David Farnor | On 23, Sep 2016

Netflix UK has snapped up the UK rights to Kiefer Sutherland’s new series, Designated Survivor.

The show, which sees Sutherland return to the small screen after 24, is created by David Guggenheim, who has previously written Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington thriller Safe House and Nic Cage flick stolen. Produced by The Mark Gordon Company for ABC Studios, Guggenheim is the exec producer on the show, alongside Simon Kinberg, Mark Gordon, Jon Harmon Feldman, Nick Pepper. Suzan Bymel, Aditya Sood and Kiefer Sutherland.

Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, a low-level cabinet member who is appointed the “designated survivor” during the President’s State of the Union address – a role that leaves him locked safely away, just in case something should happen to the President during his speech. When an attack on the US Capital does happen, Kirkman finds himself unexpectedly appointed POTUS, and Kirkman finds himself struggling to keep the country and his own family from falling apart, while navigating the fallout from the attack and leading the search to find who is responsible.

Sutherland is no stranger to a politically-charged thriller, of course, and he is joined by Natascha McElhone as his wife, Tanner Buchanan as his son, Leo Kirkman, Adan Canto as Aaron Shore, Italia Ricci as Emily Rhodes, LaMonica Garrett as Mike Ritter, Kal Penn as speechwriter Seth Wright and Maggie Q as agent Hannah Wells.

TV Wise reported earlier this year that Netflix was rumoured to be in the running to acquire the rights to the show, with other broadcasters, including Channel 5 and Sky, also in negotiations with Entertainment One. The streaming giant, though, came out on top of the bidding wars, landing the exclusive British rights to the thriller.

The show airs on Wednesdays on ABC in the USA, with new episodes arriving on Netflix UK every Thursday, within 24 hours of their stateside premiere. Episode 1 is available to stream now.

 

Add to Watchlist