Two critically acclaimed new Wednesday series, “Speechless” and “Designated Survivor,” have been given full-season pickups, Channing Dungey, president, ABC Entertainment, announced today. Nine additional episodes of both series, from Twentieth Century Fox Television and ABC Studios, and The Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios respectively, have been ordered.
In making the announcement, Dungey said, “’Designated Survivor’ and ‘Speechless’ are two of the most critically acclaimed new shows of the fall season. We’re very proud of the creative excellence in front of and behind the camera, and are thrilled to be giving our audience more episodes.”
Building on its lead-in by double digits on average, ABC’s “Designated Survivor” ranks a dominant No. 1 in Wednesday’s 10:00 p.m. hour with Live + Same Day Total Viewers (9.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (2.0/7). More than doubling the audience in its time period on its series debut (+104%), the new drama delivered ABC’s most-watched scripted telecast in the hour in 5 years – since 9/21/11. The season’s biggest gainer in TV playback with viewers, the “Designated Survivor” debut shot up in the Live + 3 Day numbers to 15.3 million viewers (+5.3 million) and a 3.7 rating in Adults 18-49 (+1.5 rating points). In fact, the show’s 5.3 million viewer spike after 3 days of playback is the largest lift for any TV series debut in 2 years – since ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” on 9/25/14.
“Designated Survivor” stars Kiefer Sutherland as Tom Kirkman, Natascha McElhone as Alex Kirkman, Adan Canto as Aaron Shore, Italia Ricci as Emily Rhodes, LaMonica Garrett as Mike Ritter, Tanner Buchanan as Leo Kirkman; with Kal Penn as Seth Wright and Maggie Q as Hannah Wells
“Designated Survivor” is produced by The Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios. David Guggenheim is the creator and executive producer. Simon Kinberg, Mark Gordon, Jon Harmon Feldman, Nick Pepper. Suzan Bymel, Aditya Sood and Kiefer Sutherland are executive producers.
ABC’s “Speechless” debuted as the No. 2 regular new comedy during Premiere Week (w/o 9/19/16) among Adults 18-49, behind only CBS’ “Big Bang”-led “Kevin Can Wait.” In fact, “Speechless” ranked among the week’s Top 5 highest-rated comedies on TV with young adults (No. 5-tie). In Total Viewers, the show’s debut drew ABC’s biggest scripted audience to the time period in 1-year – since 9/30/15. On average in Live + Same Day, ABC’s “Speechless” (6.9 million and 1.9/7) builds on its “The Goldbergs” lead-in by 3% in Total Viewers and retains a strong 95% among Adults 18-49.
“Speechless” stars Minnie Driver as Maya DiMeo, John Ross Bowie as Jimmy DiMeo, Mason Cook as Ray DiMeo, Micah Fowler as JJ DiMeo, Kyla Kenedy as Dylan DiMeo and Cedric Yarbrough as Kenneth.
Scott Silveri (“Friends”) writes and is executive producer of the show, along with “Fresh Off the Boat”’s Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar. The series is from Twentieth Century Fox Television and ABC Studios. The Cerebral Palsy Foundation is a Foundation Partner and Technical Consultant on “Speechless.” To learn more about CP, go to CerebralPalsyFoundation.org.
