24’s Kiefer Sutherland returns to TV in new ABC “Designated Survivor” series

TV series on the Disney-owned ABC Network have had a common thread, especially with Shonda Rhimes’ TGIT shows. Those shows have permeated the network’s programming attracting one particular audience – women. ABC leadership seem to now want to diversify their audience and have taken strides to include new shows that attract a more general audience.

One of the new shows set to debut this fall is one that will attract the male audience. It’s called “Designated Survivor” and stars one of TV’s most famous male secret agent Jack Bauer aka Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland will return to TV after his iconic run on Fox’s 24, this time playing the top most head of a government organization – President of the United States.

Inspired by the real procedure in American government, a person from the President’s cabinet is chosen to be the designated survivor if the line of succession is incapacitated. The series’ story will follow Sutherland’s character, Tom Kirkman, who becomes President after the current President and his entire cabinet are killed in an attack. Kirkman will then team up with a FBI agent to find out who carried out the attack and try to stop it.

While the teaser for the series (seen above) show Sutherland, we’re expecting that he’ll be kicking butt in the new show, potentially gaining that new male audience that ABC is eager to get with it.

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