Does the line of succession for Designated Survivor lead to Netflix? ABC cancelled the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle after two seasons last week, but the studio behind the series, eOne, is now in talks with Netflix about picking up season 3.
According to Deadline, the talks are in the early stages and are complicated because Hulu has the US SVOD rights. Netflix carries the show’s international streaming rights, which makes it a good fit. Designated Survivor is huge on Netflix outside of the US. Huge. So we suspected, upon hearing about the series’ cancellation, that it would try anything and everything to work this out, and it looks like that’s now happening in earnest.
Designated Survivor was given a straight-to-series order by ABC and premiered in 2016 to strong ratings. While they’ve declined in the second season, the delayed viewing numbers are promising, which also bodes well for the streaming service.
On a conference call, ABC president Channing Dungey offered some rationale behind the cancellation decision: “Creatively, we’ve had a lot of behind-the-scenes churn on the show in terms of the number of showrunners involved. We were less confident with the creative path forward than the other shows we brought back.”
The production of the show has been turbulent with four showrunners in two seasons, and a fifth signing on for a potential third season.
We’ll keep you posted on the status of Designated Survivor season 3.