Why a Designated Survivor season 4 renewal would help season 3 greatly

Another week, and there is still no clear word on if a Designated Survivor season 3 premiere date will be announced soon. More than likely, we’re still a month-plus out of its launch on Netflix — if you’ve been reading our coverage as of late, then you probably know already that we’ve been pushing for the show to wait a while before returning. We think the best thing for it is to launch around Memorial Day Weekend, a time when there isn’t as much competition and it can monopolize as much television real-estate as possible.

For the sake of this article, though, we’re actually interested in looking far beyond just the third season and all the way towards a potential season 4. Why do this now? It’s rather simple — a Designated Survivor season 4 renewal at this point would probably be the best thing that could happen for the show.

If you missed our Designated Survivor renewal video – Check out our thoughts on Netflix saving the show in the first place below! If you enjoy this, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube right away — we post new videos every day and it’s certainly worth your time to check it out.

Why would this be so beneficial? It really goes down to one word: Confidence. The third season of Designated Survivor is coming on the air almost as an experiment. The first two seasons aired on ABC before they streamed anywhere, and those two seasons weren’t even available on Netflix until after ABC’s cancellation. There’s a lot of flux and a number of questions regarding just how well the show will do on the platform. There are probably some people out there completely unaware that the show was revived!

In giving the series a season 4 renewal now, what Netflix would do is allow viewers to feel okay getting into the show once more, knowing that this isn’t going to be a flash in the pan. To the cast and crew, what this would also signal is both confidence in their work and also job security — something that many of these actors haven’t had in a good while now. Career-wise, it can be hard to stay committed to a project when you don’t know, year in and year out, if it’s going to come back for another season. That’s even harder when a show is premiering on a totally-new platform like this one is.

The other obvious benefit here is story-related. The best thing that you can give any television writer is time to build and percolate and create a wonderful landscape for characters. The earlier you renew Designated Survivor, the more likely it is to have richer stories. This doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone would be in the writers room longer, but you would be giving them more opportunities to craft great stories.

Will Netflix consider giving an early renewal?

We’re probably speaking in some sort of pipe-dream haze here, since Netflix isn’t in that much of a giving mood these days. They’ve been cautious regarding the future of many of their shows; this isn’t the same streaming provider that needed new content desperately a few years back. They’ve got a lot of programming now and shows have to earn their keep! That’s why whenever Designated Survivor premieres, the best thing you can do to help it is to watch the entire season (don’t stop midway and take a few-month hiatus) and convince other people to do the same. The two things that matter most to Netflix are 1) total viewership and 2) retention of said viewership from one season to the next.

What all do we know about Designated Survivor season 3?

If you missed the recent piece we did on that subject, you can check it out over at the link here.

Just remember, in closing, that Netflix likely didn’t renew Designated Survivor content with just one season. They likely want more, but it’s up to the viewers to determine if that happens.

Do you think that Designated Survivor could eventually end up scoring a season 4? Share right now in the comments! (Photo: Netflix.)