Good news for those who are loving the new series Designated Survivor and the comedy Speechless, both 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.”
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DesignatedSurvivor
Twitter: @ABCDesignated
Hashtag: #DesignatedSurvivor
“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.
Twitter: @Speechless_ABC
Facebook: facebook.com/SpeechlessABC
Hashtag: #Speechless
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.
Dianna Ranere