Could Designated Survivor season 3 lead to longer season 4?

Designated Survivor season 2 episode 2

We’ve done our best to give you weekly Designated Survivor discussion during this lengthy hiatus, and we’re happy to do that again today as we look at two different subjects: Episode counts and the show’s future.

We’re sure that it took some people by surprise when it was first revealed that season 3 was only going to run for only ten episodes. After running 22 episodes for the first two seasons, shrinking down to ten is pretty sever. It’ll probably end up feeling like even less given that all ten are going to air on Netflix presumably at once — there’ll be some dedicated Designated Survivor fans (Designated dedicateds, if you will) who burn through most of those over a single weekend! The upside of doing ten episodes on Netflix is that you’re not subjected to the same rules on episode length that the folks over at network TV are. Maybe some of these will run three or four minutes longer than the standard one; theoretically, they could run much longer. It really just comes down to however long the folks within production want them to be.

If you haven’t seen our video discussing Designated Survivor season 3 just yet… Take a look below, and remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for more!

What we find ourselves wondering these days is this: Will the episode order stick at ten? Is there a way to boost it up to something more? We don’t think that we’re ever going to see 22 again, but what about thirteen? There are some Netflix shows that do pull off that order, but it depends in part on story and demand. There’s just no real incentive for Netflix to push for more episodes for a single season, when most people will burn through them in a month in the first place.

Here’s why it all comes down to popularity — if you perform well enough on Netflix, we think that they’ll hand you almost everything other than the keys to the kingdom. If the Duffer Brothers came to them asking if they could do 20 episodes of Stranger Things a year, do you really think they’d say no if they had the budget to pull it off? We have a hard time thinking so. If Designated Survivor turns out to be a great investment this season, you could have a larger season down the road … but we’re not counting on that.

Our final feeling

Don’t count on any larger orders for the show in the future. It’s possible that season 4 could be longer, but it’s better to put the focus on simply getting it in the first place. The Designated Survivor season 4 status is far from certain right now since nobody knows what the viewership will even be on Netflix. In theory, we’re hopeful — but this is an era where viewers have the attention span of a dog that just wandered into an outdoor meat market. It’s hard for them to count on coming back to this show when they’re constantly like “look at that show … and that show … and shows everywhere.”

Expect Designated Survivor season 3 later this year, and expect us to enjoy and discuss those upcoming episodes as much as humanly possible.

For some more updates when it comes to Designated Survivor season 3…

Just be sure to visit the link here, and remember that we’re going to have some more coming up before too long.

Do you think that Designated Survivor season 3 could eventually lead to a longer season 4? Be sure to share in the comments. (Photo: Netflix.)

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