Despite surviving severe showrunner shuffle in season one, ABC renewed its Designated Survivor TV show for second season. In the wake of the departures of Amy Harris, Jon Harmon Feldman, and Jeff Melvoin, Keith Eisner has taken the reins of the political drama. Can this veteran of The Good Wife, Law & Order, and Gilmore Girls earn the Nielsen ratings needed to keep it on the air? Will Designated Survivor be cancelled or renewed for season three? Stay tuned.
A political conspiracy thriller, Designated Survivor stars Kiefer Sutherland, Natascha McElhone, Adan Canto, LaMonica Garrett, Kal Penn, Maggie Q, Malik Yoba, Paulo Costanzo, Zoe McLellan, Ben Lawson, Tanner Buchanan, and Mckenna Grace. The ABC TV series centers on Tom Kirkman (Sutherland). After an attack on Capitol Hill wipes out the line of succession, this HUD Secretary becomes President of the United States. In Designated Survivor, season two, President Kirkman is on the hunt for the terrorists who destroyed the Capitol, even as he handles the daily Oval Office crises.
The ratings are typically the best indication of a show’s likelihood of staying on the air. The higher the ratings (particularly in the 18-49 demo), the better the chances for survival. This chart will be updated as new ratings data becomes available — typically around 11:30am EST/8:30am PST. Refresh to see the latest.
4/12 update: You can see the rest of the latest night’s ratings.
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Note: These are the Live + Same Day Ratings which include “live” viewing plus delayed DVR viewing, up until 3am local time that same night. Ratings marked with an “*” are the fast affiliate ratings and will be updated with the Live+SD numbers when they are made available. Typically, networks get paid for C+3 ratings which includes DVR viewing within three days of the original airing when commercials are watched. Those numbers are rarely released to the press.
For comparisons: The first season of Designated Survivor on ABC averaged a 1.25 rating in the 18-49 year old viewer demographic and a total audience of 5.840 million viewers.
What do you think? Do you like the Designated Survivor TV series? Should it be cancelled or renewed for a third season on ABC?
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22 Comments on "Designated Survivor: Season Two Ratings"
I was into it until the last two eps, when it became predictable and the characters started to act uncharacteristically generic. The scripts are getting rushed and formulaic. I don’t care what happens anymore.
Renew it! My fiance and I love it. We have bought season 1 on PlayStation and are going to buy season 2! Maggie Q is a great actress and we watch anything she’s in.
Do they consider bought seasons from PlayStation and recorded episodes on DVR for ratings?
They cancelled Nikita a few years ago, Valor is also a great show but up in the air on renewal for another season, and Designated Survivor too? Stop putting all the good shows up in the air and renew them.
Ratings aren’t looking good for a season three. Losing a large share of the 900 audience, down to 0.6 and third in the hour. Even Jack Bauer might not be able to save this show and he’s more man than this show’s President Kirkman.
18-49 down 39%, total viewers down 29%. Why the difference? Younger viewers don’t watch live traditional tv as much anymore
Aside from Keifer, Natascha McElhone is THE best reason to watch this show. That they killed her off kills the show, for me. Now Maggie Q? She’s hard to watch, her acting is so baf. If they needed one less woman on the show Maggie was the one to can. Hands down. I might not watch without Alex/Natascha. Should have put her in a coma instead
I agree with Jody Pawel, killing of the First Lady killed the show for me. Kay
renew this. It is way better than most of the other stupid shows
I liked the fist part more but from there it just bullshit there were feeding us eg.I liked when aaron was the sec. to the president sometimes he had guts to do the right thing in a wrong way when he saw the president was to soft to make some huge calls.
I absolutely love Designated Survivor! Please hurry with the 11th episode of season 2!
I absolutely love this show and don’t know why there has been only 10 episodes. I watch and pay for it on Amazon because it is convenient and I am hooked and upset not to have another show in over a month. Please!! There are many of us that do not watch live so a terrible way to measure – check Amazon ratings and other online venues. We love Kiefer, all the characters are so developed.
I love Designated Survivor. Refreshing to see something different. No nude or sex scenes, what a pleasure. Way better than what Scandal turned into.
Designated Survivor is still a quality show to watch. I don’t see why it has to be cancelled as it’s still a successful show. If you are talking about Nielsen rating, it’s totally inaccurate because it only measures lives viewers. For DS show in the past and current, it still accumulates more viewers than any other shows for delayed viewings after 7 days. Lives viewing has shifted. Majority of people like myself watch most shows from recorded DVR. If counting delayed viewers, DS average 9 mil viewers weekly per show
The stress has shifted from the action in the field to the less thrilling action in the White House. The president is just a little bit too perfect and seems to be a political mouthpiece for the writers. I still watch and enjoy it. Just not as much as last season.
It gets better each episode. I love it.
The writing is definitely different from creator DB Guggenheim’s first thrill packed season. Although I’m not as excited about this season, I watch every episode. Kiefer Sutherland is must see tv for me.
With season 2, Kiefer Sutherland’s character has become even more intolerable as a sanctimonious, know-it-all leftist, condescending toward all. A long way from Jack Bauer. No wonder ratings are falling week by week.
DS, is one of the best political shows on tv today. DS is intelligent and challenging to the viewer every single episode. Keifer Sutherland is perfect as the presidential survivor. My thought is change the time slot.
Challenging… intelligent? I like the show but… it’s nothing like that. What the hell are you talking about? Switch your drugs… better yet, ditch them.
The show is a chain of cliches. Each episode is a cliche.
The first episode of season 2 didn’t do much for me. Compared to last year, it was quite lame and not conducive to watch further. And the new character is so irratating I want to turn the show off..
The British agent is a puff, thinks he’s sweet and awesome; in reality, he is boring. He’s a know-it-all who thinks he’s sexy.
The president is a leftist moron. Madam Secretary could join him. DS is no real polit-drama. It’s a polit-soap-opera. Still like it.XD