather take affair this. I keep getting vibes that this show might the male equivalent of a less mawkish nicey-nicey Madam Secretary.

Based on the pre credits scene I'm calling cancelled.

It shot its load too early and it certainly didn't need the '15 hours before' flash back style.

hmm. snap judgments are fun!

It's not unwatchable but it is pretty much enjoyable rubbish to use a hoary old backhanded complement

Maybe not the greatest pilot ever - lazy writing and unimaginative casting - but I'm prepared to give it a chance to see how it settles down. It took Madam Secretary the first half of S1 to find its feet but that has turned into a solid show. There aren't many shows which launch with a perfectly formed pilot without the need for any tweaking.

The trouble is that any show set in the White House will always be compared to The West Wing and no matter how good it is, it will never be as good as TWW.

(closes eyes and scrolls to bottom of page)
5mins into the ep and I'm in. - series shall be the first one I watch on a (checks clock) Thursday.

Netflix have the UK rights and it is available now.

So no chance of it ever getting onto "proper" tv??

Interestingly this is the second series in a couple of years where a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development becomes President after a disaster. The other was The Last Ship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ship_(TV_series)

Does tv have a low opinion of the role of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Developments?

BTW, this is the second year running that a major new series on ABC has events around a major 'terrorist' incident. Quantico and now this.

Says something about the direction they're taking.

yeah I'm in too...loads of other pilots to check out though will have to whittle some down

Anyone know if this will be available in UHD?

Not necessarily. Other US shows have been picked up by online streaming services in the past, and then received a repeat broadcast on a traditional broadcast channel. Most recent example I can think of if Mr Robot – produced/broadcast by USA Network in the US, bought by Amazon as an ‘Amazon Exclusive’ for their Amazon Prime Video service, then received a repeat broadcast a year later on Universal Channel.

Netflix picking up Designated Survivor just means that it’ll be at least a year until it makes it way to a traditional broadcast channel, if it does at all. That’s assuming it doesn’t bomb and get cancelled in the US in the meantime... we’re only one episode in, and it’s a long way until the end of the season.

Ok start, but whether I will watch will depend on how much the already set up political backstabbing takes centre stage.

Do you mean if there is too much or too little back stabbing?

This is too much like Quantico (in terms of who did it) for my liking.

I can tell the President's kids are going to be annoying.