Earth’s residents seek ‘Salvation’ from an asteroid in new CBS summer drama

“It’s not the end of the world” is a popular phrase, but don’t use it on the makers of “Salvation.”

In the tradition of such tales as “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact,” the CBS summer drama – premiering Wednesday, July 12 – puts Earth in peril from an approaching asteroid. Relatively few people know at first, challenging a Pentagon press secretary (played by “Tyrant” alum Jennifer Finnigan) to keep the information from her loved ones. Santiago Cabrera (“Big Little Lies”) and Charlie Rowe (“Red Band Society”) respectively play the tech genius and the MIT grad student who give her the news about the collision expected to happen six months later.

Now expecting her first child with her actor husband Jonathan Silverman (“Weekend at Bernie’s”), the lively and friendly Finnigan admits she’s never been a particular fan of doomsday sagas, “not even a little. Before even reading the script, I read the log line (or brief synopsis), and I think I probably rolled my eyes. But when I read it, it was such a good script. I thought it was sharp, with great suspense and political intrigue and a little levity in there. It really surprised me.”

Finnigan also embraced her “Salvation” character, giving her a big change of pace from FX’s consistently grim “Tyrant,” on which she admits she “almost felt like a prop” the first two seasons. “After a very powerful Season 3, I swore that I would never allow myself to take another job where I wasn’t guaranteed the female character would be essential to the core story ... powerful and strong.”

Sealing the deal for Finnigan (who won three consecutive Daytime Emmys for “The Bold and the Beautiful”) was her first meeting with “Salvation’s” showrunners, Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro, “whom I fell madly in love with. They had such a sharp vision for the show, and they were very invested in making it a pleasant, happy environment. They wanted this grounded; they wanted politics to come into play, they wanted love stories and human stories, and everything they said just made sense to me.”

A big personal bonus awaited Finnigan, too: “Then they told me that Jonny’s (Silverman) dad, the rabbi, married them 25 years ago! Is that crazy? I thought, ‘Well, that’s kind of an amazing connection.’ That actually was the clincher.

“They also were vary passionate about me being involved,” adds the actress, “and after being in this business for a really long time, to have two kind and intelligent people who are good at what they do want to work with you, it was really nice. I felt like I was going to be working for people who appreciate what I do, and everybody should want that. And everybody should have that.”