‘Designated Survivor’ a Save our Shows fave
Voting for bubble shows puts dramas at the top of the pile
Kiefer Sutherland-led series is one of three dramas leading our annual vote
Tom Kirkman, the fictional president on ABC’s Designated Survivor, may not have been voted into the White House. But he may get to stay there for a third season if the show’s fans have anything to say about it.
The Kiefer Sutherland-led political drama is one of three series leading the vote in USA TODAY’s 21st annual Save Our Shows survey, which asks viewers to vote for the endangered broadcast series they would like to see back next season — and which ones they don’t.
A record 156,000 votes have been cast in the first two weeks of polling, and the ballot box is still open.
NBC also has a pair of shows near the top of the leaderboard: last year’s top vote-getter, Timeless, and FBI drama The Blacklist, which lands on the bubble list for the first time in its five-season run.
Two other first-time SOS candidates, Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine and CBS’ Scorpion, have also garnered significant fan support.
Family comedy Fresh Off the Boat, which was one of ABC’s two minority-led sitcoms mocked recently by the Roseanne revival, is also in the top 10. Randall Park, who plays the patriarch of a Taiwanese family living in Florida, made his case for renewal in this year’s Save Our Shows launch.
“It’s easy for a gem like our show to get a little lost in the shuffle,” he told USA TODAY. Park said fans are drawn to Fresh Off the Boat because
“it’s a show with a lot of heart, and it’s hilarious.”
There’s also the matter of representation on television, which viewers, watch groups and the networks are giving more attention with each passing year.
For Park, Fresh Off the Boat is “an important show.” He notes, “it’s something I always wanted growing up, and the fact that it happened and I’m a part of it and that we’ve gone four seasons is remarkable.”
At the bottom of the Save Our Shows heap: NBC journalism sitcom Great News, now in its sophomore season, and two freshman comedies that premiered in the past two months: CBS’ Living Bib- lically and NBC’s Champions.
USA TODAY will publish the full results once the voting closes this month. While fan support is important (just ask NBC, which reversed its decision to kill Timeless last spring), it’s just one of several things that factor into the decisions being made by network executives before they present their fall slates to advertisers in May.
Whether the network owns a series comes into play, as do a show’s Nielsen ratings and creative momentum. They also have conversations with producers about what direction their shows would take in a new season. The quantity and quality of the current pilot-season crop is also taken into account.
You can make your voice heard by voting now for any of the 30 endangered series and find complete coverage of this year’s survey at sos.usatoday.com.