Designated Survivor to return on Netflix following ABC cancellation

Designated Survivor is the latest canceled TV show to be revived by a streaming service.

ABC axed the Kiefer Sutherland-starring political thriller back in May due to low ratings. Four months later, Netflix has decided to pick it up for a third season, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Wednesday.

Don't expect the show to be quite the same when it makes the transition to streaming, though. For one, the third season is only going to consist of 10 episodes, whereas season one and season two had 21 and 22 episodes, respectively. The showrunner is also being replaced, with veteran ER scribe Neal Baer taking over for Keith Eisner.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The third season, which will premiere sometime in 2019, will evidently deal with timely topics like "fake news" and campaign finance. Under this deal, Netflix will also be able to stream the first two seasons beginning this fall; at the moment, the show is only available to Netflix subscribers outside of the U.S. and Canada. Read more at The Hollywood Reporter.