Is Designated Survivor renewed for season 4, canceled by Netflix?

Designated Survivor

As we prepare for Designated Survivor season 3 to premiere on Netflix Friday, what better time than the present to start to think about the future? Is there a reasonably good chance of there being a season 4?

To go along with this article, be sure to check out the video below for more thoughts on the future of the series. Once you do that, subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and make sure you don’t miss any other updates.

The first thing that is worth noting here is that Designated Survivor was picked up by Netflix after two seasons over at ABC. Why does this matter? It’s really a matter of showing that Netflix probably isn’t interested in canning the show after going through all of the effort to pick it up in the first place. There are so many different moving parts that go into saving a show; we don’t really imagine Netflix would have wanted to even go through the trouble of doing so unless they felt reasonably confident.

Just in looking at things from a bird’s eye view, we at least know that this franchise has a lot of value for the streaming service. First and foremost, you’ve got Kiefer Sutherland as the lead and he is one of the most famous TV stars in the entire world. Sure, it may be for playing Jack Bauer more so than Tom Kirkman, but they don’t really care as long as people are watching the show one way or another. They just want to get attention for the property.

Also, the subject matter of American politics certainly isn’t going to fade into the background in any form as we move into the future. While we know that Designated Survivor season 3 is already doing an election story, we do think there will be a ton of attention when it comes to the political process next year due to the real-life presidential election. There are plenty of reasons story-wise for Netflix to want to keep the show around because of that.

(In our mind, we like to think that the accountants and all the Netflix business people will be scrambling in order to find a way to make a season 4 happen, provided of course that it’s even on the bubble. It may end up being a big hit in the renewal process is pretty easy.)

So what matters the most when it comes to making a Designated Survivor renewal happen? We would say that it really has a lot to do with not just watching the premiere, but watching the whole season as soon as humanly possible. We’ve talked about this a little bit before in some other articles, but Netflix wants to see consistent viewer retention before they make a renewal.

Let’s kind of put it this way. Let’s say you binged the first four episodes this weekend, but then get really busy over the next month or two and don’t finish. While it’s certainly understandable and viewers all have the right to do whatever they want, Netflix will read that as you getting tired of the show and not being interested in watching it anymore. It doesn’t really matter that you watch only the first four episodes, because they want to know that you’ll continue to watch the next 4 episodes of season 4. They want to know that you’re sticking around a show. The more people who watch Designated Survivor from start to finish, the better off it’s going to be. Be sure to watch the show, convince others to do the same, and watch it on social media. All of this will help the series out tremendously.

Want to get some more news on Designated Survivor?

Then be sure to check out the link here right now! Meanwhile, let us know in the comments if you do want to see a season 4 renewal happen over at Netflix. (Photo: Netflix.)

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