Designated Survivor Trivia | 40 facts about the series

“Designated Survivor” is a political thriller drama, that aired from 2016 until 2019, and lasted for 3 seasons.

Let’s find out more about the series!

1. Designated Survivor is an American political thriller drama television series.
2. It was created by David Guggenheim.
3. It aired on ABC for two seasons.
4. Season three aired exclusively and globally on Netflix.
5. Kiefer Sutherland stars as Thomas Kirkman.
6. He’s an American academic named as the designated survivor for the State of the Union address, who suddenly ascends from the position of U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to President of the United States after an explosion kills everyone ahead of him in the presidential line of succession. Kirkman deals with his inexperience as head of state while looking to uncover the truth behind the attack.
7. The “Designated Survivor” is not fiction. It does happen in the United States.
8. In the United States, a designated survivor is a named individual in the presidential line of succession, chosen to stay at an undisclosed secure location, away from events such as State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations.
9. The practice of designating a successor is intended to prevent a hypothetical decapitation of the government and to safeguard continuity in the office of the president in the event the president along with the vice president and multiple other officials in the presidential line of succession die in a mass-casualty incident. T
10. he procedure originated in the 1950s during the Cold War with its risk of nuclear attack.
11. Alternatively, the designated survivor is called as designated successor.
12. The project skipped the pilot stage and was ordered straight to series on December 14, 2015.
13. Its premiere was followed by a formal announcement on May 6, 2016.
14. The first episode premiered on September 21, 2016, to an audience of over 10 million viewers.
15. Eight days later, a full season order was announced.
16. The series was renewed for a second season on May 11, 2017, which premiered on September 27, 2017.
17. In May 2018, ABC canceled the series after two seasons.
18. In September 2018, Netflix and Entertainment One announced they had reached a deal to pick up Designated Survivor for a third season of 10 episodes with the latter being solely responsible for production of the series.
19. The third season premiered on Netflix on June 7, 2019.
20. In July 2019, the series was cancelled by Netflix due to complications with the actors’ contracts.
21. Kiefer Sutherland originally wasn’t interested in starring in another television series, after his eight season run on 24 (2001) and the limited series 24: Live Another Day (2014). He changed his mind after reading the script for the pilot and was blown away at how good it was.
22. Kal Penn, who plays a White House staffer in this show, has actually worked as a White House staffer in his real life.
23. In 2009, his character was killed off so that Penn could take a job as Associate Director of the Obama administration’s White House Office of Public Engagement (working there under his birth name, Kalpen Modi). He took a leave from that job in June 2010 to film A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011) and returned to the White House after filming ended, in November 2010.
24. He also worked for Obama’s reelection campaign and spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
25. Three HUD Secretaries, like Kirkman, have served as the designated survivor: Samuel Pierce in 1984, Andrew Cuomo in 1999, and Shaun Donovan in 2010.
26. The premise of this series is similar to the plot of two of author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, Debt of Honor and Executive Orders.
27. Many of the news reporters are actual news personalities on WNEP-16 ABC affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
28. Kiefer Sutherland plays the President of the United States, but in real life he is ineligible to hold that office since he is not an American citizen.
29. He is citizen of Canada by descent, and of Great Britain by place of birth.
30. Kiefer Sutherland’s character Tom Kirkman is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development when he becomes the designated survivor. In the TNT Drama, The Last Ship (2014), Mark Moses’ character Jeff Michener was also the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development when he becomes the designated survivor in Season 2.
31. This is the second collaboration between Kal Penn and Kiefer Sutherland since 24 (2001).
32. Geoff Pierson, who plays former President Moss, played President Keeler on 24 (2001). Keeler was the president who beat Palmer in the election, but ultimately died in Season 4 and his VP, Charles Logan, was sworn in. Pierson and Kiefer Sutherland’s characters barely interacted on 24 (2001).
33. In April 2017, cast member Kal Penn tweeted a close-up photo of an on-set prop, a set of white boards with post-it notes intended to display a breakdown of “Yea” and “Nay” votes.
34. Penn revealed that several of the senators presented as votes on the board come from nonexistent states: a senator named “Penna” is listed as being from a state abbreviated “AV,” and one named Engram is from a state abbreviated “VR.” Neither of these are abbreviations for US states.
35. Peter Outerbridge (Charles Langdon) and Maggie Q (Hannah Wells) were both in the TV show Nikita(2010). Outerbridge played Ari Tasarov, the head of a Russian crime organization and former KGB while Q played the role of the series protagonist, Nikita Mears.
36. The jail scene in Season 1, Episode 6, Designated Survivor: The Interrogation (2016), was filmed in the Segregation Unit of the Metro Toronto West Detention Centre which has now been torn down.
37. Abu Fayed was the “bad” guy in Season 6 of “24.” Danny Fayed was the name of the kid killed in “Designated Survivor.”
38. The theme music echoes the style used by Jerry Goldsmith for the movie Patton.
39. Clyde Kusatsu, who guest stars as a Japanese Finance Minister, also played John Cho’s character’s father in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) alongside Kal Penn.
40. Ashley Zukerman plays a character on the show who becomes the Vice President. In real life, Zukerman is 33, two years too young to serve as Vice President.