Designed Survivor season 2: Virginia Madsen leaving

Virginia Madsen

Consider this the Designated Survivor season 2 news that nobody wanted to hear tonight: Virginia Madsen is leaving the show.

In a post on Twitter, Madsen was the first to confirm her exit. There is no apparent reason given, and the only one that can be offered is that after one year on the air, it’s fairly common these days for shows to undergo some sort of massive creative overhaul where they throw in different cast members and combinations. This is far from the first freshman show from last season to make such a big move: Kevin Can Wait over on CBS recently got rid of Erinn Hayes after being a part of the show as the title character’s wife, and it was recently confirmed that Taken will be dropping the vast majority of its cast before the second season airs minus Clive Standen and Jennifer Beals.

By that token, Designated Survivor losing just Madsen may not be that drastic; nonetheless, she’s a great performer and her character of Kimble Hookstraten is going to be missed. (Also, Kimble Hookstraten may be one of the greatest character names of all time since it sounds like some phrase coughed out of an automated Pig Latin generator.)

Aside from the cast, the Kiefer Sutherland series is making a change when it comes to the showrunner, and clearly they are doing everything they can to stabilize the show into a hit that can draw numbers closer to where they were at the start of the series. Part of the issue with season 1 was that there were far too many twists for their own good; beyond that, another one was the simple fact that we ended up witnessing a year in politics that was so much more crazy than what anyone could have virtually imagined. This show had a serious stranger-than-fiction problem going where it was harder to out-crazy much of the crazy that has been going on in the political world as of late. If there is any recommendation that can be made here, it’s that the show try to make things about the writing and the characters rather than finding more conspiracies and twists. There are enough shows out there playing for shock value.

If you do want to secure some additional news now on Designated Survivor season 2, be sure to head over to the link here.

Will you find yourself missing Virginia Madsen on the show? Let us know now in the attached comments! (Photo: ABC.)

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